Playoff time is coming soon in the National Basketball Association. With the regular season winding down and each team having only a few games left to play, I think that now is the appropriate time to start looking towards the postseason. We have a solid understanding of what each team is at this point, though obviously anything can happen in the playoffs. Traditionally however, basketball is a sport that throughout its storied history has not had many true underdogs make runs to the title. Because there is still a lot of uncertainty with the Western Conference and what the standings will look like when all is said and done, in this blog post, I will be focusing specifically on the Eastern Conference, which is much more top-heavy. I will be looking at each of the three teams in the East that I think have the best realistic shot at winning the NBA championship and describing the strengths and weaknesses of each of them.
Milwaukee Bucks
The team with the best overall record in the league, it is not shocking that the Bucks are the favorites to win the NBA title. This is the case largely because they have Giannis Antetokounmpo, who for my money is still probably the best player in the world due to his otherworldly impact on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Complimenting him is all-star guard Jrue Holiday, one of the toughest perimeter defenders in the association with the ability to put the clamps on other teams’ stars in the postseason. He has also taken a substantial jump with his scoring this year, shouldering a larger workload with regular secondary-scorer Khris Middleton being in and out of the lineup due to injury. Their 35 year old 7’1” center Brook Lopez has also had somewhat of a resurgence this season, recementing himself as an outstanding rim protector with his ability to hold down the paint and block shots. Because of these players, the Bucks unsurprisingly have had an elite defense all season, ranking top-5 in the league in defensive rating. The fact that they have had all of their success without Middleton for stretches of the season makes this team even scarier, and his health woes could be the only thing potentially holding them back. They have been on an absolute heater since the turn of the new year, with an absurd record of 30-9 since January 1st. With solid, dependable role players like Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen filling out the rest of the roster, the Milwaukee Bucks are the safest pick to hoist the Larry O’Brein trophy come June.
Boston Celtics
Sitting at second place in the Eastern Conference standings, Boston is fresh off a Finals appearance last season where they lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games. They have two bonafide stars in forwards Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown, the former of which was getting MVP buzz early in the season. The Celtics were rattling off wins to start the season off, and their roster is probably the deepest in the entire league. With last year’s DPOY winner Marcus Smart, the versatile Derrick White, and Malcolm Brogdon whom they acquired in the offseason, the C’s can boast about great depth at the guard spot. Savvy big man Al Horford is the glue guy for the team, and Rob Williams III anchors their defense down at center, although he has been injured for a portion of this season.For whatever weird reason though, things just sometimes don’t seem to click for the Celtics, often at crucial moments. Sometimes it is due to them resorting too much to isolation possessions with their star players and stopping their movement off-ball. Sometimes it is just them going on a cold streak shooting, which happens with every team. Most recently, their forward Grant Williams missed two free throws in the closing seconds of a game against the Cavs that would have sealed the victory, which were made more comical due to the fact that he told the other team before shooting them that he would make both. But the bottom line is that when the Celtics move the ball, shoot well, cut, and play cohesively, they are almost unstoppable. I just don’t know how much I trust them to put it all together.
Philadelphia 76ers
The Sixers are a team that feels like they are potentially poised for a breakthrough this postseason. After falling short of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the past few seasons, superstar big man Joel Embiid has jumped up to another level this season, and is currently the betting favorite to win the MVP award. He is flanked by the notorious James Harden, who has morphed himself from one of the league’s most prolific scorers to one of its best playmakers. Tyrese Maxey is the third best player on the roster, and he is an electric young guard who can both shoot and pass. After struggling a bit to begin the season, this team has found their groove as of late, and are currently sitting at third place in the East with some notable wins against other top teams under their belt. The main obstacle standing in the way of the 76ers is injuries. Embiid has a terrible track record when it comes to getting hurt, and both Maxey and Harden have missed time this season as well. Philadelphia’s defense is also a shade worse than both Boston’s and Milwaukee’s, and even the four-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. If they can’t hold up defensively, this worries me for their ability to hold up throughout a long playoff run. Pieces they have added like De’Anthony Melton and P.J. Tucker can help them somewhat, but it will still be a tough road. The 76ers certainly have the talent though, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they found themselves in the NBA Finals.
Great post Jack. You seem to have forgotten the infamous Chicago Bulls though. They are my dark horse to win it all this year. Great work again as always.
I am so ready for the NBA playoffs to start now that the NFL season is over. The play in tournament games have been pretty awesome so far and the comeback from the Bulls was just awesome. We have that girl who was screaming during all of Pascal Siakam’s free throws to thank for that win since none of them would go in. I later found out that it was DeMar Derozan’s daughter who was doing all that screaming so the Bulls nation needs to thank her for all her hard work too. I must disagree with your list of contenders though because it is obvious that the Bulls are going to win it all this year. We are going to beat the Miami Heat tomorrow like we did in all three games we played against them in the regular season. We will be the 8th seed and defeat Giannis Antetokoumpo and the Bucks and make our way to the finals and get ourselves another ring. The Eastern Conference has been very good this year compared to the Western Conference which used to be on top for a while. That is no longer the case and the Bulls will be the first to prove it to everyone soon enough.
Hi jack, Soldi post, at first I thought you forgot the Sacramento Kings, but then I realized it was only eastern conference. The kings would sweep all of these teams though, they realistically don’t stand a chance. I think that the bucks will win the championship, mainly because of Giannis and Jrue Holiday. Giannis is just an overly dominant player that nobody can stop, so much so that I’ve been called Giannis at times. I agree that Brook Lopez has had a resurgence this season, he goes crazy every game in fantasy basketball. With their top 5 rating in defense and Giannis, they are definitely my second favorite for the championship. I’ll just say this, the Celtics ain’t winning anything. They suck. They are trash. I actually like the 76ers because I think that Embiid is the MVP this season. I think that they can clutch up on defense and with Tyrese Maxey (my fav fantasy player), they will definitely have a good run in the playoffs, before losing to the kings eventually.
Hey Jack, I thought I’d comment on your blog this week partly because I’ve learned a lot about basketball in the past year or so because of fantasy, but I barely know anything about playoffs because by then fantasy usually is over. I would say though that throughout the season as I was monitoring players and reading up on their health and whatnot, I always got the impression for some reason that the Celtics were going to win it all. The entire season Jayson Tatum was absolutely popping off and had the support of Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Marcus Smart, and Malcolm Brogdon as the Celtics only had to deal with one or two major injuries for a few weeks here and there. My prediction for number two would have to be the 76ers just because James Harden and Joel Embid being on the same team is a deadly combo. Not to mention that they also had support from fairly average but increasingly more prominent players like Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, and Shake Milton. I would then put the Bucks as my number three. Even though their roster is absolutely stacked with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Bobby Portis, Kris Middleton, and of course the goat Brook Lopez, they’ve got the big bum Grayson Allen and I feel like Giannis himself is at the point in his career where he is starting to get hurt a lot more often. Honestly though, watch my rankings be so wrong that the Bulls end up taking it all and Lonzo Ball just comes back in out of nowhere and takes us all the way.
Hey Jack! I personally do not watch basketball unless I am hanging out with someone else who really wants to watch basketball, thus I have virtually zero knowledge of what is going on in the league right now. While I do not follow basketball as a whole, I do follow specific basketball players, which somewhat keeps me in the know. That, and I follow this girl on tik tok who has a series titled Hoops for Hotties and I get some basketball intel that way. I really like the Bucks because I really like Giannis Antetokounmpo. Not only is he a great player, but he’s also super cute and funny. I still think Lebron is better than him, though I don’t have much to back up that claim besides him having more accomplishments than Giannis. For the Bucks, the only player I recognized was Jayson Tatum, who I also really like. It’s a shame they haven’t been performing their best because they seem to have a lot of strong players. I haven’t followed the 76ers at all this year but I do know that James Harden is really good! This was a lot of super useful basketball information that I will definitely be mentioning next time my brother wants to talk basketball!