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Due to the NBA’s enormous depth, excellent teams may drop out of the rankings and enter the play-in tournament, which gets underway on April 16. Teams with the seventh through tenth-highest winning percentages in each conference are represented in that tournament.
Recall that the Miami Heat made it to the NBA Finals the previous season by sneaking past the Chicago Bulls in the play-in round.
Not good news for the Bulls: the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics have a combined record of 5-1 versus Chicago. Chicago doesn’t lack skill, and it does a good job of guarding the ball (fourth in turnovers, 12.3 per game), which is usually useful in the postseason, but it lacks the offensive firepower to compete with the elite teams. Against the best seeds in the East, the Bulls have no chance.
Despite what some had anticipated, the Pacers did not immediately become a dominant team in the East after adding Pascal Siakam. But for a club like Milwaukee or the Cleveland Cavaliers, they might be a nuisance in the first round.
An opponent can run into issues with a strong offense, a point guard who hardly ever gives the ball up (Tyrese Haliburton), a versatile forward who can guard a variety of positions (Siakam), and a coach (Rick Carlisle) with a ton of playoff experience. For a top seed, this would not be a nice series.
Once more, here we go. Since the All-Star break, Miami boasts a top-10 net rating, but it hasn’t always translated into victories. Yet, when has Erik Spoelstra’s club shown any interest in winning in the regular season? This group is prepared for the postseason. Sure, the Heat can pull off another first-round shock; we’ve seen it happen with lower caliber teams in the past.
The Sixers are a seven-foot question mark. Any elite team in the East would fear playing against the Sixers in the first round if Joel Embiid is healthy. The Sixers could find it difficult to score 80 points without Embiid, who has been recovering from a knee ailment for weeks. Boston, Milwaukee, or Cleveland would likely pick them up in the first round.
Conference in the West
Warriors of the Golden State (34-30)
Although head coach Steve Kerr made a wise decision by moving Klay Thompson to the bench, Golden State is inferior to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, two of the best teams in the West, in almost all significant statistical categories. Stephen Curry, the Warriors’ spectacular shooter, has the ability to steal a game or two.