NBA: the weaknesses of the contestants towards the playoffs
We analyze the weak points of the teams that seek to be candidates in the NBA playoffs.
We are in the Final stretch of the regular series heading to playoffs And it is time to analyze the candidates. The postseason brings confirmations but also surprises, and although we will have 16 franchises in a position to keep the Larry O’Brien trophywe will stay with the six best classified at the moment. Three at East Conference, three in West.
What is the Kryptonite of each team? Where can the crossing alarms be for a first round?
Adjust your belts.
It is time to take off.
West Conference
Oklahoma City Thunder
Kryptonite: Lack of experience in playoffs
Rival to avoid in the first round: Los Angeles Lakers or Golden State Warriors
Here is the team of the moment. Nikola Jokic is the best player in the world, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander must be the MVP this season. He deserves it. The Canadian base leads a young Navy that will fight for its first championship. They have rhythm, fluidity and dynamism in all lines, and with the return of Chet Holmgren to alignment, fight one of their Achilles heels that is the painted area. Now, Isaiah Hartenstein will have the company you need. The group defense is the best ally of the Thunder, in fact they have the best efficiency without the ball of the entire NBA (104.4 points every hundred possessions) and the attack is not far behind (4th throughout the league, 116.6 units every one hundred possessions). Why could Lakers and Warriors be a problem? From his experience when playing for important things. One thinks of LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Stephen Curry, and concerns arise. In addition, the Lakers grew from the arrival of Doncic and the Warriors with the arrival of Jimmy Butler. The purple and gold team today is fifth and that of San Francisco Sixth, so to cross with OKC they should fall to the play-in, where the Timberwolves and the clippers stalk today.
Houston Rockets
Kryptonite: The offensive and injuries
Rival to avoid in the first round: Sacramento Kings
Three times they played with each other, in the current regular series, Rockets and Kings. Three times he won sacrament and is a fact to take into account. Today, rockets are seconds in the west and by the past, present and future should avoid crossing with that team that clearly bothers them. Faithful to the style of IME UDOKA, the Rockets have the best defensive efficiency of the NBA, but the matter changes when we talk about attack: they have the nineteenth better efficiency with ball from the entire league (110.3 points every hundred possessions) and in percentage of triples, the diamond today’s game, are 25 ° (34.6%). The attack will improve with the return of Fred Vanvleet, outside of March, but now they will have to deal with the absence of the engine called Ames Thompson for their left ankle sprain. The responsibility, then, will fall fully into the Turkish intern Alperen Sengun. Houston went from being a future team to a present guarantee. Of course: Do you have what you need to fight in the old and wild west? The best, in these lands, is to be seen.
Denver Nuggets
Kryptonite: The depth of rotation
Rival to avoid in the first round: Minnesota Timberwolves
The Timberwolves have become something like the black beast of the Nuggets. They already eliminated them in conference semifinals last season and now they have won him in the three games that played with each other in regular series. Of course, they have Nikola Jokic, also Jamaal Murray, but is not enough with the wonderful duo. They need more. Aaron Gordon suffered an injury in the calf that made him miss several games, and beyond the good level Russell Westbrook showed as foreman of the second unit, behind him and Christian Braun there are not too many relevant players to cut. Thus, Michael Malone’s rotation becomes too short to think about a long postseason race. They can still be seconds in the west: they will rely on their championship experience to compete against the best.
East Conference
Cleveland Cavaliers
Kryptonite: Limit situations
Rival to avoid in the first round: Orlando Magic
Last season they needed seven games to beat Paolo Banchero and company. Now, the Magic was the franchise that cut the streak of sixteen games in a row to Cleveland. Worrying? Not at all. Only this crossing would come with recent history. Cleveland is the best offensive of the NBA, Kenny Atkinson will be the coach of the year and its directed ones have virtues everywhere. As a surprise they went on confirmation: it is one of the few teams that play with two large men of power (Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen), two decisive perimeters such as Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, and a combo of players who accompany and, in group, make the difference. The question is how this team will answer in decisive instances of postseason, because we will clearly demand more. Last year they gathered the experience, lost with the Celtics champions and this year they rearranged to compete. The first cross will be essential for us to know where they are really standing. In other words, if they are a regular serial team or a new playoff monster.
Boston Celtics
Kryptonite: Kristaps porzingis health
Rival to avoid in the first round: Atlanta Hawks?
The feeling that one has looking at the Celtics is that they are waiting for the playoffs no less than 20 games. Joe Mazzulla incorporated new players to the rotation, enjoy a dream season by Payton Pritchard, and does not seem to have a team to fear in the first round of playoffs. Hawks are an unknown, because of the discomfort that causes playing against a base like Young and because, in the series of matches against Celtics in regular series, they won two of the three times they faced. Boston, in the playoffs, has experience, the rotation is extensive and has four stars proven in dangerous situations (Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum). Porzingis? Here is your possible Kryptonite. The age of Al Horford, and the solutions that Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta can be insufficient in the paint if Porzingis, accustomed to spend a lot of time in the nursing, is not available one hundred percent in decisive instances. That said, as I said in the past playoffs, I still see the Celtics as fastest favorites to the ring next to the Thunder.
New York Knicks
Kryptonite: The shallow depth that Tom Thibodeau uses
Rival to avoid in the first round: Detroit Pistons
The Knicks do not reach some conference endings since 2000. The arrival of Karl Anthony-Towns and Mikal Bridges gave the team quality, which now waits for the recovery of Jalen Brunson, outside of an ankle injury. Thibs, a defensive specialist by nature, seems not to give the arm to twist in a matter of minutes granted: too many for their titular quintet and little for the second unit. Dangerous? Too much. He has already paid the price of that decision with multiple ailments in the past postseason, and that can be the future kryptonite. Rival to avoid? The Pistons. Not because they are a wrong match, the Knicks continue to have a better choir of players, but for a matter of how to face Detroit that potential crossing: with nothing to lose. In regular series, the Pistons won two of the three clashes with each other and there will be a fourth game on April 10 in Auburn Hills, already a few meters from the playoffs, so it will serve as a real measure of what we can expect in a hot duel between historical franchises.
