I mean it's always nice to play okc, Houston and Portland 3 times in this 10 game set.  I know they still have to win the games but they were the sure fire favorite in each one.  Portland is terrible that was a gimme 3 games.  Would like to see how good Murray could be in a legit playoff series against top competition.  Wish he was a knick..

Lol, yeah, we have seen coach Pop for many years and we doubt that he will just wanted to lose games intentionally and think just like that.

And look at what they have accomplished so far, now they are in the play-in tournament having won 3 straight games.

Brooklyn Nets defeated New York Knicks 110-98. Durant scored 32 points and Irving 24 points and became the two top scorers of the team. When these two players are together, the team can play quite well.
The game went pretty close until the last quarter, but in the final period the Nets players played very well and widened the gap, the New York Knicks could have won this game

The Knicks definitely have a lot of issues of their own but even without their drama they don't have the talent to match up with the Nets.  It was pretty clear they weren't going to win this one.  Durant keeping himself in the run for scoring champion, but after his last game where he scored less than 20, it's looking like Embiid's title to lose.

The big question mark on the Nets to me is Ben Simmons.  If he can come back healthy I think the Nets have a big advantage over other teams.  If not, they're going to have to rely on Durant and hope he can get them to the promise land.  He missed it last year by toenail being on the 3 point line.  He alone could carry the team without Ben and Kyrie, but hopefully he won't have to.

On the contrary, I think Lebron/AD will stay as long as there will be a bug shuffle on the players and even at the coaching staff because this season was really a disaster for them. In the beginning, they are one of the favorites but badluck, injuries and then chemistry issues.

For the other LA team, for sure with Paul George back, they will have a good chance to make it to the playoff again.

Since Coach Nash already told that Simmons will be ruled out for the rest of the season including the playoffs. this will be applied next season. How will Ben fits for the team really is a big question mark for now.

Its a high risk high reward for me. If Ben will fit for the team then they already have another perimeter defender and at the same time passer. Never mind the shooting since it wasn't his strength though I'm not saying that he mustn't improve his shooting skills. On the other hand though if Ben isn't fit for the team, they need to trade him again and well no one would like to get a player who didn't play for a whole season and no shooting skills at all. Well there might be some but his value might get lower.

I'm hoping that next season, Ben, Kyrie and Kevin Durant will be a good trio that can lead the Nets team.

^^ Normal Powell already played against the Suns and scored 24 points. So definitely he is back, what everyone is waiting is for Kawhi Leonard. Because we all know that he is the leader of the Clippers. And their chances increases if he is not injured last year. So another great player that we will anticipate if he can play in the play in or playoff with the Clippers.

If they only have patience to develop their young core before for sure they will not go unto this situation which end up miserable to them. Look what happen to the career of those young star they trade from various teams they are performing so well on their teams and if Lakers just hold them for sure they provably not struggle to find reliable rooster to fit on their system.

Yet another super ugly loss by the Chicago Bulls, I just don’t understand why these guys simply can’t beat any good teams at all. Thankfully they haven’t lost even more games or they’d be in the unfortunate position of having to face off versus either the play-in teams like the Nets might be or fall so far they’d have to face one of the very top teams in the east (Philadelphia 76rs, Milwaukee Bucks etc). I still have little faith they can do anything else other than maybe win one series, no way they can win two.

Lots of criticism on Lebron now that the Lakers are already out in the play-in contention, people reacted when Lebron did not play on a very important game. We all know that he is injured but other greats like Kobe would still choose to play just to help the team, Lebron just sits and is even seen laughing even though his team is on the brink of losing the chance.