This is a bizarre season for the NBA in a bizarre time for the world.
Most of those picked to play in the All-Star Game do not seem particularly excited by those plans; arenas are somewhere between almost empty and totally empty because of COVID-19 protocols; and while game schedules are typically known months in advance, nobody knows what the second week of next month looks like yet.
All of this is most unusual.
Photo: AP
However, there is one constant: the standings in the Eastern Conference are a mess.
Spending any time trying to figure how the East is going to look like at the end of the regular season would be a futile undertaking, because it is clear that the teams themselves have no idea.
The Miami Heat won the East last season, but have at no point been above .500 this season.
The Milwaukee Bucks — the NBA’s best regular-season team in each of the past two seasons, a team with two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo — just had a streak of five consecutive losses.
Every team in the East have had at least one three-game losing streak; 11 of those 15 teams have had multiple three-game slides and the season is not even half over.
If all that were not enough, the Western Conference is dominating its friends from the other half of the league, winning 57 percent of the games against the East.
That is on pace to be the biggest margin since the West won 58.4 percent in 2014-2015 and virtually assures that the West will win the regular-season series versus the East for the 21st time in the past 22 seasons.
Having only three teams better than one game above .500, two months into the season, that is the big surprise out of the East.
The Philadelphia 76ers (20-11) and the Brooklyn Nets (20-12) sit atop the East, and Milwaukee (18-13) are right in their shadow.
That is where the ridiculously tight traffic jam starts, with the next 10 teams — the Indiana Pacers, the Toronto Raptors, the Boston Celtics, the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls, the Charlotte Hornets, the Heat, the Atlanta Hawks, the Orlando Magic and the Washington Wizards — all within 3.5 games of each other.
Some offer a very simple explanation.
“I see a lot of inconsistent teams in the East,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And we’re one of them.”
That being said, there are signs that some teams are figuring it out.
Brooklyn just went 5-0 on a West road trip, playing most of those games without Kevin Durant. Toronto started 7-12, but are are 9-3 since. The Bulls and the Heat have already won more games this month than they did last month.
The Wizards beat the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers 127-124 on Monday for a fifth consecutive victory, meaning that they are 5-0 since starting 6-17.
And the Knicks — this is true and amazing — have a chance at their first winning calendar month since going 8-7 in November 2017.
“We’re striving to become a 48-minute team,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who has already made a sizeable impact in his first couple months in New York. “We’ve got a long way to go.”
The good news is that there is a lot of time left.
Teams are to get their second-half schedules finalized by the NBA this week. Everyone, even those going to Atlanta for the one-day All-Star events on March 7, are to get a little bit of a much-needed break after a hectic first couple of months of the season.
“Anybody that can find some consistency and reliability quicker can find some separation in the standings, but right now that there is not separation,” Spoelstra said. “So, what I see is opportunity.”
In other games on Monday, it was:
‧ Jazz 132, Hornets 110
‧ Thunder 94, Heat 108
‧ Mavericks 102, Grizzlies 92
‧ Suns 132, Trail Blazers 100
‧ Rockets 100, Bulls 120
Olivier Giroud’s bicycle-kick on Tuesday broke Atletico Madrid’s resistance and earned Chelsea a crucial away goal, a 1-0 victory giving Thomas Tuchel’s side a slender advantage in the UEFA Champions League last 16. Giroud’s acrobatic strike was initially ruled out for offside, but stood after the video assistant referee showed that Mario Hermoso had the final touch, delivering a huge blow to Atletico’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals. Diego Simeone’s side had put on a typically disciplined defensive performance until that point, but Giroud’s moment of genius means that they must score in London on March 17 if they are to avoid
Tiger Woods has had surgery for multiple fractures of his right leg after a car accident that a Los Angeles police officer said he was “very fortunate” to have survived. The golfer was “awake and responsive” after the operation to insert a rod into his tibia and stabilize his ankle with pins, his TGR foundation said on Tuesday night. Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Carlos Gonzalez, the first to respond after Woods’ car went off the road in a single-vehicle accident, said that the sports star was “calm and lucid,” despite being trapped inside his vehicle. Woods was removed from the crash by
‘ESCAPE FROM JUSTICE’: A US gymnast who trained under Geddert for more than 10 years and was assaulted by Larry Nassar called his suicide ‘an admission of guilt’ A former US Olympics gymnastics coach with ties to disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar on Thursday killed himself, hours after being charged with turning his Michigan gym into a hub of human trafficking by coercing girls to train and then abusing them. John Geddert faced 24 charges that could have carried years in prison had he been convicted. He was supposed to appear in an Eaton County court, near Lansing, Michigan, but his body was found at a rest area along Interstate 96, state police said. “This is a tragic end to a tragic story for everyone involved,” Michigan Attorney General Dana
WARMING UP? Coco Gauff next faces Shelby Rogers in the quarter-finals at Memorial Drive after losing to fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina in straight sets at the Australian Open Coco Gauff’s five-week stay in Australia was yesterday extended with a second-round win at the Adelaide International. The 16-year-old American beat sixth-seeded Petra Martic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the hard-court tournament at Memorial Drive. It was Gauff’s fourth consecutive win, after two in qualifying and another in the first round. Gauff lost to fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina in straight sets at the Australian Open. During her Australian Open debut last year, she lost to eventual champion Sofia Kenin in three sets in the fourth round. Today, Gauff faces Shelby Rogers in the quarter-finals. In other matches, second-seeded Belinda Bencic advanced with