The NBA Jap Convention postseason begins on Wednesday night time with the play-in event.
The highest six groups from the convention have already certified for the playoffs, whereas seeds seven via 10 enter the play-in event for a chance to qualify for the ultimate two playoff spots in every convention.
Listed here are three key Jap Convention speaking factors forward of the NBA playoffs:
1. Are the second-placed New York Knicks playoff contenders or pretenders within the East?
The Knicks squeaked into the quantity two spot within the Jap Convention standings on the ultimate day of the season on Sunday.
For a franchise that has not received an NBA championship in 51 years and an Jap Convention crown since 1999, this was thrilling information and heralded in an thrilling new period for one of many league’s most storied groups.
Led by a single, diminutive, by NBA requirements, All-Star blessed with the center of a lion, Jalen Brunson has New Yorkers believing that this might be the yr the staff lastly begins profitable playoff collection once more.
The 1.88-metre (six-foot-two-inch) Brunson refused to let his staff falter this season, regardless of accidents to key gamers continuously threatening to derail their marketing campaign. The purpose guard averaged a career-high 28.7 factors per recreation and delivered time and again in crunch time to win his staff video games that typically that they had no enterprise profitable.
And herein lies the dilemma for Brunson and the Knickerbockers: in the event that they overachieved within the common season, will they give you the option to take action once more within the playoffs, the place groups have extra time to arrange defensive methods over the course of a seven-game collection?
Within the absence of key ahead Julius Randle – out for the playoffs with season-ending shoulder surgical procedure – Brunson’s common season scoring common – 28.7 factors per recreation – is sort of as a lot as his subsequent two teammates mixed in Donte DiVincenzo – 15.5 ppg – and Immanuel Anunoby – 14.1 ppg.
Within the Jap Convention playoffs, this poses a serious downside for the Knicks after they play high-scoring tremendous groups with a number of All-Stars like Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
The Knicks ultimate common season recreation on Sunday was an ideal snapshot of their season, their staff, their efficiency, gutting out a relentless one-point, additional time victory in opposition to the Chicago Bulls with Brunson bravely main the best way with 40 factors in a never-say-die efficiency.
For New York to win the East, it will be simple to say “As Brunson goes, absolutely do the Knicks” – however even a career-best playoffs displaying by the little ground basic will not be sufficient to take NY to the promised land.
2. The Jap Convention crown is Boston’s to lose.
Making a statistical case for Boston to win the East could be the simplest activity in NBA reportage:
- First staff in both convention to clinch a postseason spot
- Completed with the NBA’s greatest common season win-loss report at 64-18, that’s eight video games higher than anybody else
- Completed first within the Jap Convention standings by 14 video games
- NBA’s greatest win-loss level differential at 11.4
- Scored 1.22 factors per possession, which is the very best in NBA historical past
If statistics don’t inform the entire story, then it is usually essential to level out that the Celtics simply have probably the most full beginning 5 within the East, with All-Stars Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown flanked by a few of the league’s greatest function gamers in Jrue Vacation, Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White.
Regardless of their traditionally nice season, the Celtics usually are not infallible. This star-studded staff has gone off the rails sometimes, making one query their depth and/or ways – however not their expertise.
The Celtics misplaced each matchups this season in opposition to the hapless Atlanta Hawks, and in maybe the NBA’s single greatest one-game humiliation, they misplaced a stunner on residence courtroom in opposition to a depleted Lakers squad taking part in with out their All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
In addition they misplaced twice to the defending NBA champions Denver, which uncovered the Celtics’ common behavior of alternating between very good staff play and relying too usually – particularly in crunch time – on the do-it-yourself elegant particular person abilities of their mercurial wing gamers Tatum and Brown.
Boston could certainly be the league’s greatest staff, however no NBA title was ever received within the common season; they must impose that dominance as soon as once more within the Jap Convention playoffs to win their first NBA championship since 2008.
3. Does Joel Embiid’s late-season return from damage put the Philadelphia 76ers again within the Jap Convention playoff race?
The reigning most dear participant’s (MVP) knee damage on January 30, 2024, killed his staff’s probabilities of ending within the high two within the Jap Convention playoff standings.
Embiid’s return to NBA motion simply days earlier than the top of the common season threw a huge spanner into the works of a convention that options just one nice staff, the Celtics, and several other fairly first rate groups – Bucks, Magic, Knicks, Cavs.
Pre-injury, Embiid was scoring at a quicker fee than any participant ever has within the NBA common season.
With a pro-rated scoring fee of 38 factors per 36 minutes, Embiid loved the best “per-minute” scoring common in league historical past, surpassing even the very best per-minute scoring season of the legendary Michael Jordan in 1987/88.
If unprecedented scoring statistics usually are not sufficient to calculate the 30-year-old’s value to the 76ers, then this could be: Within the 39 video games Embiid performed within the common season, Philadelphia had the NBA’s greatest report at 31 wins and eight losses. With out him, they had been 16 and 27.
The surprising rise of Tyrese Maxey as a first-time NBA All-Star is additional trigger for Philadelphia’s optimism heading into the postseason. The super-athletic guard averaged a career-best 25.9 factors per recreation to complete eleventh within the NBA scoring race.
The seventh-seeded 76ers will first must clinch their winner-take-all play-in recreation on Wednesday night time to qualify for the Jap Convention playoffs.
Their opponent is none aside from final yr’s Jap Convention champion, the Miami Warmth.
Philadelphia is favoured in opposition to Miami, however the Warmth could be counting on probably the most ominous Embiid statistic of all of them: The large 2.14-metre (seven-foot), 127-kilo (280-pound) centre has suffered an damage in each postseason of his profession.