Sports Time Radio

The NBA is on its All-Star break and last night that break started with the celebrity game and the Rising Stars challenge. Tonight, we’ll get to see the Skills challenge, the 3-point shooting contest and the Slam Dunk contest. Sunday wraps up NBA All-Star weekend as Team Durant takes on Team Lebron. Now I don’t have a lot of interest in these events especially the games themselves, but I will watch some of the festivities tonight. Do you watch NBA All-Star weekend?

With the NBA on about a weeklong break thanks to Lebron James complaining some years ago that the players weren’t given enough time off for the All-Star break we have a chance to look at the standings and see who’s sitting were.

The regular season is about halfway over, and it seems as though Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors are the two best teams in the NBA. Phoenix has the best record in the NBA at 48-10 while Golden State is sitting at 42-17 just a game and a half ahead of the surprising Memphis Grizzlies who are 41-19.

In years past we’d hear about how much better the NBA’s Western conference is then the Eastern conference, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this season as the Eastern conference has six teams within just 4 1/2 games of the conference lead.

In the Eastern conference the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls are tied for 1st place at 38-21. Right behind the Heat and the Bulls you’ll find three teams Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Milwaukee Bucks are just 2 1/2 games back. The 76ers and the Cavaliers are 35-23 while the defending champion Bucks are 36-24. Then it’s the Boston Celtics who find themselves in 6th place in the Eastern conference with a record of 34-26 jut 4 1/2 games out of the top spot.

With all of these teams bunched at the top of the Eastern conference it begs the question. Who’s the best team in the Eastern conference?

What’s funny about that question is the answer you seem to get the most to it is the Brooklyn Nets even though they’re not one of the teams at the top of the standings. Brooklyn is sitting in 8th place in the Eastern conference at 31-28, but everyone I’ve heard talk about them believe that as soon as Kevin Durant returns from his injury that the Nets will rocket up the Eastern conference standings. There has been no announcement on when Durant will be returning to the Nets line-up, but with just a little over 20 regular season games left, how far up the standings can the Nets climb?

As we look at the Eastern conference standings right now, I think that the 76ers are currently the best team in the conference. Joel Embiid should be the league’s MVP and with the addition of James Harden at the trade deadline it should make the 76ers the favorite going into the playoffs, but would it really surprise anybody if they didn’t make it to the NBA finals?

The Heat have been winning games with defense which is something you don’t hear said in the NBA anymore and you have to wonder if their style can carry over into the playoffs, but Miami also has players that can score in Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, so they shouldn’t be counted out.

The Bulls have been a bit of a surprise this season. It was clear that the team was improving, but I don’t think anyone expected them to be doing this well. Don’t forget that almost everybody said that the Bulls made a bad signing adding DeMar DeRozan this past off season. Of course, none of them would admit to saying that now as DeRozan is playing at an MVP level and has carried the Bulls as their other starters like Zach Lavine and Lonzo Ball have missed multiple games with injuries.

The Cavaliers are easily the biggest surprise in the Eastern conference, but here they are. You’ll hear the experts say that this team is too young to make any noise in the post season and that they don’t have the playoff experience that teams need. Maybe that would mean something in the NBA finals, but in the earlier playoff rounds sometimes it helps a team if they’re looked at as not supposing to be there.

Of course, Milwaukee can’t be counted out and it seems as though the Bucks don’t get very much credit for actually winning the NBA title last season. The Bucks still have one of if not the best player in the NBA on their roster in Giannis Antetokounmpo and having him could mean a lot come playoff time. Of course, Antetokounmpo will need help from the likes of Kris Middleton and others on the Bucks roster to repeat.

Now, I think in some people’s eyes the Celtics should’ve won multiple NBA title with the roster they had built under then General Manager Danny Ainge. Well, that never came to fruition and Ainge has now moved on. It’s still a little unclear who the Celtics are, and I think most people think that they’ll flame out in the playoffs like they have for so many years now, but is it possible this is the year that they finally put it all together?

I’m going to go with the 76ers to come out of the Eastern conference when it’s all said and done. Philadelphia has the best tandem of players with Embiid and Harden and while everyone talks about having three top players, I think Embiid, and Harden together can be good enough to get the 76ers to the NBA finals.

As always, I’m turning it over to you. Who do you think will end up winning the NBA’s tightly packed Eastern conference? Do you like one of the teams that are currently in the top six of the conference? Or are you on board with a lot of the mainstream media believing that the Nets will put everything together and end up winning the conference?

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You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime if you want to look me up.