NBA Update - Fatal Flaws #1 3/12

                        We are one month away from the play-in tournament and what a final month of the regular season we are in store for. From the race to avoid the play-in tournament in both conferences to the jockeying for the one seed in the western conference, the final stretch is going to be something special. In the eastern conference the only seed that is really determined at this moment is the #1 seed because the Celtics have been playing so well. In the Western Conference, it feels like there are four different teams that could reach the finals. This week, I get into what my top-five contenders for the Larry O’Brien trophy’s fatal flaws are.

My Top Five Contenders:

1) Boston Celtics – Fatal Flaw: Finishing Games. Prior to last Tuesday this was a team who had won eleven in a row including two by more than a fifty-point margin. After last Thursday, the Celtics had lost two in a row for the first time all season. The reason for their success is the core duo in Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum that Boston’s front office has supplied with the weapons to attain a ring. Now last week we got a look at some of this team’s weaknesses which aren’t many but still there.

The first weakness is closing games because they blew a big lead against Cleveland and had many costly errors late against Denver. Their fatal flaw though is their bench because against the Nuggets their entire bench scored ten points total. They have the third worst bench in terms of production in the entire league and that can become costly in the playoffs when you have players who haven’t been the most reliable in the big moments.

2) Oklahoma City: Fatal Flaw: Youth – This isn’t about Josh Giddey I promise although it seems to be his weakness when it comes to women. On a more serious note, though, the Thunder are the best team in the western conference right now and recently have looked like a true threat to go to the finals. This is a team that has not been to the playoffs since 2020 but their future is so bright. It has been so bright for years but now we are starting to see the process come to fruition. The Thunder still have a ridiculous number of picks in the draft for years to come.

The Thunder not making the playoffs last year puts them at a clear disadvantage due to inexperience in the playoffs. Watching this team play basketball, you would not be able to tell that they are the youngest team in basketball. They have ten wins and two losses in their last twelve games which is beyond impressive because it includes wins against the LA Clippers and the Pheonix Suns. I will say though this team relies too heavily on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, although he is one of the frontrunners to win the MVP race. This team can get more production from Jaylin Williams and Chet Holmgren (who have been holding their own) they will have the depth to really make a run this spring.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers – Fatal Flaw: Physicality – To be abundantly clear, this is a team who could quite well get to the eastern conference finals and has seen major improvement from last year. In all honesty, I thought that the Cavs last year would be doing what the Thunder are doing this year. That is contrary to the point though, these Cleveland Cavs have not been playing as well as they have earlier in the year due to injuries to Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell. This team came back down twenty-two points with nine minutes to go against the Celtics and got a gutsy victory over the Timberwolves last Friday.

Since last Friday night, the Cavs have lost three in a row although I believe when they get healthy, they will be able to find their rhythm again. As to the Cavaliers’ weakness, physicality is something that has been lacking for the past two seasons. The way they lost to the Knicks in last year’s postseason was through just being outworked in every aspect of the game. Recently this team has stepped up their physicality, but I worry that if they see the Sixers in the first round they will again be outplayed physically.

4. Denver Nuggets: Fatal Flaw: Dependency –Everything runs through Nikola Jokic on this team. Is he the best player in the league? Absolutely, but the problem you run into with the Nuggets is when he is not on the floor what happens. They are fifth worst in the league in points scored off the bench and do not have the depth they had last season that carried them to an NBA Finals appearance. Last season, Jeff Green and Bruce Brown were quite valuable as role players to this team who now seems to be like the Thunder teams of old with a top-heavy team without a dependable bench.

Last night the Nuggets came back from down twenty points in the third quarter in a game I was ready to knock the Nuggets heavily for losing. I say all this to say this is a team who is still the favorite to win the Western Conference, but how far they go is solely dependent on how Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are supported. Winning a championship last year will help their confidence going into the playoffs, but they must get valuable minutes out of players like Christian Braun and Reggie Jackson who can be relied upon.

5. Milwaukee Bucks – Fatal Flaw: Consistency – The Milwaukee Bucks went from losing seven out of ten games to winning the following seven games. They fired their coach Adrian Griffin despite the Bucks having just thirteen losses on the season at the time of his firing. To make matters worse for the Bucks after they hired Doc Rivers, they went on that ten-game skid. They have been better recently but lost last week to a poor Warriors squad by thirty-five points in a game where Giannis Antetokounmpo played.

Giannis has been dealing with some injuries recently which makes me cut Doc Rivers’ Bucks some slack, but as we near the postseason the Bucks must turn the page. Milwaukee signed Damian Lillard who has done all they have asked of him in the offseason to try to win a championship now. If Damian Lillard is going to win a ring in his career the Bucks are going to have to start playing with some sense of urgency. The Bucks are way over the cap limit for the next season which means they are going to lose some key pieces to their roster and that will result in a loss of

Team of the week: Lakers – The Lakers are a fun team to watch right now. They are quite possibly my favorite team to watch, even over the Thunder. Last Friday, the Lakers played against the Bucks without Lebron and still managed to get the win thanks to a forty-four-point performance from Deangelo Russell. Last night, the Lakers beat the Timberwolves due to an incredible showing from Anthony Davis who had twenty-five rebounds and twenty-seven points.

The Lakers have won five of their last seven games and after their all-important game against the Sacramento Kings their schedule gets a whole lot easier. The Lakers currently sit at ninth in the western conference but just two games back of the Suns in the all-important race for a first-round playoff bye. The Lakers game against the Kings on Wednesday could draw them even closer to that coveted sixth seed given the consistency they are developing. This is a team that has grown a hell of a lot since last year and has players outside of Lebron and Anthony Davis that can step up. Like the Celtics and Nuggets, they have issues with their bench but with Christian Wood nearing a return, the Lakers will be able to be less reliant on Anthony Davis.

Player of the week: Jarett Allen – What Jarrett Allen has done for the Cavaliers is nothing short of amazing. Last week, the Cavs would not have beaten the Timberwolves without any of his major contributions, as he scored thirty-three points and attained nineteen rebounds. In addition, he has had at least twelve rebounds in four of his last six games. The duo the Cavs have with Allen and Garland is potent and the depth the Cavs have is thanks to the consistency Jarett Allen shows. Earlier in this article, I spoke on the Cavaliers not being as physical as they could be, but they are making progress in large part due to Allen’s contributions. He is sixth in field goal percentage in the league and ninth in rebounds, and the reliability the Cavaliers can have in him is the reason he is my player of the week.

B's Two Things to Watch:

1. Minnesota vs. LAC – Both of these teams have struggled to keep players healthy for much of this season. Two of the Timberwolves’ best players, Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony-Towns have been injured as have the Clippers’ best two players who are Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. With the Pelicans catching steam and setting the league on fire, there is a decent chance these two teams play each other in the first round of the playoffs. All that separates these teams is two games and with that comes pressure to avoid having to go on the road in the first round. This game is pivotal in the final push for positioning for the playoffs given how tight the west is.

2. Knicks Health – The Knicks have been battling injuries for what seems like all season long but for the past month they have been without their three big men who are OG Anunoby, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson. All three are getting closer to their return as they should be back before the playoffs, but Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle’s exact timeline are uncertain. OG Anunoby will comeback tonight against the Sixers and it could not come at a better time for New York as they are fighting for a higher seed. They currently sit four games back of the Bucks who hold second place but have shown true signs of inconsistency as of late.