LeBron James is nine points away from another historic landmark. Already the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, if James has even a well-below average scoring game he will become the first player to ever notch 40,000 points. That is just a staggering figure.
But did you know LeBron also holds the record for the most playoffs points scored in NBA history? With 8,023 playoffs points scored, LeBron is more than 2,000 points ahead of Michael Jordan’s 5,987. The next two active players with the most playoffs points are Kevin Durant with 4,878 and Stephen Curry with 3,966.
The question on the table, is, will LeBron — or Durant or Curry, for that matter — get the chance to score more playoffs points this season?
The race for the final two playoffs spots, via the Play-in tournament, will be tight in both conferences.
In the West, only 3.0 games separate the fifth-seeded Suns from the Lakers and Warriors, who are tied for the final Play-in spots. Similarly, in the East, only 1.5 games separate the fourth-seeded Knicks, who would have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs if the season ended today, and the eighth-seeded Pacers, who would have a road-game in the first round of the Play-in.
Let’s take a look at a few of the teams vying for a spot that could have value in the futures betting market for making — or missing — the playoffs.
Lakers (-105) and/or Warriors (-125) to make playoffs
According to ESPN BET, the Lakers and Warriors are both close to even-money to make the playoffs. The calculus seems to be based on the current standings. If the season ended today, the Lakers and Warriors would play in the second Play-in game with the winner facing the loser of the Kings and Mavericks from the first Play-in game. The winner would then get the eighth seed.
In this scenario, only one of the Lakers and Warriors would have any chance to make the playoffs because they would have to go through each other to get there. And even the winner of their game would have to win both Play-in games to advance.
But. The season doesn’t end today.
With most teams having just over 20 games remaining, it should again be noted that both the Lakers and the Warriors are only two games from the seventh spot and only three games from the fifth seed. And, by the way, the Lakers and Warriors are two of the hottest teams in the Western Conference.
The Lakers have won nine of their last 12 games, while the Warriors have won 11 of their last 13. Meanwhile, the seventh-seeded Kings have lost six of their last 11 games and star player De’Aaron Fox sat their most recent game with a sore knee. The fifth-seeded Suns are 2 and 2 in their last four games, while the sixth-seeded Pelicans and eighth-seeded Mavericks are both 2- 3 in their last five.
Punchline: there is still time for the Lakers and/or Warriors to skip the Play-in entirely and make the playoffs outright, and if not, time for either/both of them to at least move out of the nine/10 seeds and thus into more favorable rankings where they’d potentially have to win fewer Play-in games and/or not go through each other to get to the big dance.
According to the ESPN Analytics Basketball Power Index (BPI), the Warriors have a 59.0% chance to make the playoffs while the Lakers have 42.5%. But, interestingly, if sorted by likelihood to win the championship, the Warriors and Lakers both project among the top-7 in the West, ahead of the Pelicans, Suns and Kings who are currently ahead of them in the standings.
Per BPI, the Lakers have the 12th-easiest Strength of Schedule (SOS) remaining while the Warriors have the 17th… both reasonably average. But the Lakers and Warriors are both veteran-laden teams whose cores have each won championships in the last four seasons. And both teams know…
This article was originally published by a www.espn.com . Read the Original article here. .