I love making predictions for sporting events/seasons, even if I don’t have the highest success rate. Thank goodness I don’t gamble lol.
The NBA may be my favorite professional sports league overall. I enjoy watching solid basketball and even though you’ll hear many people say the players don’t play defense and college is better to watch, the NBA still has the best basketball players in the world and generally speaking, the teams try to win every game.
With that being said, here are my predictions for the final regular season standings, along with Finals predictions.
*A few revisions were made on November 27
Eastern Conference:
- Nets
- Bucks
- Heat
- Sixers
- Hawks
- Bulls
- Hornets
- Knicks
- Celtics
- Wizards
- Raptors
- Pacers
- Cavs
- Magic
- Pistons
The East was actually much tougher to pick than the West this year because of the strange start to the season. The Wizards and Cavs both seem like they could be solid teams? The Hornets are one of the most exciting teams in the league. The Raptors may be somewhat good again, but who knows about this Celtics team chemistry so far. The Pacers could easily prove me wrong and make the playoffs. I am bullish about the Bulls (hehe), but they have a tougher schedule coming up. The Knicks came out of the gates hot, but they have struggled recently. The Hawks bounced back from a rough start and seem legitimate again. Overall, this conference has too many variables and this prediction could be way off in the end, other than the top four.
The Sixers are doing really well, despite the Ben Simmons drama and COVID keeping players out. The Nets are going to keep picking up wins as long as Durant stays healthy, while the Bucks will naturally start to win games again. The Heat love their tough-guy identity and I think they will replicate a lot of their bubble performance with Jimmy Butler leading the way.
Western Conference:
- Warriors
- Suns
- Jazz
- Lakers
- Nuggets
- Clippers
- Mavs
- Grizzlies
- Trail Blazers
- Kings
- Timberwolves
- Spurs
- Thunder
- Pelicans
- Rockets
The Warriors are back to winning and they don’t even have Thompson and Wiseman playing yet. Steph Curry is electric and likely to win MVP if he stays healthy all season. I watch some highlights and they are legitimately a fun team to watch. I think the Jazz and Suns will win a lot of games again, while the Lakers will fluctuate throughout the season. Jokic can carry a hurt Nuggets team until Murray returns and the same goes for Paul George with the Clippers, waiting until Leonard comes back. Porzingis seems to have lost some of his confidence when you look at his stats and Doncic can only do so much. I think the Grizzlies and Trail Blazers will be battling for that final playoff spot, but this year, Morant wins.
Finals: Warriors vs. Nets
Champion: Warriors in 6
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