The Best Teams in the NBA Right Now, Vol. 5
The Boston Celtics are back? The Sixers are sliding? We're in the final week of the regular season, here are the five current best teams in the NBA.
Image via Getty/Sam Forencich
9.
The NBA regular season ends next Sunday, and out of the 12 teams (top six in both conferences) that earn guaranteed playoff spots, eight have secured berths. The top five seeds in the Eastern Conference are set in stone. The Brooklyn Nets’ magic number of landing the sixth seed is two, and control their destiny in achieving that. The Play-In Race is down to the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors, and Chicago Bulls.
8.
In the seventh seed, Miami has a two-game lead on both the Hawks and Raptors, tied with matching 39-39 records. The 10th-seeded Bulls are a game back of both of them. Yet, with the Raptors ending their season with games against the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, they can very easily fall to the tenth seed and have a more challenging road to get into the playoffs.
7.
What can be said about the wild wild West? After all the jokes and trolling, the Los Angeles Lakers are on a three-game winning streak, and are a half-game from leapfrogging from the seventh seed to the fifth due to the Los Angeles Clippers’ struggles and the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors’ debilitating allergy to road victories (9-30). The eighth seed New Orleans Pelicans are surging, winners of seven of their last eight, and can make the same leap. And the snickers you’re hearing are coming from Nets and New York Knicks fans, directed toward Dallas, where the Mavericks are losers of seven of their last eight (4-9 with Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic together), and might not even make the play-in.
6.
A lot of shifting and rejiggering will take place this week until things come to form. The same can be said for the teams at the top of the food chain, as power shifts have occurred in the season’s last days.
5.Denver Nuggets
We still don’t know what to make of this team. Yes, they’re on top of the Western Conference, and with a comfy three-game lead on the Memphis Grizzlies, it’s a forgone conclusion they’ll clinch the top spot and homecourt, where they’re an impressive 33-7. But this has to be the least intimidating number-one seed in recent memory. As written two weeks ago, it bears repeating that the Denver Nuggets are unserious and have been in “chill mode” like they clinched the West and DGAF. Over the last 15 games, they’re 8-7. That includes a Nikola Jokic-less two-point win against the Golden State Warriors.
So why have they snuck back into these rankings? There has to be something said for having the third-best record in the NBA (52-26). They’ve won five of their last seven, are still top three in offensive rating in the league and still have a triple-double machine MVP candidate in the middle, even though the last three games, he’s been sidelined with a calf injury.
Jamal Murray (21 points vs. New Orleans), Aaron Gordon (26 points vs. Phoenix) and Michael Porter Jr. (29 points vs. Golden State) have done their part in holding down leading scoring duties during The Joker’s absence, but it’s clear he’s sorely needed.
The Nuggets are one win away from wrapping up the West. They have three road games against the Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz before closing out the season against the Sacramento Kings at home, to do so.
Then we’ll see in the playoffs how much Denver GAF.
4.Cleveland Cavaliers
After being winners of eight of their last ten last week, including a four-game win streak, the Cavs lost two of their next three games. The most significant L coming at the hands of the New York Knicks, which appears to be their first-round opponent when the playoffs start. They scored a franchise-record 47 points in the first quarter in that matchup. But the monster scoring wasn’t sustainable as foul trouble, the absence of Jarrett Allen and Isaac Okoro, and the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson’s ridiculous 48-point showcase all contributed to Cleveland’s 130-116 loss.
They did bounce back in a comeback win against the Indiana Pacers last night, with Donovan Mitchell putting up his third straight 40-point game. No player in the team’s history has ever done that. Nope, not even LeBron James or Kyrie Irving. In Spida’s last five, he’s been a walking bucket averaging over 35 points on 52% shooting and an insane 43% from deep.
There are only three games left in Cleveland’s season, and all they need is one win against the Orlando Magic, twice, and the Charlotte Hornets to win 50 games for the first time since the 2017-18 season and wrap up the fourth seed and homecourt in the first round…against the Knicks.
Ah, the basketball Gods write storylines on Vince McMahon levels because it’s not lost on fans how close New York was to having Mitchell rock orange and blue, but the price was too high to strike a deal with the Utah Jazz in the offseason.
The Westchester, New York native is ready to have his hometown team regret that decision.
We love full-circle moments.
3.Memphis Grizzlies
Even though they had their seven-game win streak snapped by the Los Angeles Clippers last Wednesday (which they avenged two days later) and losers of two of their previous three, the Grizzlies still have the league’s best record over the last ten games at 8-2. Casual fans have been on Ja Morant and his return to the team from suspension. Die-hards have focused on the separate 20-plus point averages of Desmond Bane (21.9 on 51.9% shooting and 41% from deep) and Jaren Jackson Jr. (23.8 on 58 percent from the field) during Memphis’ latest winning stretch.
Ja Morant’s numbers have been somewhat pedestrian during his last six games, though (including a head-scratching 10-point, 36. percent shooting performance in their Clippers’ win). Sure, Morant’s 20.8 points have contributed to the overall results, but he’s shooting a horrid 20.8 percent from deep, dropping his season average to 30.7 percent. Considering he was putting up 27 points, eight dimes and six boards before his suspension, you can argue that he’s not fully back to form. That’s why the efforts of Bane, Jackson Jr and Dillion Brooks (13.6ppg in the last ten) have been essential.
Second-seeded Memphis is up two games on the Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference entering the last week of the season. Except for the Portland Trailblazers, the Grizzlies’ remaining opponents (New Orleans, Milwaukee and OKC) have something to play for, so they’ll have to Grit-N-Grind to keep the Kings at bay.
2.Milwaukee Bucks
“This is an old fashioned, take you behind the woodshed beat down” – Reggie Miller, NBA on TNT
Or, in relatable terms: “The Bucks got knocked the fuck out!”
Maybe Milwaukee thought ish was sweet because heading into last Thursday’s showdown with the Boston Celtics, they were 26-5 since January, or for that matter, 24-3 since Khris Middleton returned from injury. Or maybe because their opponent’s last game was a humiliating loss to a Play-In hopeful.
Shit ain’t sweet in Brew City, especially when losing by 41 points to a potential Eastern Conference Championship foe.
They either took the C’s for granted, or when it comes down to it, Boston is the better team, top to bottom. All things could be true, but when Giannis Antetokounmpo produces a minus-32 (on 40% shooting and a complete donut from beyond the arc) compared to the Celtics’ Sixth Man of the Year candidate, Malcolm Brogdon’s plus-41, you know you’re in trouble. The only fight shown was when Little Greek Freak, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, headbutted Blake Griffin.
And it wasn’t just this game; the Denver Nuggets handled the Bucks thoroughly on March 25th, beating them by 23 in a potential NBA Finals preview.
Milwaukee did respond last night by embarrassing the Philadelphia 76ers, 117-104, with Giannis easily piling up a 33-point, 14-rebound showing. But you can take that with a grain of salt because the Sixers have been mid lately and seem content with being the third seed.
Unless a major malfunction happens this week against the Washington Wizards, Chicago Bulls, Memphis Grizzlies, and Toronto Raptors, the Bucks should clinch the East’s top spot without issue.
1.Boston Celtics
“This is an old fashioned, take you behind the woodshed beat down” – Reggie Miller, NBA on TNT
Or, in relatable terms: “The Celtics whooped dat ass!”
Maybe there was a method to the C’s madness when they collectively decided not to show up in their previous game and got mollywhopped by the Washington Wizards, 130-111, their third-worst loss of the year. They needed to save their energy for last Thursday’s marquee matchup in Milwaukee against the Bucks, where Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown absolutely went off, combining for 70 points…by the end of the third quarter. For context, Tatum dropped the same points the entire team was leading by the end of that quarter—40 points. The Beantown beatdown was on such “stop the fight” levels (their 51.2 percent from deep was killer) Bucks’ coach Mike Budenholzer threw in the towel minutes before the third ended by pulling his starters.
A statement win if there ever was one this season; Boston showed they could turn on the switch whenever they feel like it as the playoffs loom. Entering the final week and only two games behind the Bucks, the Celtics still have a realistic shot at reclaiming the number one seed they squandered in February and clinching the best record in the entire league. Their final four games are against playoff hopefuls, with the Philadelphia 76ers being the only team on Boston’s level (games against the Toronto Raptors twice and Atlanta Hawks follow). Do remember, the defending Eastern Conference Champions won all their elimination games in last year’s playoffs on the road. So, they’re the epitome of “fuck them seedings.”
They’re ready for the real season to begin.