This is my first post of the new year and it comes with big news, the Atlanta Hawks surpassed the Toronto Raptors to get to first place in the Eastern Conference standings, with a 25-8 record beating Toronto's 24-9. The Hawks are very good this season but still haven't proven their total strength and are not a huge title threat yet because Chicago is very deep, and Toronto is lethal if you give them some chances. The Wizards are on a 3 game losing skid and were surpassed by the Bulls as they slide down to fourth place and the Bulls rise to third. ESPN was saying that the Bulls are the best team and I agree, mostly because I am a Bulls fan, but my other site, BleacherReport ranked them at 8, while they are on a two game win streak. After Washington comes Cleveland who have suffered a major casualty with LeBron being out for two weeks with injuries, they have lost 3 out of their last 4 and people are giving serious thought on them not being a title contender anymore. After Cleveland there is Milwaukee who have already won more games than they did for the whole season last year, even though they have been suffering through some injuries they are still on pace for making the Playoffs with Knight, Sanders, Antetokounmpo, and Ilyasova. The 7th and 8th seeds go to struggling Nets and Heat teams, who are thought as 'bad' teams compared to the top-6 other teams in the East and almost every team in the West.
The West are lead by the Warriors who have the remarkable Steph Curry, and the continually improving Draymond Green who notched a Triple-Double recently. After them come the Portland Trailblazers who are BleacherReport's number one team and they have a high scoring Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge who will most likely pick up pace come playoffs. Then comes Memphis who wants to keep pushing with the great effort Marc Gasol is putting in, a great MVP effort. Dallas follows after with Rajon Rondo adding to a team which needed someone like him to further push them as a playoff contender in the extremely tough Western Conference. Houston and the LA Clippers follow, both teams however are becoming to notice how hard it is to be a good Western Conference team in arguably the toughest conference ever, Houston might be a threat but the Clippers must be a better team come playoffs and they will probably start becoming more dangerous then. San Antonio is struggling without Kawhi Leonard who is still 'weeks away' from a return apparently. Phoenix is hanging in there with the 8th seed but are closely being hunted down by the Oklahoma City Thunder who have an on-fire Westbrook and also have a Kevin Durant which is still dropping big numbers after injury. I think they will beat a team that will slide out of the Western Playoffs, but that is still so far away. The two worst Teams are still in the East, the Sixers and the Knicks take that award (the award may be shaped like a triangle to make some Knicks fans mad on what Phil Jackson is trying to do). Hang in there Derek Fisher, your team will eventually get better. The Sixers however are on a losing skid of 5 but will find a way to win at least 10 for their total by the end of the regular season.
--KSP--
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