The playoff push in the National Basketball Association is heating up, and it’s getting hard to tell which team is the best. This is a rarity for the league, where the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics usually dominate, and might lead to an exciting postseason this year. The Lakers are two-time defending champs, but were being pronounced dead when they went on a prolonged slump earlier. They have been the hottest team in the NBA since the all star break, however, and it appears the cream may be rising back to the top now. I would rate them as favorites to win the Western Conference playoffs and advance to the Finals. The favorite should be the San Antonio Spurs, who have the league’s best record and a championship pedigree, but they have been disappointing when it comes to matchups with the league’s other top clubs, most notably the Lakers and Celtics. The Western Conference is loaded with teams that are regular season tigers but postseason pussy cats. Dallas, Portland, New Orleans, Memphis, Phoenix, Utah and Houston all have winning records and good players, but all have been playoff failures in recent years. Denver gave away any chance of playoff success when they traded Carmelo Anthony. The one team in the West that intrigues me is Oklahoma City. The Thunder are a young team, led by one of the NBA’s brightest young stars, Kevin Durant. Russell Westbrook complements Durant well, and they gave the Lakers a tough playoff test last year. The Thunder may have pulled themselves closer to L.A. when they acquired center Kendrick Perkins from Boston at the trade deadline. Perkins is a tough, physical player who could be the difference if the 2 teams meet again this year. He is recovering slowly from a serious injury suffered in last year’s Finals, and his health will be the major factor as to whether the Thunder can challenge the Lakers.
In the East, Boston still appears to be the strongest team, although not having Perkins will hurt them. Orlando is a perennial contender and has Dwight Howard, the league’s top big man, so they are always a threat. The New York Knicks, a laughingstock for years, are poised to make the playoffs for the first time in what seems like forever, and their acquisition of Carmelo from Denver makes them a team to consider, if they can jell into a unit in time. The Atlanta Hawks are an exciting young team, but like all those Western teams, never seem to do well in postseason. Despite all the ballyhoo of Lebron James “taking his talents to South Beach” , joining Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch to form the “Big Three”, the Miami Heat are not serious championship contenders. The Heat have an impressive won-loss record but haven’t won a close game all year and none of the “Big Three” have shown that they can make a clutch shot at a crucial time. They also have no inside game to speak of and will be eaten alive physically by almost all of the other Eastern playoff teams. The sleeper in the East, and possibly the biggest threat to dethrone the Celtics as East champs, are the Chicago Bulls. They have all the weapons – a young star in Derrick Rose and plenty of impressive front court talent in Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng. In any case, I’m looking forward to the NBA playoffs this year, as it appears the race is wide open, and could shape up to be a year when a young, rising team breaks through.