By Jason Alwang
Another NBA regular season has reached its end, and with that, we have another year of postseason storylines to watch right before the playoffs begin. This postseason has seen two close races in both conferences for playoff seeding.
The most dominant team in the league this season has been the Boston Celtics. The Celtics have a record of 63-18 with a .778-win percentage and have lost just four games at TD Garden in their home court all season. The Celtics have been the most consistent team in terms of overall scoring and defense. They have a bench that is said by many to be the best in the NBA. The Celtics will have to go up against whoever the 8th seed is, that being the winner of the 9th and 10th seed versus the loser of the 7th and the 8th seed.
However, the Miami Heat is a team that has given Boston trouble in the past. The Heat has a chance to be the eighth seed, meaning they could play the Celtics in the first round. The Heat is a team that people often misjudge because of how they perform in the regular season. It has been seen before that Jimmy Butler and the rest of the Heat always seem to find their groove at playoff time, no matter where they are in the standings. Also, in sports, playoffs are something like no other: unpredictable; you never know what’s going to happen.
The Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Thunder have all been battling for the top seed in the West, and all three have MVP caliber players. Denver’s Nikola Jokic reigned as the league’s MVP in back-to-back years (2021 and 2022), while Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Oklahoma City’s Shai-Gilgeous Alexander are in the running for the award this season.. All three of these players have been the focal points for their team’s success. All three of these teams are going to be a threat for the finals because of their offensive and defensive play. The former MVP Jokic will hope to get to the finals in back-to-back seasons.
Ben Eskin, a sports management major at Western New England University, believes that the Nuggets will indeed get to the finals again while the Celtics prove their dominance and meet them there.
“Being born in Colorado and rooting for the Nuggets my entire life, I have to say they are going to come out of the West. The East is interesting, on paper, Boston is loaded, but they’ve struggled in the postseason in the past.” Eskin continued his stance in the eastern conference. “The Bucks have postseason experience and the Cavs, and the Knicks could make a run as well, I still have to say I think the Celtics are going to make it out of the East.”
While he chose the Celtics to come out of the East, he acknowledged the great runs the Bucks, Cavs, and Knicks have had. The Knicks have had to deal with injuries and still landed a spot at the top of the East, while the Bucks and Cavs stayed steady throughout the season to prove valuable candidates to come out of the East as well.
This year’s NBA postseason is lined up to be unpredictable with the number of teams that have a great opportunity to win this year’s title.
