The Super Bowl is over, and focus is off the NFL for a little while. Now we can focus on hoops again, with March Madness due to start in less than a month. There’s also plenty happening in the NBA, with a few months to go before the playoffs start.
There are still several teams that are looking like strong contenders for the NBA Championship title this year.
Los Angeles Lakers
The LA Lakers have had a great season so far. They sit at the top of the Western Conference, with a 37-11 record and two games in hand. Their record is second overall in the entire NBA, with the Bucks in the East the only team to have won more games.
According to comparison sites like, the LA Lakers have finally moved to be the bookmakers favourite, inching ahead of their neighbours, the LA Clippers. The Clippers have been favourite since the beginning of the season, but have won two less games than the Lakers, despite playing two more games.
Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks are having a great season too. They’re the best performing team in the entire league, and sit third favourite to win the NBA Championship among most bookmakers. They look like they’re on for ending the season with more than 70 wins. If they can pull that off then they would be the third team in the league’s history to be able to pull it off.
They ended last year with 60 wins, but were unable to translate this performance to success in the playoffs. The Bucks look like they’re on a mission this year, so could quite easily take the title.
Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors were surprise winners last season, but then lost some of their key players in the off season. Because of this, most pundits didn’t expect them to continue to be contenders this season, yet they currently sit second in the Eastern Conference with a 36-14 record. This makes them third across the entire NBA, better than the LA Clippers who are second favourite to win the Championship.
Los Angeles Clippers
Tha Clippers started the season as overall favourites to win the NBA outright. However, their first half of the season was a little below par. After the New Year, the Clippers have turned things around winning 11 of their 15 games since January.
Part of their poor performance in December could be put down to unfortunate scheduling creating lots of back-to-back on the road games, and several key players being injured. With most of this behind them, the Clippers could be on a final charge towards the playoffs.
There’s still plenty of games to play this season, so there’s a lot that can change, but these teams have set out their intentions clearly, and it looks like it’ll be a close race between them.