There are just two weeks remaining in the 2021-22 NBA regular season before the start of the playoffs, and only three teams have claimed postseason berths. The Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies are the only two teams who know which seed they'll have in the playoffs as they've locked up the top two spots in the West, respectively. Other than that, only the Miami Heat have secured a playoff spot in the East after already clinching their division.
There's plenty of intriguing storylines as the league's entered the final leg before the postseason, from which team will be the East's No. 1 seed in the playoffs, to figuring out if the Los Angeles Lakers could miss the play-in tournament entirely. Here are the five biggest stretch-run storylines as teams race to the regular season's April 10 finish line.
Race for the East's No. 1 seed
At the time of this writing, the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat are tied for the No. 1 overall spot in the East, with the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucksjust a half game behind them. So it's safe to say the battle for the top seed in the Eastern Conference is going to come down to the wire. The Celtics have been playing the best basketball of the four teams — and in the entire NBA — posting a league best 13-2 record since the All-Star break. Boston also ranks first in offensive rating and third on defense since that time span, as Jayson Tatum's MVP-level play has elevated the Celtics after a slow start to the season.
But in terms of strength of schedule, Boston has the hardest remaining one among the top four seeds in the East, with games against the Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, Bulls and Raptors. However, given the fact that the Celtics have just been bulldozing opponents since late February, it may not matter who they're playing; that's how dominant they've been.
On the flip side of that, the Sixers have the easiest remaining schedule of the four teams, with four matchups split between the Pacers and Pistons. Since the trade that brought Philadelphia James Harden, the Sixers have mostly looked like the formidable championship contender everyone expected them to be. So they have just as good a shot as anyone to claim the top spot. Then there's the defending champion Bucks, who have held steady all season long despite injuries to key players, and look to be hitting their stride at the right time with the No. 1 seed on the line.
The team that might be most in danger of falling out of contention for the top spot is ironically the team currently holding a portion of it right now. The Heat have stumbled as of late, going 4-6 in their last 10 games after holding a rather firm grip on the No. 1 spot for well over a month. They have a favorable schedule to end the season, but recent losses to the lottery-bound Knicks and a depleted Warriors team without its three biggest stars suggests that easy opponents aren't a guaranteed win for Miami nowadays.
Nets get scarier with full-time Kyrie
Kyrie Irving played in his first home game of the season Sunday night after New York City mayor Eric Adams amended the vaccine mandate that now exempts New York-based performers and athletes who play for New York's home teams. Irving's full-time status will help Brooklyn as it fights for playoff positioning in the final two weeks of the season, something that just got a whole lot murkier after Sunday's loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
Losing to the Hornets in Irving's home debut pulled the Nets even with Charlotte for the No. 8 spot in the East. It also put the Atlanta Hawks within 1.5 games of the Nets and Hornets, making the final stretch run for the play-in spots even more intriguing. Though the Nets lost a crucial matchup to the Hornets, which gives Charlotte the season tiebreaker, having Irving for the final seven games instead of just the remaining two road games left on the schedule will make a significant difference for Brooklyn.
In the month of March alone we've already seen Irving drop 60-, 50- and 43-point performances, and his production will help take some of the scoring responsibility off Kevin Durant, and upgrade Brooklyn's guard rotation in the backcourt. Looking ahead to the postseason if the Nets do secure one of the final two spots in the East, having Irving available in every game makes them a tough draw for any team in the East. Remember, the Nets entered the regular season as title favorites, and despite some bumps in the road this is still a team that features Durant and Irving, and that alone should be frightening enough to opposing teams.