With the Miami Heat able to move as high as fourth in the seedings, who do the other contenders play to finish the year?
The Atlanta Hawks close with the Wizards, the Magic, and the Rockets. The Wizards game should be a tough one for them, especially after beating them on Monday and with the Wizards fighting for their playoff lives.
Though the Magic and the Rockets could be tricky at this time of the year, the Hawks are the better team in both of those matchups. The Knicks close with the Spurs, the Hornets, and the Celtics.
While the Knicks could win all of those games, they could also lose all of those games. The Knicks can go on just as big as offensive lulls as Miami, but not because they don’t have firepower.
They don’t shoot a ton of threes, coming in at 27 of 30 teams at just under 30 a game, 29.9 to be precise. Because they don’t shoot a ton of them and though they make a good number of those that they shoot, in a four-way tie from second to fifth for team three point percentage at 39 percent, they can fall behind or seem slow scoring.
They make up for that with defense but if those other teams get hot, things could get sticky. If the Miami Heat can get two of the three they have left, they should be able to hold on to a fourth or fifth seed though.
Either way it happens, the Miami Heat are locked into the playoffs. It’s sure to be a wild ride from here.