How to care about the NBA before the playoffs

With about ten regular season games remaining for each team, everyone’s hanging out for the playoffs. So to keep fans engaged, we’ve collated the most interesting storylines that remain in a season almost complete.

Wish for some Magic

The eight teams in each conference that will make the playoffs are just about decided, except one team: the Orlando Magic.

Asking the NBA community to care about the Magic is comedic in many ways. We must start here though, because they’re the only team with a realistic chance of making the playoffs. And while the Sacramento Kings are far more exciting, they now sit eight games back from the playoffs in the west and stand little chance of sneaking in.

The Magic are only one and a half games back in the East. They also have an easy schedule compared to the teams that sit above them.

Their chances will depend on Nikola Vucevic. He is their star centre who can make things happen on both ends of the floor.

For the most part though, this team has a flat hierarchy. Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier, and Jonathan Isaac all have equal roles to play in this team’s success.

Make sense of the Wild West

As is tradition, the Western conference seedings from three to eight are a nightmare to predict. One minute the Oklahoma City Thunder are the biggest threat to the Warriors in the conference, and the next they’re the eighth seed looking like first round fodder.

Of course, in any playoff race, gaining the third seed is infinitely better than the eighth, but avoiding the Warriors raises the stakes even higher. Right now the Rockets sit in third, and if they hold their place, their chances of making the conference finals look good considering they won’t see the Warriors before then.

If you’re the Thunder, Jazz, Spurs, Trail Blazers, or Clippers, you’re in playoff mode right now, to avoid the seventh or eighth seeds in case you might meet the Warriors in round one. That means any games featuring those teams will be entertaining. The Thunder v Raptors on Thursday was evidence of that.

Cheer on the Underdog

The Warriors currently sit first in the Western Conference. But the Nuggets are only a game behind in second place. The Rockets are a less imminent threat sitting four and a half games back from the first seed.

Everyone aside from Warriors fans should be cheering on the Nuggets and the Rockets to leapfrog the defending champs. The Nuggets are 30-6 at home, and if they did face the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, having an extra home game in that series would drastically increase their winning odds (as slim as they may be).

The Nuggets have won five straight, and boast one of the most exciting teams led by Nikola Jokic, essentially a point guard in a frumpy centre’s body. What’s more exciting than watching professional athletes who look your neighbour hit awkward but satisfying off-balance jumpers on one foot?

The East is settled aside from the Magic. The Western seedings will continue to change until the last regular season game.