Exploring 10 of the biggest questions heading into the start of the push toward the NBA Playoffs.
The NBA All-Star Break is nearly over and the push toward the playoffs is officially here. Most NBA teams have between 26 and 29 games left on their regular season schedules as the 2023-24 campaign quickly comes to an end. Heading into the final two weeks of the regular season, or the push toward the postseason, we explore 10 of the most tantalizing questions that will fuel plenty of intrigue.
Will the Milwaukee Bucks right the ship?
The Milwaukee Bucks have struggled mightily since their decision to fire head coach Adrian Griffin and replace him with Doc Rivers. The Bucks are just 3-7 in Rivers' first 10 games as the head coach and have fallen all the way down to 3rd in the Eastern Conference standings. If it wasn't for Joel Embiid's injury and the New York Knicks also being decimated by injuries in the last couple of weeks, the Bucks would likely be sitting as the 5th seed at the NBA All-Star Break.
Heading into the stretch run, one of the biggest questions revolves around whether the Bucks can right the ship. Since adding Damian Lillard during the offseason, many predicted the Bucks to, at the very least, be a conference finalist. Right now, there's not even a guarantee they make it out of the first round of the playoffs.
If the Bucks can't turn things around this season, you'd have to imagine there will be some big repercussions to deal with during the offseason.
Do the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder have staying power?
Through roughly the first three-fourths of the 2023-24 NBA season, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder have consistently been two of the best teams in the Western Conference. At the NBA All-Star Break, the Wolves are sitting atop the West standings and the Thunder is not far behind as the second seed. With less than 30 games remaining in the season, you can't help but wonder if one or both of these teams are going to have the staying power in the West as the playoffs quickly approach.
Depending on how the bracket settles in the West, there's a chance that one or both of the Wolves and Thunder enter the playoffs as an underdog to even win one playoff series. These two young teams have been one of the best stories of the season thus far and are certainly two teams that many will have eyes on heading into the end of the year.
It'll be interesting to see how the Wolves and Thunder are able to adapt now that the push toward the playoffs is finally here.
How overwhelming will the Boston Celtics prove to be when it matters most?
The Boston Celtics have clearly been the best team in the league thus far. However, heading into the final stretch of the season, we're going to learn a whole lot about this team. When it matters most, are the Celtics going to be able to prove their worth? It's meaningless if the Celtics will all these regular season games to not show up in the playoffs. No matter what the Celtics did in the regular season, with as much talent as they have on their roster, they were always going to be judged by how they performed in the postseason.
Heading into the push toward the playoffs that hasn't changed. This Celtics season is going to be considered a success or failure depending on how their season ends in the postseason. The bar is high for the Celtics. Anything short of an NBA Finals appearance is going to be categorized as a failure.
On paper, the Celtics should win the championship. However, there are many times in the NBA when the most talented teams don't win the title. Will this year be another example of that?
Will the stars continue to align for the LA Clippers?
In the Kawhi Leonard and Paul George era for the LA Clippers, the stars haven't aligned as perhaps they are this season. For the majority of the season, (*knocks on wood), the Clippers have been able to experience a relatively injury-free year. When it comes to their core, the Clippers have been relatively healthy. And that's a big reason why at the NBA All-Star Break, the Clippers find themselves ranked 3rd in the Western Conference standings and just two games back of the top seed.
If this continues to be the case for the Clippers, there's a very good chance that they're going to have a shot to win it all. When it comes to talent, coaching, and depth, I'm not sure there's any team in the West that you wouldn't give the Clippers a puncher's shot of beating in a seven-game series.
The Clippers are not the deepest team, but they should have enough. They're not the most talented team but it's hard to beat a top 3 of Kawhi, PG, and James Harden. To round out their chances of winning a title, Ty Lue is one of the most underrated coaches in the NBA. Heading into the final stretch of the season, you can't help but wonder if this is the year for the Clippers.
How real are the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks?
In the Eastern Conference, much of the talk this season has been centered around the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks. And to a certain extent, that is completely understandable. The Celtics have the best roster in the NBA and have been the best team through the NBA All-Star Break. The Bucks made the blockbuster move of the offseason by acquiring Damian Lillard. It's no surprise why they're getting plenty of headlines.
However, two other teams in the East that deserve some love for how they've looked this season are the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks. For the past two months, the Cavs and Knicks have begun to look more and more like the biggest threat to the Celtics at the top of the conference. If they. can get and remain healthy down the stretch, they are both teams that could very well get to the conference finals.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, that's the big question surrounding both these teams - are they for real and how far could they legitimately go in the playoffs?
Will injuries continue to derail the Phoenix Suns?
Heading into the start of the season, the belief was that the Phoenix Suns would emerge as one of the biggest threats to win the Western Conference. However, this season hasn't exactly gone as planned for the Suns. One big reason why is the Suns have been decimated by injuries for much of the season. Between their big three, Kevin Durant has missed seven games, Devin Booker has missed 10, and Bradley Beal has missed 25. If the Suns are going to make the jump to contender status in the West down the stretch, they're going to need to avoid the injury bug.
Thinking down the line, if the Suns are going to make a deep playoff run, they're going to have to have to get some luck when it comes to injuries. As we've seen this season, the Suns are two different teams when they're healthy and when they're not.
The unfortunate part of all this is that the Suns can't really control injuries. But it's certainly one of the bigger questions that will define the West when the playoffs roll around.
Will Joel Embiid return before the NBA Playoffs?
The Philadelphia 76ers were having a great season, even after being forced to trade James Harden a few games into the new campaign, but then a massive injury to Joel Embiid changed their outlook. The Sixers are holding onto a top 5 seed in the Eastern Conference but if they're going to make a deep playoff run, there's no question that they're going to need a healthy Embiid to return. Even though the Sixers are hopeful that he could make a return before the end of the season, that's far from a lock.
As the push toward the playoffs quickly approaches, Embiid's availability is going to be one of the bigger storylines to watch unfold in the Eastern Conference. If he's able to come back and looks close to 100 percent, the Sixers could emerge as a dark horse threat to make a deep playoff run.
This is a question that we likely won't get the answer to until later on in the season, but it's certainly something to keep a close eye on as we inch closer and closer to the start of the NBA Playoffs.
Do the Los Angeles Lakers have another late-season run?
After deciding to stand pat at the NBA Trade Deadline, it was clear that if the Los Angeles Lakers were going to go on a late-season run, the supporting cast around LeBron James and Anthony Davis would have to step up in a big way. And as a credit to them, that's exactly what we saw over the last few weeks before the NBA All-Star Break from the likes of D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves. Heading into the final stretch of the regular season, this is going to be a big question that's going to fuel how the Western Conference playoff picture shapes up.
As the playoffs quickly approach, it's only natural to question if the Lakers have another late-season run in them. Last season, the Lakers came out of nowhere after the NBA Trade Deadline and made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals. I don't think that should be an expectation this season, especially after they didn't make a move at the deadline, but perhaps they could emerge as a nightmarish first-round matchup for a team without as much playoff experience.
No matter what, the Lakers are always going to draw eyeballs heading into the final stretch of the season.
Does the Miami Heat have any more magic left?
The Miami Heat has made the NBA Finals twice and the Eastern Conference Finals three times in the last four years. Even when the Heat has looked like an afterthought in the regular season, it's almost as if something automatically clicks for the team in the postseason where they take their play to the next level. While that has seemingly worked three of the last four years, it's hard to imagine Miami finding that magic again this season, especially when they've looked pretty average for much of the season.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, one of the bigger questions for the Heat revolves around whether they can find some magic heading into the postseason - if they make it that far. If Miami can remain healthy, this is a team that should finish as one of the top 6 seeds in the East and if they draw the right team in the first round, perhaps they can go on another run again.
However, that's far from a guarantee. In fact, I'd imagine that it's more likely that the Heat end up flaming out rather than going on another historically unlikely playoff run.
Do the Golden State Warriors have one last gasp?
Heading into the final stretch of this season, one of the biggest questions revolves around whether the Golden State Warriors have one last gasp or not. This is a proud franchise that has been a pillar of the NBA for more than a decade. The core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson have won four championships in nine years. However, there's a very real feeling that this year is going to officially mark the end of the dynasty.
At the NBA All-Star Break, the Warriors are currently 10th in the Western Conference standings and it's hard to see how things are drastically going to change over the course of the last two months of the season. However, for a team that's been this successful, you kind of have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Over these next few weeks, we're going to find out whether the Warriors have one more stand in them or is the end of the dynasty a formality at this point. Either way, it should prove to be an interesting end of the season in Golden State.