The NBA has been back officially for almost a week now, giving us just enough time to make some observations as clubs make their end-of-season pushes before the playoffs begin. Some of the early returns are surprising, while others are ones we should have seen coming. Here’s a quick breakdown from both categories. WE SHOULD […]
Twelve NBA teams have already clinched their place in this year’s playoff field, but 10 others made the trip to the league’s Orlando bubble with the hopes of playing their way into the four remaining unfilled spots. Some of those bids have a better chance than others; for instance, our prediction model thinks the Dallas […]
The Phoenix Suns are … the team to beat in the Western Conference? OK, so I didn’t make much of Phoenix’s opening-night blowout win over the Sacramento Kings, necessarily. But I was impressed with the Suns taking a solid Denver Nuggets team to overtime on the road, and losing by a single point. And it […]
When the pingpong balls came to a rest after Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery, it was the end of an era for the league. Starting next season, the lottery’s distribution of odds based on team records will change — the first tweak to the system in 25 years. The jackpot-winning Phoenix Suns came out on […]
Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s new basketball podcast, a weekly conversation about the NBA. On this week’s show (Oct. 25, 2017), Neil, Chris and Kyle first discuss the laundry list of things that have gone wrong for the Phoenix Suns this season, then debate where the team should go from here. Next, Milwaukee Bucks star […]