NBA Divisional Races

The second leg of the NBA season is looking like it may be a very entertaining one. There are many teams that are in contention to make a playoff one, even after a not-so-good first 50 or so games.

Starting in the Atlantic Division, the laughing stock of the league; the Toronto Raptors are playing very poised basketball and are looking to capture the division. The New Jersey Nets are right behind them, however, and are looking to start off the post all star break schedule with some solid wins. The Knicks are also in the picture. Even though the level of play in the Atlantic Division is very poor, it looks to be a good race to the end with three teams with a legitimate chance of winning their division.

The Central Division is looking to be a great race to the finish to see who can capture the division title. All but one of the teams, the Milwaukee Bucks, are in contention. The Detroit Pistons are the favorite in the Central Division, but the Cleveland Cavaliers are also putting out quite an impressive showing this season. The Chicago Bulls could easily put out a solid run and creep into first. The Bulls have a lot of talent and if they can put some good wins together, they could end up very successful.

The Southeast Division is possibly the most interesting race in the Eastern Conference. The Washington Wizards hold a decent lead of a few games right now, but the Orlando Magic are very close behind. The most interesting part of this division race is the defending champion Miami Heat. The Heat ended the last leg of the season before the all star break very strong winning 7 or their last 10 games. With Shaquille O'Neal playing more minutes and getting back into the lineup they should make a good run. This division is looking to be a very interesting one for the last 30 games.

The Northwest Division of the Western Conference is not an extremely close race, with the Utah Jazz dominating. The only other team that has the ability to make a run and make up the good sized game as of the all star break is the Denver Nuggets. Utah is playing some of the best basketball in the entire NBA so catching up to them for a division title will be very challenging.

The Pacific Division is not much of a race either. The Phoenix Suns are dominating the division and seem to be totally in charge. No other team seems capable of making a run that would even come close to winning the division.

There is a somewhat interesting story unfolding in the Southwest Division between the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs. Though the Spurs are 9.5 games back at the all star break, there is a chance that they could catch the red-hot Mavericks. The Spurs will have to really put together a solid run to overcome a very big deficit on an amazing team in the Mavericks.

The Eastern Conference is clearly inferior to the Western. The Eastern Conference almost seems to be a bunch of bad teams fighting against each other for one win at a time. Anyone could beat anyone on any night in the Eastern Conference, which actually can be very entertaining to watch.

The Western Conference is different because there are a few teams that almost totally dominate. The Mavericks, Spurs (though behind a bit now), Suns, and Jazz are playing top quality basketball and are all NBA title threats.

The Division in both conferences should end up being exciting, as they usually are.