Only six weeks of regular-season play remain in the 2018-19
NBA season, and the playoff picture is beginning to take shape. Teams hoping to
qualify for the postseason or possibly improve their seeding will need to give
it everything they have in the coming weeks.
The NBA trade deadline shined light on which teams are
buyers and which are sellers. As such, we have a better idea of which squads
are looking to win this season. Only two teams can punch their ticket to the
NBA Finals, though, so let’s take a look at some pretenders and contenders in
the mix for the Larry O’Brien Trophy this season.
PRETENDERS
LAKERS
If LeBron James didn’t suffer a groin injury against the
Warriors on Christmas Day, we probably wouldn’t be questioning simply if the
Lakers will make the playoffs, but instead how far they will get with the best
player in the world leading them.
The fact of the matter is this team wasn’t prepared in the
slightest for their star to miss 17 games with an injury, and it didn’t help
that some of the younger players appeared to lose a bit of confidence when
their names came up in trade rumors. On top of that, James hasn’t looked nearly
as dominant as he was earlier this season before the injury. Even if the Lakers
do make the playoffs, they simply don’t have enough talent on their roster to
compete in the Western Conference.
CELTICS
The Celtics made it all the way to the Eastern Conference
Finals one year ago without the services of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.
One would think that by adding those two into the mix, the sky would be the
limit for Boston this season, but that hasn’t been the case.
Poor defense and a lack of team chemistry have been common
themes for the Celtics, and as they continue to drop in the conference
standings, the road to the NBA Finals will get more and more arduous. So it’s
hard to see them making a deep run this season.
PACERS
The fact that Indiana is still a top-three seed in the East
after losing Victor Oladipo to injury is pretty remarkable. We can chalk that
up to good coaching and its role players for stepping up.
When Oladipo is on the court, the Pacers are legitimate
contenders. Without him, though, they’re just average. It’s tough to win in the
NBA without a team’s star player — as Lakers fans know all too well — and
Indiana will realize that rather quickly.
NETS
The Nets are a great story, and their young stars are
beginning to shine, but they lack a superstar, which is needed to compete in
the Eastern Conference. Head coach Kenny Atkinson and his players deserve a ton
of credit for what they’ve accomplished this season.
What was once a doomed franchise is finally starting to turn
things around. It appears the Nets have found a player who runs the offense and
they can build around in D’Angelo Russell. But with Milwaukee, Toronto and
Philadelphia to go through in the East, this just isn’t Brooklyn’s time to
contend for a conference title — at least not yet, anyway.
CLIPPERS
The Clippers may be in position for a playoff berth at the
current time, but it won’t be surprising when another team gets hot and claims
it. Had Los Angeles not traded away Tobias Harris before the deadline, we’d
likely be singing a different tune about the team.
The reality is that this team appears to already be looking
ahead to the offseason and what its next move will be once the free agent
market opens, having cleared enough cap space to potentially sign two max
players this summer. It’s hard to avoid looking ahead when the front office is
dictating whether the team is a buyer or seller — just look at the Lakers and
Pelicans.
CONTENDERS
NUGGETS
The Nuggets missed out on the playoffs last year after
coming up short in a winner-take-all game against the Timberwolves in their
season finale. This year, though, Denver won’t have any trouble making the
postseason. In fact, there’s a real possibility the Nuggets could end up with
the No. 1 seed.
Denver has been one of the best-rounded teams in the NBA
this season, but for many of the Nuggets players, this will be their first
taste of the playoffs. It will be interesting to see if that affects them at
all. Either way, this team has the potential to go deep — as they can shoot,
rebound and also have a distinct home-court advantage.
TRAIL BLAZERS
It’s important not to sleep on Portland. The Trail Blazers
may have been swept in the first round of the playoffs during three of the past
four seasons, but they’re a threat to go far this time around.
Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have been shooting
lights-out, and the addition of Enes Kanter to the bench might be the move that
puts Portland over the top, giving them a legitimate scoring threat inside. The
duo of Kanter and Jusuf Nurkic is already making life difficult for opposing
teams on the glass.
HEAT
The final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference will likely
go to a team in the Southeast Division, but we just don’t know which one.
Orlando, Charlotte and Miami are all close in the standings, but it feels like
momentum is on the Heat’s side.
Goran Dragic has returned from injury and is emerging as the
team’s sixth man. Dwyane Wade has been playing more minutes, and he even hit
a wild buzzer-beating three-pointer to defeat the Warriors.
The team nearly followed that up with a win in Houston the next night but ran
out of gas in the fourth quarter. We’ll see if Wade has enough left in the tank
for one more playoff push, but signs are pointing toward him being able to do
exactly that.
JAZZ
Utah got off to a slow start this season, but the Jazz are
finally hitting their stride when it counts. Thursday night’s win against the
Nuggets was the team’s 14th in 19 games, and it did not come easy. Not only
were the Jazz on the road in the second game of a back-to-back, but they were
also without starting point guard Ricky Rubio. Joe Ingles played the role of
playmaker in Rubio’s absence, dishing out 10 assists to go along with 15
points. Utah also got a big outing from Kyle Korver, who scored 22 points off
the bench.
The Jazz might not be as loaded with talent as other teams
in the Western Conference, but they could prove to be a tough out come playoff
time.
KINGS
This season was apparently supposed to be one final
rebuilding year for the Kings, but apparently the team’s players didn’t get the
memo, as they’re closing in on the final playoff spot in the Western
Conference.
If there’s one team the Warriors may want to avoid seeing in
the first round of the playoffs, it’s the Kings. Sacramento played Golden State
tough this season, with all four games going down to the wire. The Kings have a
lot of speed and young talent, so if they qualify for the postseason, they
could make things interesting in the first round, especially if matched up
against the Warriors.
No comments:
Post a Comment