With the NBA All-Star break just a week away, many surprises have surfaced in the conference standings.
Any couch potato could have predicted the Boston Celtics would be on top of the Eastern Conference and the Los Angeles Lakers would have the lead in the West. However, there was no way anyone could have predicted the teams competing for a playoff spot in the East.
Let's wind the clocks back to the end of the 2007-2008 regular season. The Miami Heat finished dead last in the Eastern Conference with the lowly New York Knicks and dismal Milwaukee Bucks only a few games ahead. The Atlanta Hawks barely snuck into the eighth playoff spot with a losing record while the Washington Wizards claimed the fifth spot, just ahead of the Toronto Raptors who claimed the No. 6 seed.
What a difference a year can make. It is one of the biggest clichés in sports but there is no other way to describe such a turnaround. On Wednesday, the Atlanta Hawks claimed the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and would have home court advantage if the season were to end today. Just behind them and having finally jumped out of the basement of the East are the Miami Heat. The addition of Michael Beasley has given Dwayne Wade a true big man presence while Shawn Marion is keeping more pressure off of the superstar.
Meanwhile, and seemingly without notice the New York Knicks, that's right, those Knicks, are creeping ever so close to the 8th and final playoff spot. As of Wednesday, the Knicks were just a game and a half behind the Milwaukee Bucks. And no, that is not a typo. The Michael Redd-less Milwaukee Bucks would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. The race between these two teams will be a fantastic story to watch throughout the second half of the season as both teams push to make an incredible leap from the league's most mocked teams to a playoff appearance.
The enormous success of these surprise teams has also led to extreme disappointment from the most promising teams. With the addition of Jermaine O'Neal in the off-season, the Toronto Raptors had high hopes of obtaining not only a playoff spot, but home court advantage during the playoffs. However, O'Neal has underachieved along with everyone else on the Raptor roster as the team now sits in 14th place at 19-31.
As poorly as the Raptors have played, it's the local Washington Wizards that have missed on all cylinders. Finishing just two games away from a home playoff game last season, the Wizards have suffered key injuries and terrible coaching leading them to dead last in the Eastern Conference. At 10-38, the Wizards have already fired head coach Eddie Jordan and hired, former AU men's basketball coach, Ed Tapscott on an interim basis. With early injuries to former All-star Gilbert Arenas and center Brandon Haywood, the Wizards started slowly and due to recent injuries to DeShawn Stevenson and Andray Blatche the future looks bleak.
The Western Conference has few surprises but a few key disappointments that leave only nine teams with a reasonable chance for a playoff spot.
The Golden State Warriors have vastly underachieved. Since ending last season 14 games above .500, the Warriors have nothing but slumped. The loss of superstar Baron Davis has destroyed the leadership and centerpiece that had kept the team in place for two great years. The Warriors were 15-34 and 12.5 games out of the final playoff spot going into Wednesday night.
Another disappointment has been the Los Angeles Clippers who since acquiring Baron Davis from the Warriors had high hopes of a playoff run. However, since injuries to Davis and other key players, the Clippers are now 10-38 and in last place in the West.
Through the halfway point in the 2008-2009 NBA season, the action has been nothing but thrilling. The Cavaliers are 23-0 at home. Kobe Bryant broke a Madison Square Garden record with 61 points against the Knicks Feb. 2. All-star Chauncey Billups was traded for All-star Allen Iverson. If this excitement can continue into the second-half of the season, then this season will be nothing short of historic.
You can reach this writer at sports@theeagleonline.com.
