Evaluating Washington Wizards’ competition for the 8th seed
By Keith Cork
3. The Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets are the team that currently holds the 8th seed in the eastern conference after slipping behind the Orlando Magic just recently. They’ve been in a free fall, losing their last four games including losses against the Washington Wizards and the Atlanta Hawks.
The Nets are a bit of a suprise this season as they aren’t really even playing to win in 2019-2020. Kevin Durant was set to miss the entire season as he rehabs from his Achilles injury, and Kyrie Irving has only managed 20 games before succumbing to shoulder surgery that will end his season.
But they’re still in the hunt. Mostly behind the strong play of Spencer Dinwiddie in the absence of Irving and the return of Caris LeVert plus the continuing solid play of Joe Harris. It’s a bit of an enigma, but they’ve managed to play better basketball than the Washington Wizards on the season as a whole.
The Brooklyn Nets sit at 18th in opponent points per game and 18th at points per game, so they’re ripe in my opinion to fall completely out of the playoffs, which is no big deal as far as their long-term plan goes but bodes well for everyone else on this list.
The Nets have a fairly easy remaining schedule, ranked 13th of all NBA teams, in their final 22 games of the season. They also have one game remaining against the Washington Wizards, but the Wizards have already won the three-game series by taking the first two and hold the tiebreaker advantage.
Head-to-head games remaining: 1
Odds of making the playoffs: 98.1%
Current record: 26-33
Games back: 0