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With all the playoff berths booked in the Eastern Conference, and the standings likely almost settled with only 2-3 games remaining in the regular season, it is time to rank these teams according to their form, talent and the overall record for the regular season.
Keep in mind here that power rankings are not necessarily an indicator of the true strength of a team, and that some teams may actually be placed higher/lower in the power rankings than their record indicates, or their playoff matchup might indicate.
Here's our list of power ranked teams:
#8 Miami Heat
The Miami Heat slipped up big-time just when they needed to turn their play a notch up. After flirting with an extended spell in the 3-4 seed sometime during the middle of the season, they suffered from an extended bad spell as they ended up with a 3-7 record for the month of February, falling to the 7-8 seed zone.
Currently, they are seeded 6th (they hold the tiebreaker against the Milwaukee Bucks who have the same 43-37 record) but with matchups against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Toronto Raptors coming up (both matches in which they're the weaker side on paper, it is fair to say that the Heat have flattered to deceive after a promising first half of the season.
The Heat roster, though, is one of the most well-rounded in all of basketball. Goran Dragic, their star guard who earned his first nod to appear in the All-Star game this year, is their most skilled offensive player and their best volume scorer of note. In Wayne Ellington, they have a volume 3-point shooter with a 39% conversion rate from downtown.
They have solid defensive options within the wing rotation with veteran Dwyane Wade, Josh Richardson, James Johnson and Justice Winslow, while Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo are robust interior defenders. The Heat will ramp up their already good defensive intensity during the playoffs, but the question remains whether they will be good enough to match the likes of the Raptors on offense in a 7-game series as they are likely to face the Canadian franchise in the first round.
#7 Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards have, once again, submitted a letdown of a regular season campaign. While some portion of the blame for their less-than-spectacular 42-38 record has to fall on the injury woes of John Wall, who's missed half of their season so far with only 40 appearances out of a possible 80 - the Wizards have been underwhelming for the best part of this season.
Even with Wall in the lineup, they went 7-8 during the month of November. To Scott Brooks' and the Wizards' credit, however, they dealt with Wall's absence better the second time around, as they finished with a 16-12 record from the last week of January till the last week of March (when Wall made his comeback).
During this time, they pushed Tomas Satoransky into their starting five and led the league in assists per game as a team (even better than the Golden State Warriors), setting the blueprint for what could be a winning formula in the playoffs.
The Wizards have a solid starting five of Wall, Beal, Otto Porter Jr, Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat that could hold its own against any team on a given day. Their bench is better than it has been for the past couple of seasons, what with the emergence of Kelly Oubre Jr as a legitimate two-way player and the likes of Ian Mahinmi, Mike Scott, Jodie Meeks, Ramon Sessions and Tomas Satoransky all capable of making a genuine impact on the game.
The Wizards, Bucks and Miami Heat are locked in a three-way battle for the 6th seed, and the Wizards hold the advantage in the tiebreaker against the Bucks. The Wizards' last two games are against the Celtics, who have locked up the #2 seed and have nothing to play for, and the Magic, one of the worst teams in the league.
The Wizards should be able to lock up the #6 seed this way. But they will certainly be underdogs against the likes of the 76ers and the Cavaliers - whichever team they face in the first round, and for this reason, they are ranked one spot lower on our power rankings.
#6 Indiana Pacers
All things considered, the Indiana Pacers have to feel pretty good about how this regular season campaign has gone for them. Renowned analytics firm FiveThirtyEight, among other experts, pegged Indiana as one of the worst teams in the league, predicting a record of 32-50 and a 10th-place finish in the Eastern Conference. Instead, the Pacers find themselves sitting pretty with the 5th seed in the standings virtually locked up.
Much of the credit for their play this season goes to possible All-NBA selection Victor Oladipo, who's having a breakout season and is the prohibitive favorite to win Most Improved Player honors for this season. Other than Oladipo, the Pacers have received steady, solid contributions from the likes of Darren Collison (who was a shrewd free agent signing), Myles Turner (trending upward definitely in his 3rd NBA season) and Thaddeus Young.
From the bench, Domantas Sabonis has demonstrated upside that has led to various old-timers drawing comparisons with his father Arvydas. Lance Stephenson has been an above-average playmaker, while Bojan Bogdanovic has also been a solid contributor, making 40.2% of his 3s in 4.8 attempts per game.
But from a playoff perspective, in a prospective matchup against the Cavaliers (against whom they hold a 3-1 record in the regular season) or the 76ers (they have a 2-1 record against them), their roster strength will be tested to the limit without much success.
Sure, the Pacers move the ball well and try to find the hot hand in every game, but they don't have the kind of game-changing superstar that the Sixers have in Embiid and Simmons, or the Cavs have in LeBron James. For this reason, they are unlikely to progress beyond the first round.
#5 Boston Celtics
The Celtics are in a tough spot right now. Having lost their best swingman to season-ending injury less than 6 minutes into their regular season campaign, their title chances were dealt a death blow following the announcement of Kyrie Irving's season-ending knee injury on 5th April. Even without Gordon Hayward, the Celtics looked good value to make the Eastern Conference Finals based on their regular season record of 53-23 at that point.
The fundamentals of the Celtics squad are sound. Over the course of the season, despite missing crucial rotation pieces for extended spells, the Celtics have maintained the best defensive rating in the league. Brad Stevens has installed an offensive scheme that combines pick-and-roll plays, switches, and isolation plays in a manner that has brought out the best of its players.
They have two-way players all over their roster even with Kyrie's injury: the likes of Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris, Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart (who has missed the home stretch of the regular season but could be back for the first round) can keep the team in the game with plays on both ends of the floor.
But the problem is that they no longer have the depth to keep pace with a good offense for all 48 minutes. Aron Baynes is not much of a contributor. Daniel Theis, a versatile power forward who was getting good minutes throughout the season, is out for the season. Greg Monroe is not a game-changing player. Relying on the likes of Tatum, Brown, and Rozier, who are all on rookie contracts, seems to be a big stretch.
As things stand, the Celtics look primed for a first-round exit against the team that we'll talk about on the next slide.
#4 Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks, despite underachieving in the regular season, have a shot at reaching the second round of playoffs by finishing 7th in the conference. Their 43-37 record does not do justice to the overall strength of their roster, which should be enough to get them over the line to the Conference Semifinals for the first time since the 2000-01 season when they made it to the Conference Finals.
In Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks have a trump card who could change the complexion of any game with plays on either end of the floor. They have a plethora of options among perimeter players, with the likes of Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe, Malcolm Brogdon and Jabari Parker all having the ability to score in bunches.
Tony Snell is a 40% shooter from beyond the arc this season and can come up with big shots in crunch time. Brandon Jennings has done all right since signing late in the season. Jason Terry, even in his 40s, can make game-winning shots. Shabazz Muhammad is another option if the main rotation isn't getting buckets.
The Bucks' Achilles heel is their center rotation, which consists of John Henson and Thon Maker. Neither player is even a league-average defender or has the ability to generate their own offense.
Even so, the Bucks would go into a prospective first-round matchup against the Celtics as the favorites, given their firepower, length, and athleticism. Giannis would be the best player in that matchup, and his play could dictate how far the Bucks can go in this year's playoffs.
#3 Philadelphia 76ers
The Process has neared completion, so to speak, for the Philadelphia 76ers. After 4 seasons of torrid play, the 76ers find themselves in the 3rd spot with just 2 games left to play, and they might just nab it provided they take their ongoing 14-game winning streak to 16 against the Bucks in their final match of the season.
The Sixers were inconsistent through 2017, falling as low as the 12th spot in the Eastern Conference at one point in November. As their schedule became less packed and the back-to-back sets stopped coming thick and fast, Embiid was able to feature in every game. They've put together a 32-11 record in 2018 that ranks 1st in the Eastern Conference this calendar year, and 2nd in the entire league behind only the Rockets.
Joel Embiid is their best player on both ends of the floor and he got a deserved starting berth in the All-Star game, but the 76ers' 5-0 record without the 7'2" Cameroonian center of late has shown their strength in depth.
Ben Simmons is averaging a triple-double over the last 15 games, while JJ Reddick is having the best season of his career at 33 years of age. Dario Saric and Robert Covington round off possibly the best starting five in the Eastern Conference - both are two-way players who have been the model of consistency this season.
Their bench, which was one of the worst in the league at the start of the season, has been galvanized by some shrewd free agent signings by Bryan Colangelo and the recent return of the #1 pick, Markelle Fultz. The incoming Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova have bolstered their depth chart, while underperforming players like Jerryd Bayless, Justin Anderson and Amir Johnson have been competing for minutes with the likes of Richaun Holmes and TJ McConnell.
Expect the 76ers to make the Conference Finals if they win against the Milwaukee Bucks in their last game of the season and seal the 3rd spot in the standings, as they are well-equipped to deal with the likes of the Heat, Bucks, and Wizards.
#2 Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers' regular season record did not make the least bit of sense in the past 3 years. Nor does it make any more sense this season, although concessions have to be made for a Kyrie Irving-sized hole in their roster. Even so, the Cavaliers are on course to match their 51-31 record from last season.
The Cavaliers have been one of the most injury-plagued teams of the league all season long. They have never had their full complement of players available, and they were particularly bad for the period of time starting with the Christmas game and ending with a game against the Timberwolves which ended with LeBron walking off with a game-winning buzzer-beater.
They then lost Kevin Love to injury, and although they acquired some nice pieces with hectic deadline-day trade activity, they have been unable to figure out how to distribute the available minutes among their role players. They are hot right now, however, losing only 2 games since Kevin Love's comeback.
The Cavaliers will be sticking to their strategy of trying to outscore their opponents in every playoff game like they did last year, and they can expect similar results based on the fact that their opponents will have to face LeBron James in a murderous mood. They have every chance of making the NBA Finals for the 4th consecutive season, provided they get over the hump that the team that nudged ahead of them in our power rankings presents in their playoff run.
#1 Toronto Raptors
There are a number of precipitating factors that might lead to the Raptors not making it to the NBA Finals this year, but if we are being honest to ourselves, the Toronto franchise has been a cut above its Eastern Conference competition for most of the year. They are the only Eastern Conference team to rank among the top 5 teams in both offensive rating and defensive rating as per NBA.com, and they are 3rd league-wide in net rating.
The Toronto offense has undergone a sea change through the offseason of 2017, and it took a lot of adjustments in the playing style of their 2 All-Stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan to make it work. Instead of relying on isolation plays from their 2 stars, the Raptors now run a motion offense that allows for more touches for their role players, who have come up big during this regular season campaign.
Jonas Valanciunas and Jakob Poetl have formed a pretty good center rotation, while Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam have been crucial components of the Raptors success at the power forward slot. Rookie OG Anunoby has already become a defender par excellence, while the likes of Norman Powell, CJ Miles, and Fred VanVleet have provided the required play from the bench.
The Raptors don't have a specific weakness in their gameplay and can dominate ball games in a variety of different ways. Dwane Casey has gotten the best out of his players this season, and based on the evidence from this regular season campaign, the Raptors shade it as the favorites to emerge from the Eastern Conference playoffs for a prospective first Finals series in franchise history.
