If the playoffs If they didn’t exist, the Boston Celtics would already be savoring the NBA title. The American professional basketball league enters the final stretch of the regular season under the absolute dominance of the team led by Joe Mazzulla. The Bostonians are one victory away from securing first place in the Eastern Conference with 11 games left in the league’s 82 games. On the other hand, the other two most successful teams in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Francisco Golden State Warriors, have not done their homework and are at serious risk of being left out of the playoffs.
With 57 wins and 14 losses, the Celtics have already won as many games as the previous season with those 11 games still remaining. The team has asserted its status as favorite with the most balanced and united team in the championship. Their stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been joined by the signings of the versatile Latvian center Kristaps Porziņģis and the defensive stalwart Jrue Holiday, with the effective Derrick White in the gala quintet and the rocky Al Horford as the sixth man to replace Porziņģis , prone to injuries. With the team in a state of grace, other supporting actors such as Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Luke Cornet have also delivered when they have enjoyed minutes.
The Celtics have won most of their games without breaking a sweat. At the beginning of the month they crushed the Warriors at the TD Garden in Boston with a 140-88 score that at the end of the first half was an even more humiliating 82-38. They have nine consecutive victories. Of course, their last defeat was against the current champions, Nikola Jokić’s Denver Nuggets, against whom they have lost the three games they have played in 2024. This is a serious warning that the path to winning a ring that they have not achieved since 2008 is not going to be easy. Because the playoffs exist.
Closing the season as the team with the most victories guarantees the Celtics home field advantage in all the playoffs, including the hypothetical final, and theoretically more comfortable matches at the beginning. That can be somewhat misleading. They could end up facing off in the first round with the Philadelphia 76ers, who have fallen behind with the injury of their star, Joel Embiid, but who are expected to be ready when push comes to shove, or with the Miami Heat, their executioner from last year , which grows in the qualifying rounds thanks to its leader, Jimmy Playoff Butler.
Behind the Celtics, the Milwaukee Bucks (46 wins and 25 losses) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (43-28) are currently fighting for second place in the Eastern Conference, but the New York Knicks (42-28) and the Orlando Magic (42-29) are going strong. The Indiana Pacers (40-32) are trying to secure the last direct access spot to the playoffs, while the playoff spots, the playin, They are now occupied by Miami, Philadelphia and, further behind, the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks. In this play-off, the seventh team plays against the eighth team in a single match and whoever wins goes to the playoffs. Whoever loses plays against the winner of the match between ninth and tenth for the last place.
That dangerous zone is where both LeBron James’ Lakers (ninth, with 39 wins and 32 losses) and Stephen Curry’s Warriors (10th, 36-34) find themselves in the Western Conference. Their current positions would imply a fratricidal duel for survival in a single match and time to step on the accelerator to avoid it is running out.
Ahead are the Phoenix Suns (sixth, with 42 wins and 29 losses), the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks, both with a balance of 41-29. Luka Dončić’s Mavericks, in particular, have a more favorable schedule. The New Orleans Pelicans are in top form and have won 8 of their last 10 games, raising their record to 44-27 in fifth place. Both they and the Los Angeles Clippers (44-26), fourth, already seem out of reach for both the Lakers and the Warriors.
The career of the best player
The excitement in the West, always less predictable, is not only at the bottom, but the battle is also very open in the head. The Nuggets have regained first position this weekend (50 wins and 21 losses) and have a favorable schedule until the end of the season, so they are the favorites. Nikola Jokić leads the team in points (26.1), rebounds (12.3) and assists (9) per game and is a very clear candidate to win the title of best player of the season for the third time. No other player is as complete. His rivals for the title of best player are, in this order, Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić, who are also having a great season. The Slovenian shattered his personal and team records in a game for the ages in which he scored 73 points against the Atlanta Hawks, a score only surpassed by Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant.
The revelation of the year is, without a doubt, the Oklahoma City Thunder, tenth last season and second this season, with 49 wins and 21 losses. Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 30.8 points and 6.4 assists per game. And center Chet Holngren has been giving French Victor Wembanyama a run for his money as a possible rookie of the year for much of the season with 17.1 points and 8 rebounds per game. They compete head-to-head with the Nuggets for the top spot.
The third in contention in the West is another surprise: the Minnesota Timberwolves, with a balance of 49-22. In a league in which attacks predominate and scoring records have been broken, Minnesota’s team grows from its defense, the best of the entire season. With the centers Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid (substitute, but who plays 23.6 minutes per game) it is very strong in the zone. Added to this has been an improvement in the scoring performance of Anthony Edwards, who averages 26.5 points per game. They are a tough nut to crack, but they don’t seem in a position to fight for the ring.
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