On December 25, Beijing time, the NBA regular season will have a short day off, and then the Christmas game will begin, this time the league has arranged 5 games, 5 teams from the east and west. Among them, there was also an accident, the five teams in the East happened to be in the top eight, on the other hand, only two of the top eight teams in the West got the chance to play Christmas, and the traffic teams Lakers, Warriors and Suns were all outside the top eight.
The five games are: Bucks vs. Knicks, Warriors vs. Nuggets, Celtics vs. Lakers, 76ers vs. Heat, and Mavericks vs. Suns.
There hasn't been much change in the strength of the East, with the five teams participating in the Christmas game in the top six, and only the fourth-placed Magic failed to make it, and they are also the current biggest dark horse in the East, having previously ranked second. It can also be seen from this that the strength of the east is still predictable, and there are basically no major changes.
The East is stable, the West is even wilder, and it was expected that these teams would be able to rank first, but before the Christmas game began, there were three teams that did not make it into the top eight. The defending champion Nuggets are second in the West and are still very consistent in terms of strength, and are currently on a four-game winning streak, while the Mavericks' recent form has declined, and they have been in the top four before, and are currently in sixth place with 17 wins and 12 losses.
The remaining three teams are all ranked ninth, tenth, and eleventh, with the Lakers and Warriors also recovering. In the last game, the Lakers chose to change their lineup and successfully defeated the Thunder to end a four-game losing streak, and the team finally came out of the joy of winning the midseason championship. After Green's suspension, the Warriors began to wake up, winning five in a row, successfully turning the tide and starting to storm upward, and the Rockets are one win away from eighth-place Rockets.
The Lakers and Warriors have just ushered in a recovery, and the Suns are still in a slump, forming a much-anticipated Big Three, but so far they have only played 2 games together, and Beal will continue to be absent, the team can only rely on Durant and Booker, and the overall offense is not good, once they are inaccurate, the team will basically lose.
After all, the overall strength of the Lakers, Warriors and Suns is still quite good, but they didn't expect to be able to play, but they still have a lot of attention, and they can still attract a lot of attention.