With less than 3 weeks remaining in the regular season, the playoff races are getting tighter. In the West, the Lakers have started to slip a little, and the Jazz and Mavericks are heating up, creating a 3-way race for that final playoff spot. In the East, which looked like it was completely decided weeks ago, the Milwaukee Bucks are doing everything they can to not make the playoffs, and the 76ers aren't completely dead yet, despite how bad they've been all year. Here are my current rankings, with projected final record and playoff seeding included, as well as the change in that projection from last week.
TW. (LW) Team (Week) Overall (Projected) Seed (Change)
1. (1) Oklahoma City (2-1) 53-20 (60-22) 2W
2. (2) Miami (3-1) 57-15 (65-17) 1E
3. (3) San Antonio (2-1) 55-17 (62-20) 1W (+1)
4. (4) LA Clippers (2-2) 49-24 (55-27) 4W (-1)
5. (5) Denver (2-2) 50-24 (56-26) 3W
6. (6) Indiana (3-1) 46-27 (52-30) 2E (+1)
7. (7) Memphis (2-2) 48-24 (54-28) 5W
8. (8) Houston (1-2) 39-33 (45-37) 7W (-1)
9. (9) New York (4-0) 45-26 (51-31) 3E (+1)
10. (10) Brooklyn (2-2) 42-30 (48-34) 4E
11. (11) LA Lakers (1-2) 37-36 (42-40) 8W
12. (12) Golden State (2-1) 41-32 (46-36) 6W
13. (14) Boston (2-2) 38-34 (43-39) 7E
14. (15) Atlanta (2-2) 40-33 (45-37) 6E
15. (18) Chicago (3-0) 39-31 (46-36) 5E (+2)
16. (16) Utah (3-1) 37-36 (41-41) 9W
17. (13) Dallas (2-1) 35-37 (40-42) 10W
18. (17) Portland (0-3) 33-39 (37-45) 11W (-1)
19. (20) Minnesota (2-2) 26-45 (31-51) 12W
20. (19) Milwaukee (1-2) 35-36 (40-42) 8E
21. (22) Washington (1-3) 26-46 (30-52) 11E (-1)
22. (23) Sacramento (2-2) 27-46 (30-52) 13W (+1)
23. (21) Toronto (1-2) 27-45 (31-51) 10E (-1)
24. (26) Philadelphia (3-1) 29-43 (33-49) 9E (+1)
25. (24) New Orleans (1-2) 25-48 (28-54) 14W
26. (25) Cleveland (0-2) 22-49 (26-56) 13E (-2)
27. (28) Phoenix (0-3) 23-50 (25-57) 15W (-1)
28. (27) Detroit (1-2) 24-49 (27-55) 12E (-1)
29. (29) Orlando (1-2) 19-54 (21-61) 14E
30. (30) Charlotte (1-3) 17-55 (19-63) 15E
The hottest team in the league right now is New York, and the hottest player not named LeBron is JR Smith. He has scored 30 points off the bench in 3 straight games, becoming the first reserve to achieve that since Ricky Pierce in 1990, when Smith was only 5 years old. The Knicks' win streak has reached 7 games, and they have taken over the #2 seed in the East once again, and now they look like they're here to stay.
Philadelphia kept their slim playoff hopes alive this week with 3 wins in the same week for the first time since November, and one of the teams they beat was Milwaukee, the team they need to catch to slip into the playoffs. If they make the playoffs, they will have the worst record of a qualifying team in decades, since they have already lost 43 times, but the bottom of the East is so weak that they just might pull it off.
Minnesota also had a great week, nearly upsetting the Lakers on Wednesday before breaking through last night against the top-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder, taking down the defending Western Conference champs for their second win of the week. While they haven't been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet, it's almost a certainty that it will happen this week, so once again they'll have to wait for next year.
No list of the league's hottest teams would be complete without including the Sacramento Kings, who have been a fixture on this list for the last month. They keep on winning games that they aren't expected to, such as their road win at Golden State this week. Tonight they are hosting the Los Angeles Lakers, and there are several teams that would be grateful if they continued their hot streak.
No comments:
Post a Comment