NBA SIMS LEAGUE
NSL Insider - East Play In Previewby Rootsey, updated on Tuesday, April 30 2024, 12:00 am EST The Play-in Coming down to the final few games of the season and the Play-in in the East is still not sorted. Charlotte has been stronger over the last few weeks, and cemented their spot in the top 10 by defeating the undermanned New Orleans Pelicans. While they awaited the outcome of Brooklyns' final games, they had to pack a suitcase to travel just in case Brooklyn lose to Atlanta and Milwaukee, with the win against the Bucks though Brooklyn secured a home game in the play-in and Charlotte booked their flights. On the other end of the bracket we have New York who are packing their bags, they just had to wait to book their tickets because they didn't know if they are flying to Canada or Indiana until the last day of the season. In a week where there could have been 10 games of the week, the Indiana and Toronto match up surely is a missed opportunity. In the end Indiana slipped into the play-in and Yeet has been negging his team to a win ever since. Key Injuries: The only team that looks to be free from injuries are the Brooklyn Nets, with Ingram back and healthy after resting the final week of the season. The rest of the teams are missing significant players. Charlotte almost goes without saying, missing Ja Morant has been the story of their season, yet they find themselves grinding out some wins and securing a play-in spot. Fred VanVleet is expected to return to the line up for the play-in after also resting the final week of the season, his 20 points a game will be needed against the Nets. JaeSean Tate remains on the IR and is expected to return when the playoffs start. The Knicks will be sitting Kawhi for the play-ins one would imagine, which isn't what you want from your superstar, but the benefit of a few more regular season wins will give them a full strength squad for a potential do or die match up if they lose the first game. They are also without Saddiq Bey who is lost for the sesaon. For the Pacers, Scoot returns and hopes to get some minutes on the squad, he's a good bench piece that helps bolster a self identified shallow side. The 9-10 match up: Brooklyn hosts Charlotte which really could go either way. Charlotte has found form in the later part of the season, while Brooklyn went on a mini slide over the last few weeks that kept them out of the 7-8 bracket. The season series between these two teams is 2-2 with the most recent match up going Charlottes way 125-121 in week 19, but this was with Brooklyn down two of their starters in Ingram and Markkanen. Only two weeks prior to that we saw the match up go to Brooklyn in a more convincing manner 138-112. In that week 17 game we saw the rebound battle clearly go Brooklyns way while they shot an amazing 60% from the field and 70% from distance. The week 19 rebounding battle went the way of the victor and Brooklyns shooting was held to a respectable 50% and 45%. Clearly the length in and around the Brooklyn forwards really messes with the vertically challenged Hornets, who in both games put Draymond at the 4. I wonder if Charlotte will play Giles as a starting 4 to match up a bit better on height, and move Crowder to the bench, I'm not sure it will be enough as they seem to have stockpiled 6'4' power forwards, which will only get you so far against teams with the length and skill of Brooklyn. We could see Demar be the best player in the game and Craigs' nous cannot be denied when it comes to team building which gives the Hornets hope for a victory. While Charlottes recent rise to relevancy has been a feel good story for a team whose main talking points have revolved around Ja's absence and Draymonds league enforced absence, I can't see them getting passed a healthy Brooklyn squad. Brooklyn to win by 20 due to the inclusion of the scoring savant Brandon Ingram. The 7-8 match up: Indiana will host the New York Knicks in the first bite for the Big Apple. As noted earlier we expect to see Kawhi sit out, and against a near full strength opposition New York might struggle. New York will look to get the most out of the remaining Dame Time there is on the clock, and hopes the strong role players such as Dillon Brooks and Austin Reaves can fill in the gaps around him. As for Indiana, Victor Wembanyama is good at basketball and he is a 2k wunderkind. Surrounded by quality starters and a few tough role players this team can be a scary match up. John Collins is looking forward to dealing out some revenge for the trade that saw him move from the big city into the cornfields of Indiana, and the other half of the trade (Aaron Gordon) didn't hang around long in New York to be relevant in this match up. These teams have faced each other 3 times during the regular season with New York coming out on top in the majority of the games. The problem when looking back at these games over the season, is that the teams have changed significantly since New Yorks week 1 victory. The most recent match up was in week 17 where Indiana stole an overtime victory, and that was with Kawhi scoring 24 and playing 40 minutes. Where do those 40 mins get split when they face again, and can the replacement try to improve the team? We usually see Reaves step up into the spot when Kawhi sits, but who then replaces his output on the bench is a bit of a grab bag of hope. Similar to the 9-10 match up, as much as the horses in the race can help decide the outcome, the jockeys riding them will play a big factor. Smokey has been around the block once or twice, knows his way around the controls and can squeeze the best out of a team. While Yeet has showed some saavy trading to help move his team into a position where he can win. Unfortunately for Smokey and the Knicks, I think Dame and Conley will nearly cancel each other out in terms of output, and then you are hoping that Brooks outplay Murray and Poku outplays Siakam???? Can Gaff hold a torch to Wemby? I don't see it, and I am predicting a pretty sour after taste for the Big Apple after this match up. Who gets to play Washington? So the crystal ball has predicted Brooklyn to travel across the river to New York as the match up to determine the fate of the Eastern Conference play off match ups. The season series sits 2-2 with the home team being victorious in all match ups. If there is anything to give New York hope it is this. For the sake of reviewing and as mentioned in the previous section, the teams have changed a bit since the early season match ups. The most recent two match ups though make for interesting analysis. The winning teams in both the previous match ups scored 130 and held the opposition to the 90s. In the most recent New York win, we saw them play with a very similar line up to who they have at their disposal in this game too. Unfortunately in that week 19 match up Brooklyn were without its two starters, as noted in the 9-10 match up section. In Brooklyns week 10 victory we saw what is probably their line up coming into the match, but New York still had Zinga back then, and Kawhi was playing the 3, instead of the 2 where the team has found form with him. So simple analysis is that both teams will score 130. Or not. I think we see New York win the centre battle between Gafford and Len, and the Murray/Lillard battle is probably going to play itself to a draw as well. The impact that the length of Brooklyn is going to really trouble New York, and because of this I don't think we will get to see Kawhi this play offs. This has the potential to be another 20 point victory for Brooklyn, who are kinda scary to face even as a 1 seed. Summary: I think both all the victories are going to come behind a strong margin, and lead by length. We will have Wemby lead the charge for Indiana into the 7th spot, and Ingram to take Brooklyn to their first(?) playoff run and grab the 8th. |
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