The Playoffs are Coming, The Playoffs are Coming!

In the NBA, teams are fighting for the final playoff spots. In the brutal Western Conference, all 8 teams have clinched a spot in the playoffs, but now it is a matter of where they will end up. The Warriors lead the West with 53 wins and a 1.5 game lead over the 2nd seeded Denver Nuggets who have 52 wins. Houston sits in third place in the west with 51 wins, 0.5 games ahead of the Blazers, my team, who just reached 50 wins with a win over the Grizzlies, 89-116. The Blazers lead the Jazz by 2 games, and the Jazz are 48-30. The Clippers are 1.5 games behind the Jazz and have 47 wins. The Thunder are in 7th place, 1.5 games behind the Clippers and have 45 wins. The Spurs have the 8th and final spot in the West, with 45 wins and are 0.5 games behind the Thunder.

In the East, the Bucks lead the pack with 58 wins, which leads the NBA. As of today, they beat the 76ers to clinch the 1st seed in the East. They have a 2.5 game lead over the 2nd place Raptors. They have 56 wins. The Raptors have a huge lead over the 3rd place 76ers, who have 49 wins and are 6.5 games behind the 2nd place Raptors. The underperforming Celtics are 4th place in the East with 47 wins and are 2.5 games behind the 76ers. The 5th place Pacers are tied with the Celtics with 47 wins, but the Celtics have the tiebreaker.

The main story has been the underperformance of the stacked Boston Celtics. When you look at this team on paper, they are amazing with Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Terry Rozier, Marcus Morris, and Gordon Hayward. But, they have had their ups and downs during the entire season. Kyrie and his teammates have chemistry problems and disputes which have led to giving Boston lots of extra attention and pressure. Also, adding Gordon Hayward, a 20 point scorer into a system where he did not play at all last season because of injuries. With Hayward playing, both Brown and Tatum will not have a chance to develop like they did last years with both Irving and Hayward out with injuries during the playoffs. So, the Celtics are sitting at 4th place in the east, with the Pacers right behind them. They were expected to be the 1st or 2nd seed. My proposal for Boston was to get rid of Hayward in the last offseason, so the team would be almost exactly the same except without Hayword. Kyrie, if he was able to stay healthy, could lead the Celtics deep into the playoffs with his experience.

In the West, the Thunder have been the fallout story. They started off great with Paul George leading the way with his best season as a pro (28 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.2 steals, shooting 44% from the field and 38.7% from the 3 Point Line. During the All-Star game, they sat 3rd in the Western Conference with a record of 37-20. Now they sit at 45-33, 8-13 since All-Star Weekend. They now are 7th in the West and will likely play the Warriors or Nuggets in the 1st round. So, they went from 3rd place in the West to the bottom. Some things that have gone wrong for the Thunder are that they are scoring 5 fewer points after All-Star Break than before, shooting 4% less from the field, 3% less from the 3PT line. They are also averaging 3 fewer steals. The Thunder are very long and love to force turnovers and steals where they can get easy dunks and layups. Also, Russell Westbrook is having one of the worst shooting seasons in the NBA this season shooting 42.6% from the field and 28.6% from the 3PT Line and 65.7% from the free throw line. All of these things have contributed to the Thunder’s fall.

So, now you are up to date about all things Playoffs in the NBA!