CAVS, LAKERS TOP OF TREE
The NBA regular season is over. Five months of intense basketball has come to it's conclusion and for fourteen teams that is it - the summer holidays have officially started. For the sixteen other sides though, it's only the end of the beginning. They now have a route through to the NBA championship - arguably the biggest honour in club basketball. And while some out of those sixteen are just happy to be in the postseason, for others well nothing less than the title will be acceptable.
The best team in the East this season has turned out to be the Cavs. A 61-21 record means that they've proved a seriously hard team to beat, though not quite invincible - they did lose their last four regular games. The number 2 side has turned out to be the Magic - who picked up the Southeast division title for the third season in a row with a 59-23 record. The other division winners turned out to be the Celtics who won the Atlantic division for the third season in a row with a 50-32 record but are only able to claim the number 4 spot in the conference.
The other team who'll claim homecourt advantage in the East are the Hawks. They've taken the number 3 spot with a 53-29 record. Further down the Heat have snapped up the number 5 spot with a 47-35 record. The Bucks hold the number 6 spot with a 46-36 record having ended the regular season with a win in Boston. The interesting succsess story in the East has been the Bucks, snapping up the number 7 spot with a 44-38 record - an impressive achievement for Michael Jordan who now owns the club.
The playoff picture in the East is completed by the Bulls who hold the number 8 spot with a 41-41 record. Nice one for Luol Deng's team despite the fact that the GB star has been injured for a lot of the season. Let's hope he's back for the Eurobasket qualifiers. The Bulls scrapped into the playoffs at the expense of the Raptors who could only come up with a 40-42 record. The next team back from there are the Pacers who finished the season with a relatively poor 32-50 record.
Out West the main players this season have turned out to be the Lakers who have claimed the Pacific division title for the third season in a row but claimed the number 1 spot in the conference. The Mavs have claimed the number 2 spot in the West along with the Southwest division title for the first time since '07 with a 55-27 record. The other division winners in the West are the Nuggets who claim the Northwest division for the second season in a row with a 53-29 record though that only gets them the number 4 spot in the conference.
The other team in the West that'll claim homecourt advantage in the playoffs are the Suns who hold the number 3 spot with a 54-28 record. Further down the number 5 spot was snapped up by the Jazz with a 53-29 record. The number 6 spot was taken by the Blazers with a 50-32 record despite being plagued by injury a lot of the time. The Spurs also hold a 50-32 record but the Blazers have the better record in head to heads and Gregg Popovich will not be happy about that.
The West's playoff picture is completed by the Thunder who claim the number 8 spot with another 50-32 record but lose out in the tiebreakers to both the Blazers and Spurs. At least they're in there though. The Rockets are one team that are out of the picture a 42-40 record would be useful in the East but the West has too much depth. The Grizzlies are left with a 40-42 record which is a definite case of better luck next time but they're meant to be a team for the future.