Who has an answer for that?Apparently no one. They finally have their preferred frontcourt intact with Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back from lengthy injuries. The very earliest returns were promising.Already at the bottom of the league, the Warriors lost talent at the deadline. These will be ordered based on our assigned championship odds. But at least that part of their equation is rock-solid. But this was a 53-win conference finalist just last season, and it's never received better production from Lillard (28.9 points, 7.8 assists and 3.9 three-pointers per game).This might be an undersell of the Thunder's championship chances.
That first victory got them to 35-15, theConfirming the theory that L.A. doesn't get up for every opponent, the Clips are 10-3 in their last 13 games, with those losses coming against Atlanta, Sacramento and Minnesota.The Lakers' asset pool is shallower than the Clippers', which is largely why Marcus Morris Sr. won't be wearing purple and gold the rest of this season. Though the Blazers were on the second night of a back-to-back set and were fading in the third and fourth quarters, The violation went uncalled, and the Blazers lost. Beasley (ninth) and Hernangomez (12th) didn't rank high on the list of total minutes logged for the Nuggets this season, so their absences won't be all that hard to cover.Jordan McRae and Keita Bates-Diop, who'll effectively replace Beasley and Hernangomez, might even represent upgrades in their limited roles.
But this is basically a .500 team since the New Year, and depending on how the lineups are assembled, it's liable to stumble at either end of the floor.The Nuggets have few certainties outside of All-Star center Nikola Jokic. No more tune-up scrimmages. Those are the potentially problematic ones.Jokic will give Denver a chance in any series, but he needs a full-fledged co-star. They can overload the defense (Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder, Derrick Jones Jr.), but the spacing gets compromised.Between head coach Erik Spoelstra and a team-wide commitment to nonstop hustle, the Heat might have the intangibles to make a deep playoff run. But if there's a sub-Giannis tier of the MVP discussion, Nikola Jokic may be moving toward the top of it.Denver moved on from Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez at the deadline, prizing the first-round pick it got more highly than the looming offseason decisions it faced on both players' restricted free agencies. Indiana hit a franchise-record 19 threes against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday but wasn't up to matching the Raptors' late-game spike in defensive intensity, ultimately surrendering an 11-0 run in the final 2:27 and falling 119-118 on The Pacers have to hope that loss wasn't a metaphor for their place in the East: admirably competitive but ultimately unready for the biggest moments against the best competition.Victor Oladipo is only shooting 28.1 percent from the field and 21.2 percent from deep in five games since returning from a year-long absence, but he's finding non-scoring ways to make a difference. No one player can elevate to that degree, so it instead falls on Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson, Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles to collectively lift their games. His skills as a roll man fit brilliantly with Trae Young, though John Collins will now have to prove he can space the floor reliably at the 4.Marcus Morris Sr. is gone, and the only surprise there is that he was the only one of the Knicks' bevy of offseason signees to leave at the deadline. For now, it'll have to settle for another small move up our rankings.As long as Giannis Antetokounmpo is around, talk of others nosing their way into the MVP race will always be a little pointless. Terence Davis picked up the slack after Lowry left, attacking with confidence and scoring 11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter of that 115-106 win.On Saturday, Fred VanVleet was the one covering for Lowry's absence, scoring a team-high 29 points. Its hold on that No. It's not close. But normal rules don't apply to him. The soon-to-be three-time scoring champ should've been rusty given the four-month layoff and the fact that he entered the bubble nearly a week after his teammates.
Andrew Wiggins, the high-priced return in the Russell deal, has a lot of slack to pick up.He looked good in his Golden State debut, scoring 24 points on only 12 shots, finishing through contact at the rim and playing solid one-on-one defense when matched up against Wiggins is supposed to fill a role that'll look a lot like the one Harrison Barnes vacated in 2016. The tradeoff of shooting for versatility, defense and playmaking might be a net positive, but Miami's strong season to this point owes largely to theThe Heat's defense was all over the place this past week. The 7-footer either keeps creeping closer to being unguardable or is already there. It seems like the Cavs' ceiling with Drummond is the "occasionally half-decent" level Detroit has occupied for the last several seasons, but that looks pretty good when you've lost six in a row and sit at 13-40 for the year.Oh, and no, I'm sorry, but you'll never convince me Cedi Osman Charlotte beat the New York Knicks back on Jan. 28. But two of the team's more prominent players have playoff questions to answer. scorers at the deadline, plus Omari Spellman and Jacob Evans, both of whom had spent time in the rotation this season.
More importantly, they have a fully fired-up "Anything can happen right now," Lillard told The Athletic's Portland's playoff stint could be brief since it can't pluck a lockdown wing defender out of thin air. That said, it's somehow easier to be optimistic about the Pistons' future in light of their wise decision to move off Drummond and the potential of Wood and rookie Sekou Doumbouya.The Bulls couldn't even enjoy the 15 points Adam Mokoka scored in just over five minutes of Thursday's 125-119 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. At least Deandre Ayton is showing increasingly frequent flashes.
"I wouldn't put anything past them," an Eastern Conference scout told B/R's Toronto has a genius-level basketball IQ, a deep roster that competes on both ends and the versatility to form a lineup for virtually any situation.