The NBA regular season is coming to a close in the next few weeks. Where does each favorite stand in both of the conferences, and why are Golden State, Denver, and Indiana the teams to watch as we head towards the postseason?
The Eastern Conference has been a two-team race for most of the season, with Boston and Cleveland going back and forth for the title of ‘King of the East’. The season series is tied up at 2-2, with the Cavs up on point differential by a shocking number of +1 over those four outings.
To say the least, these teams are neck and neck in most stat categories. With that being said, the Celtics' playoff experience and clutch shot-making are what give them the current edge over Cleveland, which just lost four in a row in the middle of March.
4.5 games back of The Land, Mazzulla’s squad will most likely end up with the 2nd seed in the conference, but that shouldn’t hurt their odds as they are better than Cleveland on the road posting a 31-7 record.
OKC will easily win the Western Conference regular season for the second consecutive year. After their brutal playoff exit to Dallas in Round 2 of the 2024 playoffs, Sam Presti noted that he wasn’t shocked about their rebounding issues, but rather baffled by how their offense failed to produce in clutch moments of that series.
I don’t think that will be a problem this year, with Wiggins, Joe, and Caruso improving as bench options throughout the season. Golden State and Denver could give OKC some issues, but the Thunder should have an easy ride to at least the Conference Finals with their buy-in on defense.
Playoff Shai will come to play, while Lu Dort will be the x-factor on both ends of the floor come May and June.
As of March 31st, 2025, I am officially writing off the Knicks. Coach Thibs has not budged from his process of playing his starters 40+ minutes during the regular season, and once again, that will come to haunt him.
The bench isn’t prepared, nor will it be good enough to compete for the Eastern title, and secondly, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, and OG are not going to have enough in the tank to last in late May. Indiana is my sleeper pick. Haliburton is playing the best basketball of his career and Andrew Nembhard is the perfect playoff combo guard that killed the Knicks last season.
Add Benn Mathurin, Jarace Walker, and a red-hot Obi Toppin into the scoring mix, and this team can compete with anyone (except Boston and OKC) in the league. At +3100 odds, I’m taking Indiana to make some noise.
This group is dangerous. The Warriors are 15-4 since the All-Star break, the Nuggets are playing at a high pace and have budding stars in Braun and Watson, and the Lakers will be dangerous as long as Luka and LeBron are healthy. Denver is 8-8 against the Thunder since the start of the 2022 season, and with Jokic, it poses a massive threat for that young group to head to the mountaintop of the NBA landscape.
With that being said, Denver is just 11-9 since ASB. Golden State has allowed just 107.9 PPG since the All-Star break. Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry make for a dynamic playoff duo that normally does their best work in April, May, and June. Draymond Green is a DPOY candidate, again. So, what needs to happen for Kerr’s Warriors to shock the world?
Moses Moody, Buddy Hield, and Jonathan Kuminga need to be consistent on both ends. So far, Brandin Podziemski has been the most consistent out of the guards, but for GSW to compete with OKC, it will be up to Kuminga to take on a bigger role on both ends and shoot it consistently from deep.