It’s great to see the spotlight on the Eastern Conference after years of Western Conference domination. How will things settle? Here’s my take.
With only about ten games remaining, teams are making one last playoff push. The next couple of weeks will be HUGE for teams looking to secure a better seed–and, for some, to even make the playoffs. Clubs like Boston are trying to jump up in the standings to get a better seed. Others, like Indiana, are just trying to hold on.
Milwaukee and Toronto are in a battle for the top seed, and the Bucks hold the lead by 2.5 games. The Bucks have big games left, specifically against Houston (March 26th) and Philly (April 4th). The rest of the schedule should be manageable–two games against Cleveland and two other games against the Hawks.
On the other hand, Toronto goes back-to-back against OKC this week. Those games represent a big hurdle because, after that, the schedule is much softer–against Chicago, New York, and Orlando.
With no head-to-head games left with Milwaukee to make up ground, the Bucks hold the cards for the top seed.
Philly, Indiana, and Boston are all in the middle-of-the-pack, fighting for the 3-5 spots. That 3rd seed will be incredibly important because it gets to avoid the 1- and 2-seeds for the first two rounds.
Philly holds the 3rd spot currently, but only by a game-and-a-half. Philly plays eight of its last 12 games on the road with two back-to-back games remaining.
The Sixers host Boston and Milwaukee in two of those home games. That means it won’t be easy for Philly to hold onto the third spot.
The Sixers hope to hold off the now-hot Celtics, a team that’s only 2.5 games back right now. Boston has a little bit easier path with games against Cleveland, Miami, Orlando, and Washington, as well as one game against Indiana, to close that gap.
The Pacers are in-between those teams, but they are struggling, having gone 4-6 in the last ten games. For Indiana, the clock is running, and the gameplan may be to just get the best seed it can. The Pacers are in the middle of a West Coast road trip with games against the Clippers, Warriors, Nuggets (at home), Thunder, and Celtics in their next five contests. After that, they have two against Detroit and another game against Boston. I speculate that this team will drop to the 5-seed.
At the bottom of the playoff picture is Charlotte, currently 2.5 games out of the last playoff spot. With a tight schedule against mostly playoff teams, they’d have to make a fantastic run to get into the playoffs.
Just above them–and still out of the playoffs–are the Orlando Magic, a team that’s a game-and-a-half out of the 8-seed–a slot that was recently taken over by the Heat. The Magic have a pretty average schedule remaining–a road trip to Miami on the second day of a back-to-back that will be a must-win game if they want to make the playoffs. Miami, on the other hand. has two games against Boston with other contests against the Bucks, Spurs, Nets, and Sixers.
The battle for the 8-seed might be the most interesting of all of these races. Several teams are getting hot just at the right time.
Despite the season winding down, there’s still a lot of great basketball to be played!
(Keep an eye out for the Western Conference breakdown, coming later this week.)
