A big news came from the NBA that Irving will be allowed to play in the home game, because of the new York vaccine policy change, Irving will no longer be restricted.
Basketball star Irving will be allowed to play in the home game as New York City changes private sector vaccine regulations thursday local time to allow athletes and entertainers to appear in the workplace, Shams reported.
This news means that Irving and the Nets have finally kept the clouds open, and after nearly a season of tossing, they can finally see the return of full-time Irving before the playoffs.
Obviously, this change in regulations will also trigger a series of chain reactions, and even cause great changes in the eastern pattern.
The Nets are currently ranked 8th in the East with a record of 38 wins and 34 losses, 2 wins away from the seventh-place Raptors, 3 wins away from the 6th Cavaliers, 4 games away from the fifth-place Bulls, 6.5 wins from the third-place 76ers and fourth-place Celtics, seven wins from the second-place Bucks, and nine wins from the first Heat.
The Nets now have 10 regular season games to play, and if both Irving and Durant can play the remaining 10 games, their winning percentages will be greatly improved, the possibility of escaping the play-off area is very high, and there is a theoretical chance to return to the top three in the East.
But considering that other teams will also win some games, the Nets are expected to rise to sixth or fifth in the final ranking, of course, it is not excluded that the Raptors and Cavaliers will also perform well in later games, continuing to squeeze the Nets into the playoff area and let them enter the battle for play-off places.
But regardless of whether the Nets rush straight out of the playoff area or stay in the playoff area, as long as Irving and Durant can play and stay healthy, their entry into the playoffs will be an undoubted result, and the only suspense is whether they will appear in the playoffs as the number one in the East.
The uncertainty of the Nets' final ranking will obviously also make a huge change in the ranking pattern of the East.
Nets reporter Matt Brooks asked the soul on social media, writing: "It will be very interesting to see how many top teams in the East will let their players rest next to avoid hitting the Nets in the first round of the playoffs!" ”
Indeed, if Irving can play full-time, then their quality will be upgraded to another level, and in the entire 7-game series, any team that touches them may not be able to guarantee that it will be able to beat them.
If the Nets don't make it to the top four, the teams in the top four in the East are at risk of being beaten by the Nets in the first round.
According to the current ranking of the top four in the East, if the Nets only qualify as eighth, they will play the Heat in the first round, of course, this possibility is relatively low, so the first team in the East will be able to avoid the Nets with a high probability.
If the Nets advance to seventh, then the first round will be against the old enemy Bucks, if promoted to sixth, it will be against the 76ers, and if it is promoted to fifth, it will be against the Celtics.
So, the next most likely thing to see is that the rankings of the second to fourth places in the East will continue to change, and they are likely to adjust their response according to the Nets' rankings to avoid bumping into the Nets in the first round.
In the following regular season, we shouldn't be surprised if the Bucks, 76ers and Celtics teams keep taking turns off and losing games they shouldn't have lost.
After all, who wants to be eliminated in the first round after a hard season?