5 biggest questions heading into 2021 NBA Playoffs

Who is the best in the Eastern Conference?

Alright, let’s take on the hardest question first. The Eastern Conference is a fight to the finish. It’s not like the Western Conference where the teams are legitimately great. In fact, two teams in the West would be by far the number-one seed and two other teams would be within a game of the top seed. The East is actually a fight between the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, and Boston Celtics for the top seed. They are all within 2.5 games of each other, and they have between four and six games left in the regular season.

The Celtics were rolling for months before their most recent setback. Robert Williams is out for the foreseeable future, and that really has them in flux. The 76ers are trying to figure out if James Harden and Joel Embiid are a championship combination. Milwaukee is still riding high from its first championship, but they hope it’s so nice they do it twice. Miami is the surprise here, but they’ve been one of the most consistent teams in the conference.

There is one problem with all of this. Nobody thinks any of those four teams are the top team in the conference. The Brooklyn Nets have been looming all season long, and everyone was just waiting for things to work out in their favor. Kevin Durant was hurt. Kyrie Irving refused to get vaccinated, leading to him missing all home games until recently. Now, things are falling into place.

The Nets are still the betting favorites to win the Eastern Conference. That’s despite them being an eight seed in the conference. Has that ever happened? Has a team with one of the worst seeds going into the playoffs still come out as the betting favorite to make it to the NBA Finals? It is a strange year, that’s for sure.