Post All-Star Break Top Stories

[IamQuailman]

With All-Star Weekend freshly in the league's rearview mirror, the sprint to post-season is upon us. Every race has it's frontrunners, middle of the pack, and those people getting scooped up by the truck because they are stragglers. SLOE is no different.

King of the Hill
The West is pretty much set at Seeds 1 and 2, with the Kings and Nuggets showing no signs of letting up on the pursuit of top of the conference. After making a risky trade sending Blake Griffin East for the 3-time DPOY Deandre Jordan, the Nuggets taken the reigns on the #1 seed. However, the Kings, led by freshly minted all-star Jeffery Duren and Scoring Guard extraordinaire Kyrie Irving, aren't going to stand by and watch this happen. Sacramento is 1 game back of the Nuggets, and both teams have almost identical point differential (10.1 vs 10.4). This race will be tight to the very end, but there is always the spectre that looms over both teams' shoulders: the injury bug. Last season the Kings had their hopes derailed by injuries to their top stars. The Nuggets, who notoriously carry as few players as financially possible, have been hit season after season with an injury that makes life harder than it needs to be. Let's not forget... you can't spell "INJUREIS" without "J-R-U-E". Whoever between these two emerges the healthiest down the stretch will be the top seed.

NBA Cares: Mind Health
On the topic of injuries around the league, one more noticeable injury has come to the forefront of the league's attention: Severe Depression. With two major cases of players battling severe depression occurring this season alone, the NBA has introduced Mind Health, a means for players to promote healthy minds and bodies while bringing awareness to mental health and emotional well-being. Two current players, Russell Arciniega and recently diagnosed Nikola Jokic, have stepped up to the plate and shared their stories. Feel free to explore more at http://cares.nba.com/mindhealth/

Seven-Eleven
No, not the convenience store. I'm talking about the Eastern Conference Playoff Race. 5.5 games separate the current 7th seed Milwaukee Bucks from the Untankable Orlando Magic in the 13th spot in the conference. Realistically, the Magic and Bobcats will more likely than not fall out of the race, but any one of these teams could take control of their own destiny over the next 2 months. The Nets are on the rise, going 7-3 in their last 10. While the Heat are slumping a little, they have been known to not give up without a fight. The young Celtics core finally seems to be gelling and pulling together some wins (4-2 in their last 6... beating the Bucks twice mind you). And the Cavs won't give up as long as they don't have their draft pick. 2 spots, 5 teams... it's gonna be a bloodbath.

Battle of Texas
The Mavericks had a bit of a slow start to their season after new GM and coach Lets Playhorse took over late this off-season. Contrarily, the Rockets have somewhat overachieved to the extreme, emerging as one of the top teams in the West for the 1sts half of the season. They still look very good, but over the last 10 games, they've started to slip. Perhaps it is the grind of the regular season starting to take its toll on the old legs of All-Star (and forever-Rocket) Al Horford. With the cracks starting to show, the Mavericks can taste and smell blood. The talent on the squad is there, led by Superstar Bradley Beal. They currently are only 4 games back of Houston, and if they continue to play their form of stout, hardnose defense, the Mavericks could potentially overtake the Rockets as Southwest Division Champ.

New York Kn-ICU-ks
As I briefly touched on this earlier, the Nikola Jokic injury is a huge setback for the Knicks, but this wasn't the only injury they had occur recently. They were already reeling from a Gary Harris knee injury, hurt against the Boston Celtics on 1/22. The Knicks won that game and the next (against the struggling Timberwolves) to reach a 12-game win-streak, but the pieces began to fall apart soon after. After having a blitzkrieg 2-month stretch of games between the end of November and the end of January (a record of 24-2), the Knicks looked to be an elite squad in the East. But after injuries to Gary Harris and now Nikola Jokic and Luc Mbah A Moute struck, New York might be struggling to not only hold off the Philadelphia 76ers but also make the playoffs. Such a bad turn of events for a team that had finally found their identity and turned the corner.

Take That to the Tank
It wouldn't be a SLOE season if we didn't talk about the epic tank race occurring in the league. Outside of the Grizzlies and Thunder who have just bottomed out completely, 7 teams are hovering over the 30-36 loss range at this point in the season. Let's of wiggle room to move around, and without knowing what our draft class will look like until the end of the season, how much jockeying for position will these teams do before April arrives.

Trade Deadline
Trade Deadline week is here! I've heard rumblings of quite a few trades that could be happening over the next 48 hours. Expect mostly some smaller deals, but don't be surprised if you see a big name player or two change teams. In fact one team to watch out for is the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are looking to turn their lackluster season around. Not owning their own pick for this upcoming draft, sources have hinted that there may be a handshake deal in place that could potentially catapult them out of top 5 pick territory to possibly 8-seed contention.

Bull in a China Shop
The Bulls have completely taken over this league. They are outright a dominating force that has the league quaking, but no one is fearing the Bulls more than the Pistons right now. The Pistons were the favorites to come out on top of the Central AND Eastern Conference this season, but Chicago has done everything in their power to make their lives miserable recently, including beating the Pistons in their own place. Some around the league feel like, while AD didn't miss any time in the loss to the Bulls, Chicago had a hand in the Anthony Davis broken finger that will have him sidelined for 3+ weeks. A horrible time for an injury like that... but the Bulls don't mind. They will continue to run train on the league and secure the top record in SLOE.

[IamQuailman]

Bull in a China Shop
The Bulls have completely taken over this league. They are outright a dominating force that has the league quaking, but no one is fearing the Bulls more than the Pistons right now. The Pistons were the favorites to come out on top of the Central AND Eastern Conference this season, but Chicago has done everything in their power to make their lives miserable recently, including beating the Pistons in their own place. Some around the league feel like, while AD didn't miss any time in the loss to the Bulls, Chicago had a hand in the Anthony Davis broken finger that will have him sidelined for 3+ weeks. A horrible time for an injury like that... but the Bulls don't mind. They will continue to run train on the league and secure the top record in SLOE.

Added one last story to the main post. I pressed submit too soon!

[ballsohard]

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