The Biggest Contenders to Make the NBA Finals
The NBA regular season is well and truly past its halfway point, with each team having played around 50 of their 82 games and the All-Star break rapidly approaching. But despite all of the basketball that’s been played, we’re still a long way from knowing who will appear in the NBA Finals. This season is as close as we’ve seen in years, with at least ten and potentially more sides who could realistically challenge for the title. Let’s take a look at the biggest hopes of making it through to the Finals from both the east and the west.
Eastern Conference
After being the inferior conference for so long, the east is now stacked, boasting the three favourites to win the championship according to major betting websites. Heading that group are last year’s runners-up in the Boston Celtics. Boston have been fantastic from the outset and at the time of writing have the best record in the NBA, led by the ineffable Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown and a very reliable cast of sidekicks. Under new coach Joe Mazzulla, they’re in the top five in both offence and defence, and with this group having gained plenty of post-season experience as a collective last season, they’ll be very tough to beat in 2023.
Arguably their biggest threat is the Milwaukee Bucks, who are looking to add a second championship with this group having won in 2021. Giannis Antetokounmpo will once again play the most significant role in their prospects, but he’ll likely need Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton fit and firing if they’re to do any damage. Middleton, in particular, has had an injury-interrupted season and has rarely been able to get on the court, while Holiday has missed his fair share of games. It’s testament to Antetokounmpo and the likes of Brook Lopez that the Bucks still find themselves in the upper echelons of the east despite those absences, and if they are healthy in the post-season, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
Rounding out the top three is the Brooklyn Nets, who finally appear ready to put together a championship challenge. If they’re healthy – the term they largely referring to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving – they are arguably as dangerous as any side in the league. They are two of the most offensively gifted players in the league history, and with Nicolas Claxton having improved out of sight, Seth Curry coming off the bench, and the much-maligned Ben Simmons playing great defence, Durant and Irving have plenty of support. This team is more than capable of winning the championship and if they have a healthy team, no one will want to play them in the post-season.
Western Conference
Things are looking pretty tight in the west, but leading the charge at this point in the season are the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokić is as irrepressible as ever, the runaway favourite for what would be his third consecutive MVP award and controlling the floor like a puppeteer. And with Jamal Murray back healthy and playing reasonable basketball and Aaron Gordon excelling in the Nuggets system, he’s finally got a squad behind him that can help the Nuggets to contend. Their biggest concern is at the defensive end of the floor where they’re only a mid-tier team, but with ball in hand, they are as good as anyone.
While the Nuggets have been brilliant all year and are comfortably sitting on top of the Western Conference, things haven’t been so rosy for the Golden State Warriors, but they are very capable of pulling things together and making a run for a second straight title. A raft of injuries has made it difficult for them to get the same team on the floor with any consistency, and nearing the 50-game mark they’ve lost as many games as they’ve won. Their talent, however, has not gone anywhere. Steph Curry is as unbelievable as ever, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are not what they once were but are still very, very good players on their day and have championship experience in spades, while Jordan Poole, for all his flaws, continues to develop into an elite offensive threat. They’ve got plenty of time to turn things around and make a run to the Finals.
Finally, to the Memphis Grizzlies. Ever since Ja Morant burst onto the scene they’ve been destined to grow into a threat in the west, and that time appears to have come. They are virtually unbeatable at home – boasting a 20-3 record there at the time of writing – and find themselves second in the east. Morant is more than just a human highlight reel and comfortably deserves to be named among the best players in the league, Desmond Bane is a continually growing back-up who shoots as well as anyone in the league, and as a unit they are the best defensive team in the league. Any team with as much youth as they have will have question marks around their ability to compete in the post-season, but they’ve shown no signs they’ll be overshadowed by big occasions.
As good as the above six teams are, it’s in those that have been omitted that we can truly get a sense of the depth of the league. The sides I’ve had to ignore include: a Clippers side boasting Kawhi Leonard and Paul George; a Phoenix side coming off consecutive top-two finishes in the west; a 76ers side led by Joel Embiid and James Harden; a Cavs team with nearly identical offensive and defensive ratings as the Grizzlies; a Pelicans team with Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram; and Luka Doncić’s Mavs. Even the Lakers, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis at the helm and the potential to make a big trade, can’t get a look in. Making it through to the NBA Finals is never easy, but in 2023, it looks as difficult a prospect as ever before.
