Thursday 21 February 2019 09:50, UK
How will the remainder of the NBA regular season unfold? Read our bold predictions then have your say on the storylines raised by voting on each topic.
With LeBron James fit and firing before Christmas, the Los Angeles Lakers looked every inch a playoff team, possibly one capable of seizing homecourt advantage for the first round of the postseason.
Then James suffered a groin injury and missed 17 games (the Lakers lost 11 of them) and the team's botched pursuit of Anthony Davis told the team's young core of Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma that they are utterly expendable.
Who are the Lakers at this point of the season? The team blown out by 42 points in Indiana or the team who produced a dramatic buzzer-beating finish to defeat the Celtics at Boston's TD Garden?
The truth is somewhere in between. It is the tough schedule the 28-29 Lakers face over their final 25 games in which they face 15 match-ups against teams with winning records, that will seal their fate.
In the ultra-competitive Western Conference, the benchmark for making the playoffs is likely to be 45 wins, or close to it. That means the Lakers need 17 more wins. And they still have to play the Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks (twice), Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, city rivals the Clippers (twice), Utah Jazz (twice), Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors.
Even if LeBron is fit enough (and he's not back to 100 per cent yet) to tap into 'playoff mode' for the second time this season, it's tough to see where the Lakers will find those 17 wins. It's a lot to ask of one player, especially one with 1,182 NBA games to his name.
James last missed the playoffs in the 2004/05 season, his second in the league. A postseason without him would feel plain odd, but it's a possibility that is very, very real.
The narrative is sometimes just as important as the actual basketball when it comes to the MVP race and 2019 is turning into Paul George's year.
A horrific leg break suffered while playing for Team USA in the summer of 2014 appeared to have derailed George's ascension to the NBA's very top table, but five years on, somehow, he is playing - much - better than ever.
The 28-year-old is on course to shatter his career-high in points per game as he sits on 28.7 going into the final stretch of the season, five more than he averaged for the Indiana Pacers two years ago.
However, points don't mean everything, otherwise James Harden would already have the prize. George has scored smoothly, efficiently and within the flow of the Oklahoma City Thunder offense, while shedding a reputation for failing to deliver in the clutch by coming up with multiple game-winning plays.
He has done that while leading the NBA with 2.3 steals per game and establishing himself as a contender for the Defensive Player of the Year award, as the Thunder have overcome a slow start to the season to rise to third in the Western Conference standings with a 37-20 record.
Having surprised many by pledging his future to the Thunder with a four-year contract last summer, George has also appeared remarkably patient and supportive as the face of the franchise, Russell Westbrook, has recorded his worst shooting numbers since his rookie season.
George's all-round game, comeback from injury, pledge to a small-market team and burgeoning relationship with Westbrook will all combine to ensure he gets his hands on the NBA's most prestigious individual award.
Philadelphia have too much ground to make up to overall the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors for the top two spots in the East, but their formidable starting five - boosted by the trade deadline acquisition of Tobias Harris - will power them past the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics by the end of the regular season.
The Sixers' new-look starting line-up is already looking like a statistical monster, scoring 116.5 points per 100 possessions and allowing just 91.9 points per 100 possessions across the four games they have played together, per NBA.com/stats. That's a net rating of 24.6! To put that in context, the Milwaukee Bucks lead the league with a net rating of 9.28.
As with Jimmy Butler's immersion into the Sixers' schemes, Harris has arrived in Philly looking to fit in, deferring to Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons when required and providing much-needed late-game shooting when necessary.
There has been no let-up in Embiid's dominant play - he's averaging 27.3 points and 13.5 rebounds per game - and now, thanks to Butler, Harris and JJ Redick, Simmons' inability to shoot from mid-range and beyond is less of an issue than it has been.
The Sixers are fully loaded and dangerous. A deep playoff run beckons once they seal third spot in the East.
Nobody is knocking off the Golden State Warriors from the top of the Western Conference, let alone challenging their dominance as California's No 1 team any time soon, but the young Kings have every chance of finishing the season above both Los Angeles teams and ending their own 13-year postseason drought.
The Kings (30-27) sit ninth in the Western Conference, one place ahead of the Lakers. Their remaining schedule is less tough easier than that of their California rivals.
The Clippers currently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot the Kings covet, but they gave up their best player Tobias Harris at the trade deadline and (because of a prior trade with Memphis, who subsequently traded that future pick to Boston) will keep their first-round pick if they miss out on the postseason. They are certainly not locked into that eighth spot.
Sacramento are a statistical anomaly - they've posted a negative net rating (they score less points per 100 possessions than they concede) in each of the last three months yet ended each of those months with more wins than losses. They keep winning tightly-contested games.
Led by young floor general De'Aaron Fox, they are also a joy to watch. They play at the league's fourth-quickest pace and in Fox, Buddy Hield, Marvin Bagley III, have a trio capable of putting up big totals. The addition of Harrison Barnes at the trade deadline gives them another scorer, one with the size and athleticism to defend All-Star opposing wings like Kevin Durant, Paul George, Khris Middleton and Jimmy Butler, all of whom they will face down the stretch.
The Jazz (32-25) surged up the Western Conference after last season's All-Star break and are primed to do the same in this campaign.
They've already suffered through the toughest parts of their schedule early in the season and their remaining 25 games represent the second easiest run left for any team.
The Jazz's success in the stretch run will depend on their defense, led by center Rudy Gobert, which ranks fourth best in the NBA (105.4 points conceded per 100 possessions) and means, despite their league-average offense, they boast the league's ninth-best net rating (3.0).
Utah have won 12 of their 16 games since January 9 to vault into sixth place in the Western Conference. With games against the lowly New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns (three times), Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls ahead, that position should evolve into a top-four finish, resulting in homecourt advantage in the first round of the postseason.
The NBA regular season resumes in the early hours of Friday morning. You can watch Houston Rockets @ Los Angeles Lakers, live on Sky Sports Arena from 3:30am.
