With a couple of week left within the NBA common season, there are a selection of groups at the moment aggressively competing for optimum postseason positioning.
A lot of the eye relating to playoff positioning is on the Western Convention, the place simply 2.5 video games separate the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks from the ninth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.
However there’s additionally a good race between sixth by eighth locations within the Japanese Convention, as Tim Bontemps famous in a Twitter publish.
To indicate how tight the race for the 6-7-8 seeds is within the Japanese Convention:
In keeping with ESPN’s BPI, the Pacers, Warmth and 76ers are all anticipated to complete with 46 wins after Philadelphia’s win final evening.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 5, 2024
The Indiana Pacers, Miami Warmth and Philadelphia 76ers are all seeking to end sixth within the East, which might enable them to keep away from the play-in event and safe a first-round playoff recreation that will be slightly simpler.
The Pacers, who’re ranked sixth, are at the moment only one recreation forward of the eighth-place 76ers.
Of these three groups, the Sixers could have probably the most momentum proper now – they’re on a three-game successful streak and not too long ago welcomed again reigning MVP Joel Embiid after he missed two months with a meniscus harm.
The Warmth are at all times a harmful workforce beginning round this time of yr, they usually’re at all times able to shock folks as soon as the playoffs begin.
Final yr they pulled off an enormous upset in opposition to the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks within the first spherical of the playoffs, they usually might find yourself with the very same matchup within the first spherical of this yr’s playoffs.
Whereas many really feel the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics are on monitor to fulfill within the NBA Finals, there’s loads of depth and parity elsewhere, and subsequently the sudden might very effectively occur within the subsequent two months.
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