Eastern Conference: update on the race for the 2023 playoffs

There are only three weeks and ten games left before the end of the regular season. In the East as in the West, each match will therefore be worth its weight in gold for the different teams that have not validated their ticket for the playoffs or distanced their pursuers in the standings.

After the Western conference yesterday, place to the inventory in the Eastern conference, where three qualifiers are already known: Milwaukee (52-20), Boston (50-23) and Philadelphia (49-23).

Three franchises that will likely finish on the podium, although the order of that one is yet to be determined, as the Celtics and Sixers are held in less than a game, while the Bucks are not so much either. shelter than that. However, the layoffs of each other should settle everything, while the C’s present a more affordable schedule than Philly…

Intense fight for 6th and 8th place

Behind this unstoppable Top 3, we find Cleveland (47-28), on track to return to the playoffs after five years of absence and to qualify without LeBron James for the first time since… 1998. With the home advantage as a bonus and a seeded status #4, because new York (42-33) is at least dropped, five games later.

On the other hand, the Knicks must monitor the comeback of Miami (40-34), who just took 6th place at brooklyn (39-34). Suffice to say that the fight between the Heat and the Nets promises to be tight until the end, so as not to go through the dreaded play-in of all dangers. In terms of difficulty, their schedules are about equal.

A little further still, in the negative, the race for the Top 8 will undoubtedly animate the last two weeks of competition. For now, it’s Atlanta (36-37) who is holding on in 8th place, but the adversity will increase a notch in the days to come. What to benefit from Toronto (35-38), which is only a short game away, even Chicago (34-38), who will also push to join the Top 8?

The Top 10 already known?

Still, the Hawks, Raptors and Bulls can already be reassured by noting that Indiana (33-40) starts quite far in 11th place. Participating in the play-in will thus be a perilous mission for the Pacers, especially since their schedule will get tougher very soon.

Finally, Washington (32-41) can almost say goodbye to his dreams of play-in and therefore playoffs, because with two and a half games behind the Top 10, the physical glitches of their executives and a neutral calendar, the Wizards risk struggling to close that gap.

Consequently, everything suggests that the ten participants in the playoffs and the play-in are known, but that all that remains is to determine the exact order of the classification on the evening of April 9 (date of the end of the regular season). What is certain is that the posters of the first round promise to be daunting, given the level of this conference where, in the West, the 3rd (Philadelphia) would be leader and the 7th (Brooklyn) would be 4th.

United States estimates

Difficulty of the calendar (according to Tankathon)