NBA Second Half Predictions

A little over 2 weeks after the all-star break and the second half has already proven to be intense thus far but how will the rest of the regular season play out?

In most people's opinion, this is the time to truly focus on basketball in both the NBA and in college because of the tournament and because the NBA teams are starting to have a reason to play as hard as ever.

The Heat have already started playing with more effort than earlier in the season and are now on a 14 game winning streak. Lebron James and Dwyane Wade have been unstoppable in that stretch averaging 29 and 23 points per game respectively. they are definitely playing there best basketball and go into the rest of the season as east finalist favorites but there are other interesting story lines for the second half of the season.

Here are some predictions.

The New York Knicks will stop their slide and regain some momentum going into the playoffs. Although I don't think that they will catch up to Indiana for the second seed I think that they will regroup to look more like the Knicks we saw early in the season after going 12 and 11 in January and February. The lost against the Heat proved that the Knicks have enough fire power to at least hang with the Heat when Jason Kidd is playing well. As Iman Shumpart and Amar'e Stoudemire, who is filing his bench role fairly well, get healthier the Knicks should get better down the stretch.

The Pacers will become a legitamate threat to the Heat in the Eastern Conference. Right now the Indiana Pacers are ranked #1 in total defense and are 11-2 in their last 13 games. The Pacers can match up very well with the Heat especially with Danny Granger coming back to add more scoring. It is well known that the Heat's most glaring or only weakness is their lack of size and the Pacers have two bruisers in David West and Roy Hibbert to hurt the Heat inside. Although it is still hard to pick against the Heat the Pacers have all the tools to challenge them even more than they did in last years playoffs.

The Spurs will lose the #1 seed in the west with Tony Parker out. Usually I wouldn't bet against the Spurs because they always seem to make due when one of the big three or even 2 of the big three of Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan are out. But Tony Parker is a different story. He has become the Spurs best player over the last few seasons and is the engine that make the spurs go. The Spurs are a pedestrian 7-7 over the last few seasons but the record isn't what stands out, it's that he has only missed 14 games so the Spurs haven't played much with out him. Despite that though Coach Popovich wont let them slip too much but it will be enough to lose the #1 seed to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Nobody in the West will want to play the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs. The Nuggets have lost 3 home games all season. 3! even if they don't get home court advantage against a team it would still be a little easier for them to steal a game against an opponent than an opponent winning a game in Denver. George Karl is probably the most overlooked coach in the NBA but he has had the Nuggets playing great basketball recently and the team has a lot of weapons between Ty Lawson, Andre Iguodala, Wilson Chandler, and Danillo Gallinari that they can throw at a team and hurt them from different ways . 

Easy predictions:

Lebron will win the MVP again. I know this is a no brainer but it is also astonishing. At seasons beginning I thought that no matter what he wouldn't be able to win again simply because of voter fatigue but his play in February was too historic for him not to be the favorite. Unless Kevin Durant goes insane this month he'll win another MVP.

Paul George will win the Most Improved Player Award. Improved his rebounding and assist from last year and leads the Indiana Pacers in scoring with 17 ppg. Up from 12 ppg last year.

Damien Lillard will win Rookie of The Year Award. There is no one even coming close to him in the race. He is averaging 18 ppg and 6 assist For the Portland Trailblazers and no other rookie is averaging over even 15 points.

Marc Jackson will win Coach of the Year Award. The Warriors have to start winning again but he's still the front runner.

Jamal Crawford will win The 6th Man of the Year Award. This is more of a lock than Lebron being MVP because he has been the Clippers highest scorer, off the bench.

The Lakers will either miss the playoffs or get the 8th seed and knock the Jazz out of the playoffs. Either way they will not be playing be playing basketball after the first round. 

It had to be said.