Thursday 20 February 2020 09:43, UK
Will the Pelicans make a serious playoff push? Is the Rockets' new line-up sustainable? Will the Bucks reach 70 wins? Discover 10 storylines that will shape the remainder of the regular season.
With the 2020 All-Star Weekend now in the rearview mirror, what can we expect from the regular-season stretch run? NBA.com's Michael C Wright examines 10 storylines to watch as the NBA season resumes.
New Orleans are surging after a 6-22 start with Zion Williamson recovering from knee surgery and other valuable players in and out of the line-up due to injuries.
The Pelicans won six of their last nine games going into the All-Star break, and they've got the NBA's easiest remaining schedule. Memphis - the current No 8 seed in the West - have the most difficult remaining schedule.
The Pelicans are 11th in the standings but have six games left to play against the teams sitting between them and that eighth spot (Portland, Memphis and San Antonio). To date, New Orleans are a combined 5-1 against those squads.
Courtesy of the addition of 3-and-D specialist Robert Covington, the Rockets are now giving more spacing to two of the NBA's most dangerous guards in James Harden and Russell Westbrook. That's difficult to guard even for the most athletic of NBA teams.
Houston quietly became a more versatile squad with this new line-up, and you can't forget the Rockets can still play a more traditional line-up when needed with centers Isaiah Hartenstein and Tyson Chandler in the fold.
Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant certainly appears to be on the way, as he is averaging 17.6 points and 7.1 assists.
At All-Star weekend, several of Morant's NBA peers endorsed him for the award, including fellow Rookie of the Year candidate Kendrick Nunn of the Miami Heat and Jaren Jackson Jr, Morant's team-mate.
Pelicans forward Williamson (22.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 57.6 field goal percentage) will certainly be considered among the favourites, but injuries kept him out of the season's first 44 games - all while Morant kept showing up and showing out every night.
Milwaukee need to win 24 of their last 28 games to become the third team in NBA history to capture 70 victories in a season - a feat accomplished by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (who went 72-10) and the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors (73-9).
It won't be easy with the red-hot Toronto Raptors - winners of 15 of their last 16 entering the All-Star break - trying to catch them. The two teams face off three more times.
Milwaukee play 17 of their last 28 games against teams currently sitting in the top eight of their respective conference standings.
In the East, just five games separate the seventh, eighth and ninth-placed teams. The ninth-placed Wizards are just three games behind No 8 Orlando, and the Magic trail seventh-place Brooklyn by just two games. Even the Chicago Bulls, currently at 10th in the East, are five games behind Orlando.
In the West, eighth-place Memphis come out of the All-Star break with a four-game lead on Portland. However, San Antonio and New Orleans are lurking behind the Blazers for that eighth spot.
Memphis are hot, having won eight of their last 10, and they might be poised to put some distance between themselves and the other teams vying for the final playoff berth.
It is certainly looking that way for the defending champions, who ran off a 15-game winning streak before falling to the Nets going into All-Star Weekend.
Last season at this point, the Raptors sat at second in the East behind Milwaukee, and we all saw how that ended. It's not quite the same situation as 2018-19, though, as Toronto are currently six-and-a-half games behind the Bucks. At the break in 2018-19 the separation was only one game.
The Raptors are 12th offensive rating, second defensive rating, third in three-point percentage (37.7 per cent) and fifth in three-pointers made per game (13.7). That is legit.
San Antonio have advanced to the postseason for a record-tying 22 consecutive seasons, but their 23-31 mark at the All-Star break ranks as the worst at that juncture since the 1996-97 season. That was the season before San Antonio drafted franchise icon Tim Duncan No 1 overall.
The Spurs started their annual rodeo road trip by dropping five of six games, and they've lost seven of their last 10.
San Antonio's next three match-ups come against teams likely to make the playoffs (Utah, Oklahoma City and Dallas).
The Clippers defeated the Lakers twice in the first half of the season and meeting No 3 was postponed after the death of Kobe Bryant. The Clippers are currently third in the West, five games behind the Lakers.
If the Clippers find a way to secure that No 2 seed, they'll essentially be playing at home throughout the entire postseason, which could make for a fun match-up in the West finals against the Lakers, provided they meet there and the Lakers remain No 1 in the West.
Two regular-season contests - Sunday, March 8 (7.30pm, UK time) and the make-up date (yet to be scheduled) - remain in this new rivalry.
Curry played in just four games before suffering a broken left hand, and he has targeted early March for a return. With the Warriors owning the worst record in the league (12-43),
Curry won't be able to help much, and that naturally leads to concern about whether bringing him back this season is the smart play.
Curry said he wants to end his season on a strong note, but the Warriors should tread carefully in exposing their best player to injury since the playoffs are out of reach.
Philadelphia are 25-2 at home, but need to start winning on the road, where they have struggled to a 9-19 record. Major tests await starting on Saturday night at Milwaukee, before a West Coast trip for games on March 1 and 3 against the Clippers and the Lakers, respectively.
After narrowly missing the Eastern Conference Finals last year, the 76ers have regressed. Only one of the club's road wins has come against a team over .500 (the Celtics on December 12), which is a scary proposition for a team that could be starting the postseason on the road.
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