The top of the NBC Sports NBA power positions continues to be quite secure as the groups we believed would certainly be excellent have actually placed points on duty for the playoffs. The even more intriguing concern is just how much groups fresh Orleans and Dallas can climb.
1. Denver Nuggets (48-21, Recently No. 1). Denver is 12-2 given that the All-Star break and it took Kyrie Irving’s running left-handed H-O-R-S-E shot to hand them among those losses today. The Nuggets have the second-ranked infraction and eighth-ranked protection in the NBA given that the All-Star break, with a +9.9 web ranking. In a limited three-way race for the front runner (Denver and OKC are connected since this writing), Nikola Jokic and business are not taking their foot off the gas in the last weeks of the period like they did in 2014. Enjoyable examination versus the sandy yet undermanned Knicks on Thursday, component of Denver having 6-of-7 in your home.
2. Boston Celtics (54-14, LW 2). The Celtics formally secured a playoff area today (the first string to do so) yet with a 10-game lead in the East they are cruising right into the No. 1 seed. There are concerns concerning this group– they are 11-10 in video games within 3 factors in the last 3 mins, their clutch infraction obtains stationary– yet those are concerns that can just be responded to in the playoffs (the 2nd round of the playoffs and past, truly). Boston has actually won 6 straight and the Wednesday evening face-off versus Milwaukee shed some appeal with Giannis Antetokounmpo out, afterwards video game the Celtics have 6 straight when driving.
3. Oklahoma City Rumbling (47-20, LW 3). The raw numbers for Gordon Hayward are not that outstanding of late– 5.8 factors, 3.4 rebounds, 2 helps a video game in his last 5. Nonetheless, the Rumbling are winning the mins he gets on the court, with the group +37 in those 101 mins he’s gotten on the court in the last 5. The Rumbling and Nuggets continue to be in an online connection for the No. 1 seed in the West (Minnesota is one video game back) yet the Nuggets have a a lot easier timetable the remainder of the means. That does not truly use today, nonetheless, as the only truly hard video game on the OKC timetable is Sunday at Milwaukee.
4. Minnesota Timberwolves …
