The NBA has been celebrating Rivals Week, with key matchups pitting star gamers towards one another and placing the highlight on group rivalries each new and outdated. Saturday’s tripleheader on ABC options three such matchups.
The Miami Warmth get issues began by visiting the New York Knicks (3 p.m. ET on ABC) in a revival of one of many NBA’s finest rivalries from the Nineteen Nineties — and one that might have playoff implications within the Japanese Convention.
Then, reigning MVP Joel Embiid takes his Philadelphia 76ers on the street to face reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets (5:30 p.m. ET on ABC) in a battle of the NBA’s two finest massive males.
Lastly, in a rematch of final yr’s Western Convention semifinals, the Los Angeles Lakers tackle the Golden State Warriors (8:30 p.m. ET on ABC), giving us one other probability to look at 20-time All-Star LeBron James face all-time 3-point chief Stephen Curry.
Earlier than the motion ideas off, we requested our NBA specialists to dive into these three rivalries, plus others from across the NBA.
1. Which group may have a deeper playoff run: the Knicks or the Warmth?
Tim Bontemps: Miami for one motive: Jimmy Butler. This man has led the Warmth to the NBA Finals two of the final 4 seasons, in addition to to a seven-game Japanese Convention finals one other time. The Knicks have carried out a terrific job steadily constructing a deeper roster every transaction cycle, however till they’ve a deep run, Miami is extra prone to go additional within the postseason.
Jamal Collier: The Warmth have confirmed that so long as they’ve Butler and head coach Erik Spoelstra, they’re at all times going to have an opportunity at a deep playoff run. Mix that with Bam Adebayo having one among his finest all-around seasons and including Terry Rozier, Miami will not be going to go quietly come playoff time.
Andrew Lopez: Presently, Miami appears higher geared up, however Miami’s offense has struggled all through January, and Rozier has solely scored a mixed 15 factors in his first two video games with the Warmth. With two weeks till the commerce deadline, New York may make a transfer that might simply shift this reply again to the Knicks.
Dave McMenamin: I’ll go along with the recognized versus the unknown. I do know {that a} Miami group — with its offense led by Butler, its protection led by Adebayo and its schemes drawn up by Spoelstra — has made it to 2 of the final 4 NBA Finals. Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau have not been in a single postseason recreation collectively but. Benefit: Warmth.
Brian Windhorst: Miami hasn’t been geared up, in surface-level evaluation, for a deep playoff run for the final two seasons. However there they have been. Spoelstra’s document of game-planning and problem-solving within the postseason is sterling, and Playoff Jimmy Butler is completely a factor. It is not a lot a vote of no confidence within the Knicks as it’s a perception within the Warmth’s routine skill to maximise their roster within the playoffs.
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2. The Nuggets host the 76ers in a battle of MVPs. Who’ll win the award this season — Jokic, Embiid, or another person?
Collier: Embiid actually appears poised as the present front-runner. If there have been any doubts, his latest 70-point efficiency is historic sufficient to quiet them for now. There’s nonetheless an extended technique to go, and Jokic’s Nuggets seem like extra formidable title contenders, however Embiid’s dominance this season has reached one other stage.
Bontemps: Embiid wins it as a result of I consider he’ll discover a technique to get to the 65-game threshold below the league’s participant participation coverage. Jokic could be the favourite to say a 3rd MVP if ESPN’s latest straw ballot is any indication, however do not rely out Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. If the Thunder end with the very best document within the Western Convention, he’ll get plenty of help.
Windhorst: Gilgeous-Alexander’s quiet brilliance in main a shocking Thunder surge this season deserves actual consideration for the award. Jokic’s environment friendly dominance is breathtaking. However Embiid is having maybe the best offensive season since Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50 factors a recreation in 1961-62 and the 76ers are additionally deemed as overachieving up to now. For these causes, he stays the chief.
McMenamin: Anthony Edwards’ unabashed reward of Embiid again in December will not be the kind of factor you usually hear somebody say about an opposing participant. “He is unstoppable, man,” Edwards mentioned when Embiid dropped 51 on the Wolves. “I do not see how they lose a recreation, truthfully.” When the MVP race is as shut as it’s as soon as once more, voters ought to take a wider view by answering this simple query: Who’s probably the most dominant participant within the league? Embiid is that man. As long as he reaches the 65-game threshold, the trophy needs to be his.
Lopez: It is arduous for me to say anybody however Embiid after watching his 70-point efficiency in particular person, however the one factor that might cease Embiid from holding up his second MVP trophy might be… properly, Embiid. If he would not hit the 65-game threshold, that may open the door for Jokic or Gilgeous-Alexander.
3. Reality or Fiction: We have already seen the final postseason (together with play-in) assembly between LeBron and Steph.
Lopez: Fiction. We have already seen one play-in event showdown between these two again in 2021 and so they might be headed for an additional one this season.
Collier: Fiction. Each gamers are nonetheless working at a excessive stage, even when they can not carry their groups in the identical approach because the previous. However with the play-in event, there’s an opportunity these two may play one other excessive stakes recreation towards one another, even when it is unlikely to be a sequence.
McMenamin: Fiction. We have seen them go at it within the postseason six of the final 9 seasons. With no clear-cut ending to both of their careers presently in sight, you have to determine the Basketball Gods will prepare dinner up one other Curry-James showdown.
Windhorst: Fiction. Loopy to guess towards both of them elevating their groups each taking part in in markets that entice gamers.
Bontemps: Reality. A few of that is to only be slightly contrarian, since everybody else is saying fiction. However given the state of each franchises for the time being, the protected guess is to go this manner.
4. What’s the very best present rivalry within the NBA? Both between groups or gamers.
Lopez: It felt like Warriors-Grizzlies may take this, however plenty of wind has been set free of these sails since final season. Warriors-Kings had such a big-time really feel in final yr’s playoffs as properly. However Bucks-Celtics might be that form of sequence this yr, particularly since Jrue Vacation is with Boston this time.
McMenamin: My private favourite is Jokic vs. the microphone throughout postgame information conferences. However the very best is Jokic vs. Embiid. They’re the 2 finest gamers within the sport and so they play the identical place. We’ve not gotten that at middle since Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal met within the Finals when Michael Jordan was off shagging fly balls with the Birmingham Barons.
Windhorst: Warmth-Celtics. Undervalued and underrespected for no good motive. They’ve performed within the playoffs six occasions since 2010 and staged three seven-game sequence within the convention finals together with every of the final two seasons. From LeBron’s 46-point Recreation 6 in 2012 to Derrick White’s buzzer putback final yr, this rivalry is jammed with memorable moments. Additionally, Pat Riley hates Boston, and Boston hates everybody.
Bontemps: Devin Booker vs. Luka Doncic. This has all of it, led by epic playoff battles and an actual dislike for one another — at the least on the court docket. We noticed that crop up once more this week, and it actually could be the case if the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks have been to sq. off as soon as once more within the playoffs come this spring.
Collier: Jokic-Embiid is probably the most fascinating, each for video games towards one another — Embiid performs with an undoubtedly additional edge — and in the best way they’ve competed for awards and in the end their place in NBA historical past. Embiid may be part of Jokic as a back-to-back MVP if he wins it this season, however now that Jokic has a Finals MVP award, the dialogue and comparability between the 2 has shifted.
5. What is the subsequent nice NBA rivalry? Both between groups or gamers.
Windhorst: I do know their early regular-season conferences have been mundane and the Thunder are a number of years forward of the San Antonio Spurs, however I’m satisfied Chet Holmgren vs. Victor Wembanyama has an opportunity for a decade-plus of fierceness. It has all of the elements, and it’s completely of their personalities. They need it. Nobody is speaking me out of this proper now.
Bontemps: I will go along with the Thunder towards the Nuggets. The core of Denver’s roster is not going anyplace anytime quickly, led by the dynamic duo of Jokic and Jamal Murray, whereas Oklahoma Metropolis — behind Holmgren, Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams — is the ascendant group within the West. This might simply develop into one thing akin to the good Thunder-Spurs rivalry from a decade in the past, and might be the defining matchup within the West.
Collier: The Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks have all the precise elements for a contentious playoff matchup. They have established star energy, an rising younger group with an rising star, a historical past of intense video games stemming from the in-season event, unhealthy emotions from an argument over a recreation ball and an underdog who would not concern the incumbent.
McMenamin: A lot the identical approach Edwards went out of his technique to reward Embiid, he additionally made a degree to shade Gilgeous-Alexander. “You possibly can’t contact him at any time of the sport,” Edwards mentioned of the favorable whistle that he believes SGA will get. The Thunder guard being named an All-Star starter over Edwards ought to solely add to it. Each have already accelerated their growth of their brief spans within the league. It ought to make for scrumptious theater once they tip off towards each other for an extended, very long time.
Lopez: It’s going to go deeper than simply Wembanyama vs. Holmgren and switch right into a full-fledged Spurs-Thunder rivalry. With Gilgeous-Alexander taking part in at an MVP-type stage, there isn’t any motive to suppose he falls off and the Thunder go along with him. If San Antonio can construct round Wembanyama and put a group round him that contends, the Spurs and Thunder may discover themselves as rivals for years to come back with loads of playoff sequence to associate with it.
