2024 NBA Season and Playoffs

[Who]

Hoop Muse
@HoopMuse

Most PPG without Free Throws since Jan 1st:

27.8 — Luka Doncic
23.8 — Kyrie Irving
23.6 — Giannis Antetokounmpo
23.4 — Stephen Curry
23.1 — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
23.0 — Kevin Durant
22.7 — Donovan Mitchell
22.6 — Jalen Brunson
22.4 — Devin Booker
22.0 — Nikola Jokic

This stat provides little insight into anything though. From r/nba a couple of weeks ago, 25+ppg scorers and the percentage of their points coming from free throws (will be a little off since it's 2 weeks old, but rankings should not have changed much):

29.6% - Embiid

25.3% - SGA
25.2% - Trae

23.8% - Giannis
22.5% - Booker
21.0% - Luka
20.8% - Edwards
20.7% - Tatum

19.7% - Brunson
19.6% - Durant
18.9% - Mitchell
18.6% - Maxey
17.4% - Jokic
16.9% - Fox
16.7% - Curry
15.6% - LeBron

12.7% - Kyrie

So while Kyrie relies on FT's less than almost any other great scorer in this league, you can't say the same about Luka.

[celticinorlando]

This Miami team is just average

[Celtics2021]

Kings up only 4 at halftime with Hachimura and Reaves carrying the Lakers scoring, with Sabonis having his way with AD.  Curious to see if those two stay hot in the second half and keep this a close game, if AD and LeBron show up also and the Lakers take the lead and pull away, or if they come back to earth and the Kings dominate the second half.  I think it’s the latter.  Light the Beam!

[celticsclay]

Kings up only 4 at halftime with Hachimura and Reaves carrying the Lakers scoring, with Sabonis having his way with AD.  Curious to see if those two stay hot in the second half and keep this a close game, if AD and LeBron show up also and the Lakers take the lead and pull away, or if they come back to earth and the Kings dominate the second half.  I think it’s the latter.  Light the Beam!

Kings up 15 after 3. Lakers don’t look quite so good when they don’t play team missing their entire frontcourt. Barring a major comeback we get a much needed break from sparwizard lakers Pom points

[celticsclay]

Lakers never really make it a game. The lost keeps them securely in 9th now a full 3 games behind the kings and mavericks to get out 9th. They are an absolutely blistering 6-5 in their last 11 games. Sabonis remains undefeated against Davis in his career at 10-0 as he dominated AD with a 19 rebound triple double.

[blink]

Lakers never really make it a game. The lost keeps them securely in 9th now a full 3 games behind the kings and mavericks to get out 9th. They are an absolutely blistering 6-5 in their last 11 games. Sabonis remains undefeated against Davis in his career at 10-0 as he dominated AD with a 19 rebound triple double.

I hope the kings go on a run and stay out of the play in games.  If things stay where they are right now, it would be a really interesting Minn vs Sac round 1.

[Birdman]

Title contenders:
EAST
Boston
Cleveland

WEST
Denver
LA Clippers
OKC

That’s my opinion on the 5 teams that can win it all

[celticinorlando]

Title contenders:
EAST
Boston
Cleveland

WEST
Denver
LA Clippers
OKC

That’s my opinion on the 5 teams that can win it all

Honestly....I think the teams that can win it all are Denver and Boston.

The Cavs feel like a one and done to me.

[Celtics2021]

Lakers never really make it a game. The lost keeps them securely in 9th now a full 3 games behind the kings and mavericks to get out 9th. They are an absolutely blistering 6-5 in their last 11 games. Sabonis remains undefeated against Davis in his career at 10-0 as he dominated AD with a 19 rebound triple double.

I appreciated Vegas making the Lakers the favorite last night.

[Phantom255x]

Denver is the favorite to win it all, and Boston's biggest overall threat. But overall, the C's really have zero excuses to not make the Finals. The only possible excuse I could make is if, god forbid, like 2 of Tatum/Brown/Porzingis get significantly injured. But otherwise, a lot of these teams just seem meh/flawed and that includes Milwaukee and Miami this year. They don't scare me as much as the previous 1-2 years. I would probably still have it as Miami-Cleveland-Milwaukee in order of teams I fear in the East, with Philly being 2nd on that list IF Embiid returns. Again though, there really shouldn't be any excuses. They'll likely only have themselves to blame if they can't get out of the East. The path is right there for them. And who knows, maybe Denver actually catches a tricky path in the playoffs due to seeding and are taken down by someone.

[Phantom255x]

Just realizing but Denver is also now the 1 seed in the West.

Would love to see them knock off the Lakers first round assuming they are the 8 seed after the play-in. But if LAL is the 7 seed it seems likely OKC which would be ugh...

[celticsclay]

Just realizing but Denver is also now the 1 seed in the West.

Would love to see them knock off the Lakers first round assuming they are the 8 seed after the play-in. But if LAL is the 7 seed it seems likely OKC which would be ugh...

It is starting to look quite likely the 9 10 game in the west will be lakers warriors. Especially with curry still out it’s crazy one of those teams won’t make the playoffs. I thought the warriors were poised to go on a mini run before curry got hurt.

[Phantom255x]

Just realizing but Denver is also now the 1 seed in the West.

Would love to see them knock off the Lakers first round assuming they are the 8 seed after the play-in. But if LAL is the 7 seed it seems likely OKC which would be ugh...

It is starting to look quite likely the 9 10 game in the west will be lakers warriors. Especially with curry still out it’s crazy one of those teams won’t make the playoffs. I thought the warriors were poised to go on a mini run before curry got hurt.

Yeah. They also really don't have an answer for AD either. Looney looks cashed and while Kuminga has risen, I still think he'd have trouble against AD

[celticsclay]

Just realizing but Denver is also now the 1 seed in the West.

Would love to see them knock off the Lakers first round assuming they are the 8 seed after the play-in. But if LAL is the 7 seed it seems likely OKC which would be ugh...

It is starting to look quite likely the 9 10 game in the west will be lakers warriors. Especially with curry still out it’s crazy one of those teams won’t make the playoffs. I thought the warriors were poised to go on a mini run before curry got hurt.

Yeah. They also really don't have an answer for AD either. Looney looks cashed and while Kuminga has risen, I still think he'd have trouble against AD

Teams can still move around obviously but good chance lakers and warriors are lock in that first game. With the tiebreaker kings are now basically 4 up on lakers. Dallas has two tough games coming up but then get three in a row against the spurs and jazz. If the standings do hold I expect lakers to beat warriors and then lose at Dallas or at Sacramento to miss the playoffs. If lakers can make 7 or 8 I think they win one of the two games.

[jpotter33]

Assuming the Nuggets keep the #1 seed, what do you think the most difficult playoff path will be for them?

I think the first round is obvious with the Suns being a lethal threat as a 7 or 8 seed, especially given that they’ve had success against them in the past and this year.

I think the next two rounds are up in the air assuming that the higher seeds (LAC, Min, OKC) all win, as they’ve all had some success against Denver this year. Actually, Denver is just 3-5 against the top 4 in the West this year - 1-3 vs OKC, 2–1 vs LAC, and 0-1 vs Min. (Funny how you don’t hear that critique against them like you hear the critique against us against the West’s top 4 despite virtually an identical record.)

I’d probably say Clippers in the 1/4 matchup and then a fully healthy Minnesota in the conference finals is the toughest route for them. While OKC is 1-3 against them this year, they’re very young and inexperienced, as well as being very small with no option to try and even limit/make it difficult for Jokic. I think those will be exposed in the playoffs against Denver.

What do you think?