NBA – What’s to Expect in the 2^nd Half

The first half of the NBA season has brought a lot of excitement for the fans, and all of us are getting ready for a close finish, in both the standings and the Awards Race. The season was just made crazier because of the Trade Deadline and a historic amount of monumental moves that made teams deeper as well as star-studded.

WEST

In the West, the Nuggets are running away with it and the closest team is the Memphis Grizzlies, but as we see with every loss they take, they’re not “fine in the West.” Going farther down in the West, we see a lot more parity, as the 4 and 12 seeds are separated by just 3.5 games. You know it’s crazy when the Thunder are the 10-seed when they were 40 games back of first place just last season. Then you have teams like the Lakers, who are the 13 seed, but they just got a lot better after the trade deadline. They traded for Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and others, to go along with LeBron James and Anthony Davis who seems to be passed his constantly injured days. I’ll go as far as to say I really like the Warriors this season, and it’s definitely possible that they make the playoffs as the 6-seed or above, but with one pre-requisite, Steph Curry has to be on the court consistently, and basically can’t get injured once he comes back from his injury right now. Obviously, the race near the top will get a lot tighter, once the Suns and Mavericks start figuring out to play with their new teams. I believe the Mavericks have the advantage right now, as Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic are figuring each other out right now, as well as the rest of the team. The Suns are practically playing from behind, as the learning process will only start once Kevin Durant comes back, and the timetable for his return hasn’t been set up yet. Finally, the Kings having the best offense in the NBA right now is wild to me with a pretty top-heavy team. They’re just going to be confusing everything in the West.

EAST

Even with how crazy the West is, I think the East is more competitive. Obviously, the Celtics and the Bucks are the best teams. The Celtics are just unstoppable, mostly because of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but also because their supporting cast all produce scoring. I think that Bucks great play was aided with the emergence of Jrue Holiday being a scorer when Giannis was out a couple of weeks ago has been crucial to their success. He’s also been carrying this on in the games when Giannis has been playing, even out scoring him by dropping a 40 pointer in an OT game a few days ago. The Cavaliers are one of my favorite teams to watch this year. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell highlight one of the most explosive offenses in the NBA. Except, even after having one of the best all-around starting 5’s in the NBA, I don’t see them going far in the playoffs. The Nets and the Knicks are at the 5 and 6 spots in the standings, and I predict that both of the teams will fall at least somewhat by the end of the season, for one of them, because they traded their whole team, and for the other, it’s because they’re the Knicks. I don’t understand why the Hawks are the 8 seed, as throughout the season, they’ve consistently been playing below where they should be. John Collins has been underwhelming to the say the least and Trae Young has been very inconsistent. Although, I do see a world where they step it up. I believe that the Bulls and the Pacers are two teams that are very similar. They both have pretty good rosters, but they are playing below where they should. The Pacers have a lot of young guards that seem as though they rotate between themselves who will have a good game, and Tyrese Haliburton will always have 9+ assists. The Bulls have a really, really good starting lineup, but I believe their problem is Demar Derozan getting injured a lot and they’ve been playing inconsistently as a whole. Only one of these teams will rise in the standings, and it’s really hard to differentiate which one.

Final Standings Predictions:

West:

Nuggets

Kings

Suns

Grizzlies

Mavericks

Clippers

Warriors

Timberwolves

Pelicans

 Jazz

 Thunder

 Lakers

 Trail Blazers

 Spurs

 Rockets

 

East:

Bucks

Celtics

76ers

Cavaliers

Heat

Knicks

Hawks

Nets

Raptors

 Bulls

 Wizards

 Pacers

 Magic

 Pistons

 Hornets