West and east nba conference standings11/30/2023 ![]() ![]() Tucker's former team, the Miami Heat, check in fourth despite retaining the bulk of the roster that went to Game 7 of the East finals last season. Sitting at third on our panel's list are the Philadelphia 76ers, who will have a full season of the James Harden-Joel Embiid partnership and welcome defensive stalwart P.J. Boston keeps its core while adding former Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon, and Milwaukee returns to full strength after losing All-Star Khris Middleton in the opening round of the 2022 playoffs. The reigning conference champion Celtics and the 2021 NBA champion Bucks emerge as the clear front-runners, according to ESPN's Summer Forecast panel. Two teams that battled through last season's epic seven-game conference semifinals series check in as the East's favorites to reach the 2023 NBA Finals. Who will win the Eastern Conference finals? Note: Our 2022-23 NBA Summer Forecast will continue Thursday with our predictions for every major award, including MVP and Rookie of the Year. We asked our panel to rank its top three choices for the East, West and NBA champions - with a first-place vote receiving five points, a second-place vote receiving three and a third-place vote receiving one. The Minnesota Timberwolves are all-in after pulling off a blockbuster trade.Īnd what about the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers: Could either drama-filled franchise figure things out and make a run? The Phoenix Suns are running it back after a league-best 64 wins in 2021-22. ![]() ![]() The LA Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks are healthy again. They'll have plenty of challengers: The Boston Celtics are seeking to avenge their NBA Finals defeat after a second-half charge turned them into a juggernaut. Are we predicting back-to-back championships for the Dubs? The Golden State Warriors shocked many around the NBA world - including our panel - by rebooting their dynasty and capturing the 2022 title. NBA, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns, LA Clippers, Brooklyn Nets, Boston Celtics, Dallas MavericksĮSPN's NBA Summer Forecast has revealed which elite teams will finish with the best regular-season records in the Eastern and Western conferences.īut which contenders will rise in the playoffs? NBA projections 2022-23: Our picks for Eastern Conference, Western Conference and NBA champions That shows when games get close they can flip the switch and turn a close game into a blowout rather quickly.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser The Nuggets can flip the switch: While the Nuggets don’t have the best clutch win percentage, they do have the best clutch point differential in the league by an enormous margin - they’re plus-19.5 per 100 possessions in clutch situations, the Nets are next at plus-13.9. The Los Angeles Lakers would climb six spots in the Western Conference standings.Ī historic trajectory: If the Bucks can hold their current win percentage (.786) in close games, they would tie the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns for the best clutch win percentage of any team since the 2015-16 Warriors. The Phoenix Suns would fall five spots in the Western Conference standings. The Denver Nuggets are the lone team from the West to break through.īiggest risers and fallers: The Chicago Bulls would fall five spots in the Eastern Conference standings. The East has been dominant: The top three records in close games and four of the top five belong to the Eastern Conference. San Antonio Spurs - 6-15 (.286) Takeaways from the NBA standings if only close games counted Chicago Bulls - 10-20 (.333) Western Conference standings: Close games onlyġ2. Eastern Conference standings: Close games onlyġ5. It’s one of the reasons clutch performance isn’t a notably reliable predictor of future performance and tends to vary quite a bit from season to season.īut there are some teams who have consistently found an edge there this year and the NBA standings would look pretty different if we only included games that matched the NBA’s definition of clutch scenarios - any game where the scoring margin is within five at any point in the final five minutes. The random variance imbued in small samples, limited minutes and finite possessions can change things dramatically. But things don’t always work out that way. The best teams are, generally, the best teams at winning close games. Case in point - the NBA standings would look very different with only close games. Close games and clutch minutes bring a lot of random chaos. ![]()
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