NBA
NBA Power Rankings: Now or Never
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
With only about four weeks remaining in the regular season, more and more teams will join the likes of the Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers as teams who have been officially eliminated from postseason contention.
There are others, though, who will be fighting until the bitter end to secure their place in the title chase.
Out East, there are five teams still fighting for the final two playoff seeds and they are separated by a mere 3.5 games. Out West, it’s even more dramatic, with Serga Ibaka’s recent knee injury and Anthony Davis’ continued inspired play making the race for eighth quite exciting. Although it looks like the eighth seed will come down to the Thunder and Pelicans, the second through seventh seed remain separated by just 4.5 games.
The most appropriate term to describe the playoff race out West would be “traffic jam” and will ensure a fair amount of drama as the season winds down.
As for drama, Blake Griffin’s return will soon be followed by Dwight Howard and Kevin Durant out West while Derrick Rose hopes to help propel the Chicago Bulls upon his return to action.
There is still a lot to be decided between now and the final day of the regular season, but one thing that is decided is how the teams stack up after 20 weeks worth of regular season play.
