AROUND the NBA:

[omahen]

Yeah they are.  When Luka is healthy, he typically finishes the season on a bang.   Plays like the best player in the world and makes a late MVP run.   Not sure if he can do enough to win it, but he likes finishing the season hot and going into the playoffs with no one wanting to play him.   

Maybe Omahan can pop on and say who he thinks the best matchup in round 1 is for LAL.   Rockets looked to be sagging, Denver has had some problems and Minnesota has been up and down.    Still though a playoff series is different.  I would guess Denver is probably the team you would least like to see.    Maybe Houston with LAL with homecourt would be the preferable matchup?

West has OKC and SAS that look a bit on a level on their own. Next four teams in Denver, LAL, Houston and Minny are more or less on same level, imho, when they are at their best. The question is, who will be at their best in the playoffs. 

LAL really flipped a switch a dozen or so games ago and they have become very fun to watch. Their effort is a couple of levels higher than before which shows on both ends of the floor. Kennard proved to be a sneaky good TDL trade, as he really contributed a lot to their offensively anemic bench (despite his last two games were not good). I was a huge sceptic of LeBron-Luka-AR combo, they have also flipped the switch here. LeBron started to play completely off ball and he is one of the players who increased his effort the most. While it is great to see them playing much better as we get closer to playoffs, I am scared that they peaked too soon. Hopefully I am wrong.

Houston, Denver and Minny are all in a bit of a slump lately, compared to how they played in other parts of the season. So it gets to the point who will be able to lift his game when they get to playoffs. I think Denver is strongest. Minny is proven and reliably and playing together for a long time. LAL beat them 3 times this season, but I think it was similar in the last one. 

Houston started to show huge problems in half court offense as they almost literally don't have a PG and they are not so convincing on offensive rebounds anymore after Adams injury. Another huge change from first half of the season for them - their 3pt % plummeted and they (now) feature three non shooters in the starting unit (Sengun, Thompson and Eason). Eason shot 46 % from three pre-all star and is at 13 % after it. 3 out of 35 in last 10 games. No idea what happened to him. If they play as they play currently, they would definitely be my pick. But if they can improve their half court offense again and Eason returns to his pre-all star shooting, they can be very good again. They still are extremely athletic and play a very tough defense.