The All-Star Weekend that has just ended has been exciting, and the NBA season is already halfway through. It's the final stage of the NBA, and as the calendar approaches March, there's a lot to talk about that deserves our further attention.
Here are 10 storylines worth keeping an eye on for the rest of the regular season, without further ado, on board!
1.Doctor and Bucks
Milwaukee has a 5-7 record under Doug Rivers, who has used excuses and his former player, J.J. Redick, has also been critical of it. Rivers didn't get any sympathy, and he didn't have much room to make mistakes in this show. He was brought in to win it all. Neat.
Damian Lillard, who hasn't been doing well this season by his standards, can he shoot at the right time?Is Milwaukee's defense good enough with Lillard and Malik Beasley having two turnstiles on the outside?More importantly, can Rivers build a top-tier offensive system?Since he took over, the Bucks have been in the bottom tens of their game. Milwaukee has a lot of questions, and doctors are hired to find answers.
2.Can the Warriors make it to a top-six finish?
On paper, this is doable, with the Warriors just three points behind fifth-place Phoenix and sixth-place New Orleans in Monday's game. But they have to skip four teams to get there (the four teams that enter the game on Monday will be the Lakers, Mavericks, Pelicans and Suns).
The Golden State Warriors have won nine of their last 12 matches and have a relatively friendly schedule for the remainder of the fixtures, including three games against Dallas and one game against New Orleans, which will decide the tiebreaker between the two teams.
Steve Cole seems to be slowly piecing together the puzzle. Jonathan Kuminga has finally become the main player in the lineup, and Klay Thompson is now off the bench. Chris Paul's eventual return could further solidify the second team or spoil the good vibes. Hopefully not the latter, because with the return of Draymond Green, the Warriors look ready for the first time all season.
For the Golden State Warriors, the priority should be to secure at least the No. 8 seed, which will give them two chances to secure a playoff spot with a playoff win (on the 9th or 10th, you have to win two play-offs in the tournament game). But it's not impossible to finish in the top six and avoid the play-in rounds altogether.
3.Two-person MVP battle
With Joel Embiid not eligible (he couldn't meet the requirement of at least 65 games), Nikola Jokic is the betting favourite, but there seems to be a big split between him and Shay Gilgeous-Alexander. If the Thunder are the No. 1 seed in the West (they tie with Minnesota, who entered the tournament on Monday), I'm sure the SGA will deserve this award.
It would be interesting if the Thunder were ahead of the Denver Nuggets but failed to get the top seed. By then, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic still have room for stretch runs. Both have had shocking seasons, but for me, Giannis is battling the narrative of a underperforming Bucks (even though he's saddled with the Bucks).
Doncic is a dark horse。If the Mavericks are seeded in the top five, Doncic wins the scoring title, and neither the Thunder nor the Nuggets get the top seed, Luka could leave voters with a tough decision, especially if he leaves scorched earth along the way.
But now it's a two-man race between Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander, and it's a very tight one.
4.Wembanyama locks Roy?
Victor Wembanyama has become the first player in history to contribute 150 blocks, 150 assists and 75 three-pointers in a single season. Chet Holmgren, meanwhile, is the first player in history to make more than 100 three-pointers while blocking more than 150 times as a rookie. It's not March yet.
It's safe to say that we've never had a rookie of the year battle like this, and Wembanyama – who leads the league in blocks and has entered another offensive stratosphere in the last 25 games since San Antonio entered the big league starting lineup and ended Jeremy Sochan's point guard experiment – is clearly the favorite to bet on and will almost certainly win the award, and Holmgren shouldn't be considered complete.
Just like the SGA in the MVP scramble, if the Thunder win the Western Conference and Holmgren averaged 17 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks per game in February, shooting nearly 50% from three-point range, if he continues at that level, we'll have at least one real discussion if we really care about winning. Although the SGA and the likes of Jalen Williams should have put a lot of effort into making the Thunder so quick to achieve such a great result, Holmgren was at the heart of what caused this to happen.
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5.LeBron scored nearly 40k in his career
LeBron is already the all-time scoring leader, leaving him 40k short of 74k in his career after scoring 28 points in the Lakers' loss to the Suns on Sunday. This will almost certainly happen in the next few weeks, and possibly sooner than that.
Here are the next five games in Los Angeles:
Feb. 28: Lakers vs. Clippers (10th Eastern, ESPN).
Feb. 29: Wizards vs. Lakers (10:00 Eastern Time, NBA League Pass).
March 2: Nuggets vs. Lakers (8:30 ET, ABC).
March 4: Thunder vs. Lakers (10:30 ET, NBA TV).
March 6: Kings vs. Lakers (10:30 ET, NBA League Pass).
6.Who won the West?
It's a contest between four teams in the Western Conference against Minnesota, Thunder, Denver, and Clippers. The latter two teams may be less concerned about the seeded teams than the Wolves and Thunder, both of whom are trying to make themselves real contenders every night.
My**: Minnesota ended up being the No. 1 seed, but thanks to Shay Gilgeous-Alexander's half-court creation, the Thunder were the more dangerous team in the playoffs. Minnesota doesn't play well defensively, with its outside kennels and Rudy Gobert protecting the basket, but I question offense in tight conditions. The Thunder have no such concerns.
If Minnesota and Thunder do finish in the top two in some order, with the Clippers and Denver at 3-4, it means that Los Angeles and the Nuggets will be on opposite sides of the bracket to prepare for the upcoming playoffs. Incredible divisional finals.
7.How serious are the Knicks, the Cavaliers?
Will the Knicks be an opponent that no one wants to see in the previous rounds, or a reasonable threat to challenge for a Finals spot?I'll tell you: Bojan Bogdanovic made five three-pointers in his Knicks debut, while Donte DiVincenzo on the opposite side gave Jalen Brunson plenty of room to manoeuvre.
OG Anunoby is an excellent playoff defender. Isaiah Hartenstein protects the basket and rebounds like a madman, while Mitchell Robinson still has a chance to return to the playoffs.
As for the Cavaliers, they have the fourth-best point margin in the league as the second-seeded team in the East, and it's the offensive boom that makes them look at least a fringe contender. We knew they could defend, but without Darius Garland and Evan Mobley (both of whom needed surgery), they started shooting three-pointers and moving the ball like the Warriors did for a long time.
The Cavaliers have a league-best 24-7 record since Dec. 16. During that time, they averaged 14Five three-pointers, the third-highest in the league, and an eight-game winning streak, with nine straight wins alone. Donovan Mitchell is having the best season of his career. If the Cavaliers weren't a contender right now, it's hard to imagine them being contenders in this roster iteration.
8.76ers without Embiid
Philadelphia has a 4-7 record since Embiid played the Warriors on Jan. 30. There's no guarantee that Embiid will return this season, but the fact that Daryl Morey traded Buddy Hield, who became a free agent this summer, is a clear sign that they're going for it now.
The question is:Between now and Embiid's (hopefully) return, how far will the 76ers fall behind?After Sunday's loss to the Bucks, they are just one game ahead of the seventh-ranked Heat and two ahead of the eighth-ranked Magic. It would be a historic collapse if Philadelphia dropped to eighth place, but even having to win a playoff game to give Embiid less chance of making the playoffs (without taking into account how well they've started the season in a potential first-round game against Boston) would be a big disappointment.
9.Can the Lakers and Clippers stay healthy?
The Clippers are fairly safe to finish in the top six, while the Lakers may not be out of playoff qualification. The most important thing for both Los Angeles teams is to stay healthy ahead of the playoffs. Especially for the Lakers, if LeBron James or Anthony Davis falls, they don't have any chance. But if both stay healthy in April, beating the Lakers in a seven-game series will be a very difficult task.
There's more room for the Clippers to have three superstars, but we'll need to see what this team can do with all their strength. That's why Harden was brought in, and he's been doing well. Kawhi Leonard is already a great at the MVP level, even if he doesn't have a chance to win, and Paul George is ......Hmmm......Paul George. The Clippers are definitely full of shooting and individual creativity, which are the two major strengths of the playoffs.
Just make it to the playoffs healthy. For both Los Angeles teams, the seeded team is far behind in second place on the priority list.
10.Team Phoenix's math puzzles
The only team currently in the playoffs who is averaging fewer three-pointers per game than the Suns is the Denver Nuggets, a team that has clearly laid out the championship formula. Even with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, two of the best mid-range shooters in the world, it's hard to get two points more than three in a playoff series.
That's why Frank Vogel wants them to shoot more from long range. The Suns have made at least 40 three-pointers six times this season, and they have a 5-1 record in those games — including Sunday's win over the Lakers, where they shot 17-of-40 from beyond the three-point line.
The Suns are at their best when they rush into the paint and play instead of relying too much on Booker and Durant's static creations and controversial shots. That's where Bradley Beale comes in. He's the kind of creator who can touch the paint zone on his own, and he can also fight the blockade caused by the attention that Booker and Durant are asking for, and things can continue from there. Or he could look for Booker and Durant.
Beal shot 43 percent from three-point range in February, the Suns scored 12 more points per 100 possessions than their opponents, and the Suns' offensive efficiency will be greatly improved with the Big Three on the floor this season, according to Cleaning the Glass. Shooting more three-pointers would make things easier, but as long as all three are on the court together in the playoffs and Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neal, and Eric Gordon are all legitimate marksmen, Phoenix will be tough in the playoffs.
That is, they must make the playoffs first. It sounds crazy, but the Phoenix team tied for losses with the seventh-placed Pelicans and the eighth-ranked Mavericks in Monday's game. Play-in tournaments are not playoffs. It's a chance to make the playoffs. Phoenix doesn't want to find itself in a potential one-and-done situation.
Finish! Dear readers and friends, if you have different views, welcome to share and discuss in the comment area! **10,000 Fans Incentive Plan