NBA Rivals Week: Warmth-Knicks, Embiid-Jokic, LeBron-Steph, extra

The NBA has been celebrating Rivals Week, with key matchups pitting star gamers towards one another and placing the highlight on staff rivalries each new and outdated.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 greatest rivalries from the Nineties — and one that might have playoff implications within the Jap 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 greatest large males.

Lastly, in a rematch of final 12 months’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 observe 20-time All-Star LeBron James face all-time 3-point chief Stephen Curry.

Earlier than the motion suggestions off, we requested our NBA specialists to dive into these three rivalries, plus others from across the NBA.

1. Which staff could have a deeper playoff run: the Knicks or the Warmth?

Tim Bontemps: Miami for one cause: 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 Jap Convention finals one other time. The Knicks have executed a terrific job steadily constructing a deeper roster every transaction cycle, however till they’ve a deep run, Miami is extra more likely 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 in all his greatest all-around seasons and including Terry Rozier, Miami shouldn’t be going to go quietly come playoff time.

Andrew Lopez: At present, Miami appears higher outfitted, 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 might make a transfer that might simply shift this reply again to the Knicks.

Dave McMenamin: I will go along with the recognized versus the unknown. I do know {that a} Miami staff — 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 sport collectively but. Benefit: Warmth.

Brian Windhorst: Miami hasn’t been outfitted, in surface-level evaluation, for a deep playoff run for the final two seasons. However there they have been. Spoelstra’s report of game-planning and problem-solving within the postseason is sterling, and Playoff Jimmy Butler is totally a factor. It isn’t a lot a vote of no confidence within the Knicks as it’s a perception within the Warmth’s routine capacity 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 definitely appears poised as the present front-runner. If there have been any doubts, his current 70-point efficiency is historic sufficient to quiet them for now. There’s nonetheless an extended approach to go, and Jokic’s Nuggets look like extra formidable title contenders, however Embiid’s dominance this season has reached one other degree.

Bontemps: Embiid wins it as a result of I imagine he’ll discover a approach to get to the 65-game threshold beneath the league’s participant participation coverage. Jokic can be the favourite to assert a 3rd MVP if ESPN’s current 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 report within the Western Convention, he’ll get numerous assist.

Windhorst: Gilgeous-Alexander’s quiet brilliance in main a surprising 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 sport in 1961-62 and the 76ers are additionally deemed as overachieving thus far. For these causes, he stays the chief.

McMenamin: Anthony Edwards’ unabashed reward of Embiid again in December shouldn’t be the kind of factor you usually hear somebody say about an opposing participant. “He is unstoppable, man,” Edwards stated when Embiid dropped 51 on the Wolves. “I do not see how they lose a sport, actually.” 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 easy 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 must be his.

Lopez: It is laborious for me to say anybody however Embiid after watching his 70-point efficiency in individual, however the one factor that might cease Embiid from holding up his second MVP trophy may very well be… properly, Embiid. If he does not hit the 65-game threshold, that may open the door for Jokic or Gilgeous-Alexander.

3. Truth 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 match showdown between these two again in 2021 and so they may very well be headed for one more one this season.

Collier: Fiction. Each gamers are nonetheless working at a excessive degree, even when they can not carry their groups in the identical means because the previous. However with the play-in match, there’s an opportunity these two might play one other excessive stakes sport 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 at the moment 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: Truth. A few of that is to simply be a little bit contrarian, since everybody else is saying fiction. However given the state of each franchises in the intervening time, the protected guess is to go this fashion.

4. What’s the very best present rivalry within the NBA? Both between groups or gamers.

Lopez: It felt like Warriors-Grizzlies might take this, however numerous wind has been let loose of these sails since final season. Warriors-Kings had such a big-time really feel in final 12 months’s playoffs as properly. However Bucks-Celtics may very well be that form of sequence this 12 months, 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 greatest gamers within the sport and so they play the identical place. We’ve not gotten that at heart 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 cause. 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 12 months, 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 — not less than on the court docket. We noticed that crop up once more this week, and it definitely can 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 way in which they’ve competed for awards and in the end their place in NBA historical past. Embiid might 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 substances, and it’s completely of their personalities. They need it. Nobody is speaking me out of this proper now.

Bontemps: I am going to 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 staff within the West. This might simply grow to be one thing akin to the good Thunder-Spurs rivalry from a decade in the past, and may very well be the defining matchup within the West.

Collier: The Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks have all the suitable substances for a contentious playoff matchup. They have established star energy, an rising younger staff with an rising star, a historical past of intense video games stemming from the in-season match, dangerous emotions from an argument over a sport ball and an underdog who does not worry the incumbent.

McMenamin: A lot the identical means Edwards went out of his approach to reward Embiid, he additionally made some extent to shade Gilgeous-Alexander. “You possibly can’t contact him at any time of the sport,” Edwards stated 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 degree, there isn’t any cause to assume he falls off and the Thunder go along with him. If San Antonio can construct round Wembanyama and put a staff round him that contends, the Spurs and Thunder might discover themselves as rivals for years to come back with loads of playoff sequence to go together with it.