With six wins ahead of the Warriors, the Suns seem on track to finish in first place in the West (even if the absence of Chris Paul could reshuffle the cards…). To the east is the construction site. Bulls and Heat are leading with the same record (39 wins – 21 losses) but Sixers (36-23), Bucks (36-24), Cavs (35-24) or even the Celtics (35-26) are likely to go back up.
” I feel like if you lose a game you go from third place to fifth place, summarizes Bobby Portiswhose team briefly held 6th place in late January. If you win two matches, you go from fifth to second. We just try to string together four or five good games with the hope of getting in a good position and being where we want to be. “
Namely at the top of the table to have the advantage of the field at least for the first round of the playoffs, even if the first place obviously offers no guarantee of going to the end. The Bucks are in a good position to know that. In 2019 then 2020, they finished with the best record in the league without managing to invite themselves to the NBA finals.
Last year’s title came after finishing with “only” the third-best record in the East. ” We are in a good situationjudged Giannis Antetokounmpo during the “All-Star weekend”. We must continue to build our cohesion and adopt good habits. Each year, five or six teams have a chance of winning the title. As long as you’re part of it, that’s all you can ask for.“
Avoid “play-in”
At the start of the last playoffs, the 76ers, Nets and Bucks seemed to stand out from the rest of the conference. This season, these three teams are again natural candidates for the Finals, to which we must undoubtedly at least add the Heat and the Bulls.
” I’ve never seen such a tight playoff race, top to bottomobserves Khris Middleton. No one really wants to end up in this ‘play-in’. We can expect all teams to be in playoff mode from now on, if it hasn’t started before the ‘All-Star break’. We all know what’s at stake.“
The full-back considers that the Bucks cannot afford to drop matches they are supposed to win. ” Or to chain a series of defeats. From now on, we just have to play our best basketball and pretend it’s the playoffs now, because it’s really close.“
First step next night with the reception of the Nets, before continuing against other ambitious teams from the East (Hornets, Heat and Bulls).
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 49 | 32.7 | 54.7 | 30.9 | 72.1 | 1.9 | 9.3 | 11.2 | 6.0 | 3.3 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 3.2 | 29.4 |
| Khris Middleton | 48 | 32.1 | 43.8 | 35.6 | 88.4 | 0.6 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 19.4 |
| Jrue Holiday | 47 | 33.0 | 50.7 | 40.7 | 75.9 | 1.0 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 6.6 | 2.7 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 18.1 |
| Bobby Portis | 51 | 28.8 | 48.2 | 40.2 | 75.5 | 2.6 | 6.5 | 9.1 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 15.3 |
| Grayson Allen | 49 | 28.0 | 42.5 | 39.2 | 85.7 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 11.5 |
| Pat Connaughton | 54 | 27.0 | 46.7 | 40.7 | 81.1 | 0.7 | 3.7 | 4.4 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 10.1 |
| Demarcus Cousins | 17 | 16.9 | 46.6 | 27.1 | 81.6 | 1.4 | 4.4 | 5.8 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 9.1 |
| Jordan Nwora | 46 | 19.7 | 41.0 | 36.8 | 78.3 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 8.3 |
| Brook Lopez | 1 | 28.2 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 8.0 |
| Donte Divincenzo | 17 | 20.1 | 33.1 | 28.4 | 85.2 | 1.1 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 7.2 |
| george hill | 41 | 25.5 | 43.6 | 31.6 | 96.0 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 7.0 |
| Serge Ibaka | 3 | 26.2 | 47.1 | 28.6 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 5.7 | 6.0 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 3.3 | 6.7 |
| Greg Monroe | 5 | 13.9 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 55.6 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 4.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 5.4 |
| Wesley Matthews | 30 | 19.2 | 40.6 | 34.0 | 60.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 4.9 |
| Lindell Wigginton | 10 | 10.5 | 53.8 | 53.8 | 69.2 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 4.4 |
| Rodney Hood | 39 | 14.9 | 35.1 | 30.0 | 92.9 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 3.3 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 34 | 9.3 | 45.9 | 38.5 | 75.0 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 3.0 |
| Semi Ojeleye | 20 | 15.4 | 25.7 | 26.8 | 76.9 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 2.9 |
| justin robinson | 17 | 11.6 | 31.6 | 27.0 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.8 |
| Thanasis Antetokounmpo | 37 | 9.7 | 47.7 | 9.1 | 62.5 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 2.6 |
| Ja’vonte Smart | 13 | 12.3 | 25.6 | 22.2 | 83.3 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.4 |
| Georgios Kalaitzakis | 9 | 5.3 | 45.5 | 50.0 | 44.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.8 |
| Langston Galloway | 3 | 16.2 | 7.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Javin Delaurier | 1 | 2.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
| Luke Kornet | 1 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
| Jeff Dowtin | 1 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
