The 5 Favourites To Win The NBA Championship
Typically heading into an NBA postseason, there are three or four — maybe five at a stretch — teams that could claim to have a genuine shot at the NBA Championship. This year, that number might sit as high as ten. The title race is wide open, but these are the top 5 NBA Playoff favourites as we near the end of the regular season.
1. Brooklyn Nets
Despite the fact that their star trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving have played in just a handful of games together over the course of the season, the Brooklyn Nets have been dominant in recent months and have skyrocketed into NBA Playoffs favouritism as a result. Their winning form comes despite playing lacklustre defence and having all three of their stars in and out of the line-up with injury, so with a full bill of health and the improved defensive effort which they’ll no doubt bring to the Playoffs, they will be very hard to beat.
2. Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers have been hit hard by injury, with Anthony Davis missing two months with a calf strain and an ankle issue sidelining LeBron James for the past few weeks. The team has unsurprisingly struggled in their absence, but barring any more setbacks they will both be fit and firing come Playoff time. Assuming this is the case, there’s no reason to believe the reigning Champions can’t go back-to-back. They have much the same roster as last season but with a couple of valuable additions, and with LeBron and Davis leading the way they are the favourites to meet Brooklyn in the NBA Finals.
3. Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers couldn’t have been more disappointing when losing to the Nuggets in the Western Conference Semi-Finals last season, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that they were tipped by many experts to win the whole thing prior to that meltdown. They’ve again been impressive this season despite the fact that both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have had to deal with injuries, and assuming they are both healthy for the Playoffs, the Clippers are more than capable of challenging for the title.
4. Utah Jazz
The Jazz has been there or thereabouts for a couple of seasons now, but they’ve taken things to a new level in 2020/21. According to virtually every advanced metric, they are the best team in the league, and the only thing preventing them from being higher in this list is the fact that they lack the star power of the above teams. What they do have, however, is more depth than any other NBA roster, a great coach and a system that every player on the team understands — the question is whether that is enough to compete with the likes of the Nets and the Lakers.
5. Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks have lost a few fans this season courtesy of disappointing Playoff performances in the past couple of years, but realistically they are much the same side that has dominated the regular season over that period of time. In fact, with Jrue Holiday at point guard, they now have a better top three than they have in the past, though they have sacrificed a little depth to get it. Any team with Giannis Antetokounmpo on it is invariably a dangerous one, but the Bucks need to prove they can match it with the best when the intensity rises.
The 76ers, Suns, Mavericks and Nuggets are among the other teams with Championship claims, and each of them is more than capable of advancing deep into the Playoffs. It’s the five aforementioned teams, however, who have separated themselves from the pack, and are deservingly the most favoured in the NBA Playoffs.
*This is a collaborative post
