The Raptors and Celtics are eight and seven games ahead, respectively, of the third-place Cavaliers, making it unlikely either team will fall below the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference with only about 20 games remaining in the regular season.
Along with the top two teams in the East, the aforementioned Cavs and the Wizards and 76ers also have a 99% chance or higher of making the postseason, per FiveThirtyEight, with the remaining Eastern Conference teams’ chance of making the playoffs as follows:
- Indiana Pacers (94%)
- Miami Heat (89%)
- Milwaukee Bucks (88%)
- Charlotte Hornets (20%)
- Detroit Pistons (12%)
And despite the discrepancy in percentage between the Pacers, Heat and Bucks as compared to the Hornets and Pistons, only 7.5 games separate the five teams, with the eighth-place Heat and ninth-place Pistons only separated by three games.
Moreover, Charlotte and Detroit have the 29th and 25th hardest schedules remaining, while Indiana, Milwaukee and Miami have the 2nd, 18th and 26th hardest remaining schedules, per tankathon.com.
For their part, the Pacers still have to face the Warriors and Raptors twice each (home and away for both), in addition to one more game in Boston, while the Hornets’ toughest remaining game is in Toronto. Accordingly, the race could come down to the final days of the regular season, where the Hornets and Pacers finish off their schedules with a home-and-home on April 8 and 10.
So what do you think? Which three teams will join the other five likely contenders from the Eastern Conference? Will the Pacers, Heat, and Bucks hold on to their playoff spots or will the Hornets and/or Pistons bump one of them from the postseason? Vote below in our poll for three teams and then jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
I say Charlotte because they have the ability to get hot and probably have one of the most well rounded teams. They have an all star PG(Kemba), do it all SG(Batum), strong defensive SF(MKG), a slightly above average defender at PF(Williams) and a double double machine(Dwight). They have a guy off the bench who can get you 15 a game(Lamb) and have depth in the frontcourt(Kaminsky, Zeller, Hernangomez).
Hornets are trash
True. Kemba is legit, rest of the team is overpaid and aging
Williams a slightly above average defender? He’s never been a defender in his life
I think the Pacers start to slide and the Pistons grab the 8 seed
hows that prediction looking
I think a Hornets fan wrote the first comment!
D-12 is a paper double double machine, meaning he puts up numbers, but does nothing that actually helps a team win. Batum has continued to disappoint since joining the Hornets. Wings who get $22M+ a year generally score more than 11.8PPG and shoot better than 33% from 3.
Calling Williams an above average defender is ridiculous. His per 36 of 6.6 boards and 0.6 blocks are not good for a big, and though he does not have the body or the athleticism, he has spent time at the SF spot as he contributes nothing defensively down low.
I will agree that they are more likely to catch 8th than the Pistons, but the eight that are there now I believe are the eight that will ultimately be in.
Raptors
C’s
Cavs
Wizards
Sixers
Pacers
Heat
Bucks