By: William Burns
Out here in the East, there are some better records than what the West has, but the field also isn’t as talented. Milwaukee and Toronto lead the pack in the Eastern Conference, and they are ahead of eighth place Charlotte by 10 and a half games. That’s five more games than what separates the Western Conference’s top eight teams. You always hear that the West is so much better than the East and yes, overall for the entire conference the West would be better. However, any team in the top five in the East is just as good as any top five team in the West.
The Greek Freak gets the show started at No. 1 with his team, the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks have an outstanding record of 29 wins and 11 losses and have the best winning percentage in the NBA. They are juggernauts at home posting a record of 19 wins and only four losses while also stealing a few on the road with 10 wins and seven losses. The Bucks seem to have no problem offensively and have the highest average points per game of any team in the East. They also have the best point differential at nine and a half points per game. They are currently duking out the No. 1 spot in the East with the newly rejuvenated Toronto Raptors. Whether or not the Bucks get the one or the two seed for the playoffs, they will go very deep.
The Toronto Raptors have the most wins in the NBA with 31 and also carry one more loss than Milwaukee with 12. At the beginning of the season, it was unsure if Kawhi Leonard was going to mesh well with the Raptors’ team or if he was only going to make things difficult. Leonard meshed well enough to get the Raptors to the best team in basketball, and it still seems like him and fellow guard Kyle Lowry aren’t always on the same page. But don’t take my word for it, look at the 16 and six record the Raptors have posted while both Leonard and Lowry both play. Once everyone has settled into their role, this team will be tough to beat and will make it deep into the playoffs.
The Indiana Pacers round off the top three in the East with a record of 27 wins and 14 losses which puts them at three games behind a battle of heavyweights that they will never catch up too. Indiana is great whether they play home, away, divisional games or in the conference, however, catching up to the Bucks and the Raptors, who aren’t slowing down at all, seems like a fruitless battle. Star guard Victor Oladipo isn’t living up to his last season and is averaging just under 20 points a game. The team does better when he scores less, however, as he averages 19 points in Pacer wins, and 21.7 points in Pacer losses. His rebounds and assists are higher in the teams wins.
The Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers are just a half-game behind Indiana with the same number of wins and only one more loss. Philly has been unstoppable at home posting a record of 18 wins and three losses while losing it all on the road with a record of nine wins and 12 losses. The addition of Jimmy Butler seemed alright at first; he did hit a couple of game-winning three-pointers, but does he really fit in there? There is no reason that Embiid, Simmons and Butler cannot carry the team, but Butler doesn’t seem comfortable and has voiced displeasure multiple times. Will Philly try to work it out with their recently acquired star, or will they flip him at the first chance they get?
The Boston Celtics have a strong squad, as per usual, and are traveling through the season at the middle of the pack, with a record of 25 and 15. At only four and a half games out of first, they could definitely make up some ground quickly if anyone faltered. They also half the second-best point differential in the East and are seven and three over their last 10 games. In December the Celtics called a team meeting and All-Star guard Kyrie Irving said members of the team got to address issues and take care of some business. Whatever happened at that meeting worked since the Celtics have won seven of their nine games since. This team is solid and has a lot of potential once they reach the playoffs. If all these players can get in their bags by the postseason, then they can give any team out there a run for their money.
The rest of the Eastern Conference top eight consists of the Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat and Charlette Hornets, who are all 10 or more games out of first place, and six games behind the team above them, Boston. These teams are all under a .500 record and quite possibly could reach the playoffs like that, but they would not make it past the first round. The Miami Heat do have Hassan Whiteside who averages a double-double, and D-Wade, former superstar, but they don’t have a consistent enough team to get the job done. They have some flashes of good plays and great teamwork, and those are fun to watch, but flashes don’t win you any games. Charlotte has had some good games as well, but Kemba Walker struggles occasionally, and Frank Kaminsky has poor confidence which leads to a lot of missed opportunity and lost games. This team is just unable to get it all together, and that’s why they are under .500 this season.
The Eastern Conference has been like this before. There are four to five good teams, and then some average teams round out the bottom of the playoffs. This year though, I think the East will bully the team from the West in the playoffs, and I think the team to win it all will be Milwaukee.
