As the 2017-2018 NBA regular seasons comes into its home stretch, it is once again time to start thinking about everyone’s favorite time of year, the NBA playoffs. This year has been quite competitive and looks too see new faces start to make moves in the playoffs. The Houston Rockets look to be one of league’s best teams, if not the best team. They are currently on a 17 game win streak and are led by all-star caliber players such as James Harden and Chris Paul, and an amazing supporting cast like Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, and Clint Capela, the Rockets are fit to make a deep run in the playoffs and to potentially upset the Warriors in the conference finals. Speaking of the Warriors, DO NOT let the success of the Rockets undermine who the Warriors are at the core. With a cast of FOUR all stars in their starting lineup and experienced vets.on their bench such as Andre Iguodala and Nick Young, the defending champs from 2 out of the past three years are undeniably one of the leader to win the championship and officially become a dynasty.

With all of this talk of the West, lets now shift to the East. This year is virtually a toss up in the eastern conference, with several teams who are capable of pushing through to the Finals. In my opinion there are four main teams that are heavy contenders, and they come in this order. The Toronto Raptors, the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Washington Wizards. Coming into the season nobody assumed that Toronto would make any moves during the season because there was controversy that some players might leave, and overall a bad vibe around the team. But they are currently the first seed in the East and have exceeded all expectations.

Now to the Celtics, losing Gordon Hayward early in the season, it looked like the Celtics season was over before it started, but that wasn’t the case. After the injury the Celtics rolled off about 18 straight wins if my memory serves me right, and had many players step up and define a key role on the team. The Celtics are currently second in the East and have the ability to write another chapter in the famous Celtic lore.

Thirdly the Cavaliers. A team who everyone thought would role through the East, did exactly the opposite. The Lebron, and Isaiah Thomas led Cavaliers struggled throughout the early part of the season and eventually traded away much of their core roster. It has been a puzzle since then, but that being said, LeBron can lead a team as easy as tying his shoes so don’t count the Cavs. out.

Lastly the Wizards. Though John Wall has, let’s face it, under achieved this season and has been out with injury for a good chunk of the season, the Wizards are still hanging around. Led by Bradley Beal and a much improved bench, the Wizards have been hanging around without their all star point guard and are definitely contenders with Bradley Beal’s improved play. With key wins over teams such as the Rockets, Raptors, and the Celtics, the Wizards definitely have what it takes, it is just a matter of whether or not they are really willing to give it their all.

So as you can see, heading into the playoffs a Warriors Cavaliers championship series is anything but inevitable. This year has seen a lot of improvement with several different teams and has the making of a legendary NBA playoffs.