Eastern Conference seeding — every game swing is enormous right now

---

The five teams fighting for the 4-7 seeds in the East are separated by 3.5 games with 14 to play. That is the tightest playoff race I've seen in the East since 2011. What makes it particularly volatile is the mutual schedule — these teams play each other six times in the final three weeks. Every game swing is worth two places in the standings rather than one. The team I'm most confident about is Miami: their schedule strength in the final 14 games is the easiest of the five, and they've proven historically that they perform when playoff positioning is tangible. The team I'm least confident about is Philadelphia whose defense has been catastrophically bad in big games.

The five teams fighting for the 4-7 seeds in the East are separated by 3.5 games with 14 to play. That is the tightest playoff race I've seen in the East since 2011. What makes it particularly volatile is the mutual schedule — these teams play each other six times in the final three weeks. Every game swing is worth two places in the standings rather than one. The team I'm most confident about is Miami: their schedule strength in the final 14 games is the easiest of the five, and they've proven historically that they perform when playoff positioning is tangible. The team I'm least confident about is Philadelphia whose defense has been catastrophically bad in big games.

The Giannis health tracking is the most important NBA story right now. Milwaukee's offense reverts to league-average without him as the primary creator.

The Giannis health tracking is the most important NBA story right now. Milwaukee's offense reverts to league-average without him as the primary creator.