The opening week of the NBA season saw many shock results including the Lakers, despite their summer trades making a 0-2 start. OKC also lost to the Spurs who showed patience and experience beats youth and enthusiasm. The East however seemed to fulfil the predictions of many fans. The Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers made an easy start in their quest for the NBA championship; both having been legitimate contenders for the eastern conference. The East though, unlike its Western counterpart, is, as early results have shown, more predictable and less volatile.
The Miami Heat, with their “superstar” core of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will no doubt dominate their division and conference. Really it is just a question of how much?
Last season the Chicago Bulls, set the pace until their franchise player, Derrick Rose tore his ACL mid-season. He is not due to return until the New Year and it is unlikely the Bulls can repeat their initial success from last season without their star player despite the presence of Luol Deng, the Great Britain international who is tipped to make a successive All-Star appearance.
Without the Bulls, the Heat’s nearest competition will be from Indiana, Boston, Philadelphia or New York. Indiana and Boston have experience in the play offs and have also kept the core of their teams. Although the Pacers have the talent they lack that one superstar player, a Chris Paul or Kobe, to enable them to compete with the NBA elite.
The Celtics, like the Spurs are counting their days until their franchise needs a whole new face lift, with this season most probably being the last for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Philly have a decent chance to upset the odds if their newly acquired centre, Andrew Bynum, can stay fit.
New York however is a different story altogether with a newly introduced rivalry soon to dominate the media and league. The Jay-Z owned Brooklyn Nets recently moved into their new arena, the Barclays Centre, and a city divide has been welcomed by NYC natives who believe they are more than able to dominate their city neighbours. The New York Knicks have, over the last two years, despite the acquisitions of Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemeie, have grossly under performed. The first NYC derby if you will was affected by Hurricane Sandy but will be played at a later date. Only then can we tell which team will lead the NYC charge against the Heat for the much desired NBA championship that the city has longed craved for.
The rest of the Eastern Conference unfortunately will be playing for the rights for number one draft pick next May. Some are led by exciting players, namely Kyrie Irving, Greg Monroe and Bradley Beal who will be chasing rookie and sophomore honours whilst the remaining teams will be concentrating in practice to avoid being humiliated on the highlight reel.
Author: Joshua Jalal