NBA – What to Watch – Season’s End
As difficult as it is to imagine, NBA teams have only 4-7 games left in their regular season. To this point, approximately 2,280 games have been played and as the light falls on the 2021-2022 season, let’s take a moment and look at where we are and what is left to settle.
Western Conference
Let’s start with the Western conference where things are far more settled than they are in the East. The Suns have outshone all of their Western competitors and clinched first place. In second place with little concern is Memphis, yes Memphis, helmed admirably this year by former rookie of the year Ja Morant. Stumbling a bit, Golden State has fallen to 3rd with the real possibility that Dallas could nudge them for that spot before the end.
Fizzling even more than Golden State, Utah is desperately hanging onto 5th after 4 straight losses with a hungry Denver squad right on their heels half a game back.
In the play-in, positions 7 and 8 are tightly held by the Timberwolves and Clippers respectively but the 9th and 10th positions are being hotly contested by the Pelicans in 9th half a game ahead of the Lakers in 10th who are only half a game ahead of a surging Spurs team. As difficult to imagine the Grizz in 2nd, it might even be more amazing to consider the Lakers may not even make the play-in tournament although it’s difficult to imagine LeBron going down without a fight. Portland is four games back of the Spurs and effectively out of the chase for this season.
What to keep an eye on:
Number one is whether LeBron can will his creaky team to one more run for glory. It’s difficult to know what to do with this team in the offseason if they don’t make something happen now. All their picks are gone and given their lack of success in getting a fair return for Russell Westbrook at the trade deadline, the offseason may not hold any better return.
Number two: Dallas, Utah and Denver all have the opportunity to lock up the fourth home court advantage. Every game will be big for all three of these teams.
Eastern Conference
It’s been a much tighter race at the top of the East this year. Yesterday Boston was in first but after an overtime loss to the Raptors, today they are in fourth. Currently Miami is in first one game ahead of Boston, Philly and Milwaukee.
Likewise, 5, 6 and 7 are also only separated by one game with the Bulls and Raptors one game up on the Cavs.
Rounding out the play-in positions 8, 9 and 10 are Brooklyn, half a game up on the Hornets who are half a game up on the Hawks. The Knicks are trailing by four and a half and are out of the hunt.
What to keep an eye on:
One of the first 4 teams are going to have to face Brooklyn in the first round. With the COVID laws relaxed in New York, Kyrie is back for home games and that will make a substantial difference. Additionally, there still remains a chance that the Nets could add mercurial star Ben Simmons for the playoff push. In either case, Brooklyn could be a real handful and create a potential first round upset.
Similarly, the Bulls, Raptors and Cavs will be jockeying for their first-round opponent as well.
There are plenty of great storylines about to unfold over the next 2 weeks in the NBA. We can’t wait to see them unfold.