As the NBA heads past the All-Star break, the season begins its final push to the playoffs. At this point, the contenders for the championship are quite obvious and have been narrowed down to a few.
This article does a deep dive into why your team has the chance to hold up the Larry O'Brien trophy by the end of the year.
Oklahoma City Thunder
The defending champs are right back to where they need to be.
All season long, the Thunder have been cruising along as the best team in the NBA. It is no surprise where the Thunder are at the moment, but they have been doing this with a big load of injuries. All-NBA player Jalen Williams has only played 26 games this season and hasn't had a real chance to get into form, while starting big man Isaiah Hartenstein is in a similar boat, as he has only played 35 games. Along with these two players, some of their best role players, such as Caruso and Mitchell, have missed a chunk of the season.
Even with all these injuries, the Thunder have kept the best Net rating in the NBA and the best defensive rating in the NBA. This shows that they are right where they want to be. They are currently the favourites to win, and if they get all their players back, they are in a prime position to make a run at back-to-back championships.
