With 23 games left in their regular season schedule, the Los Angeles Lakers have an opportunity to clinch a spot in the 2020 NBA playoffs as soon as Tuesday night. While they won’t know exactly where they’ll be seeded for a little while longer, they currently sit atop of the Western Conference — the same place they’ve been since the start of November — with a 5.5 game cushion over the No. 2 seed, the Denver Nuggets.

The Philadelphia 76ers are exactly where they shouldn’t be months away from the NBA playoffs that are supposed to validate The Process.

The Orlando Magic will make the playoffs for the second straight season after six years out of the money. In some realms, that’s nice. That’s positive. That’s progress. The Magic slipped into the No. 7 seed over the injury-ridden Brooklyn Nets late last week and have five games on the No. 9 Washington Wizards with 23 games to go. FiveThirtyEight gives Orlando a better than 99 percent probability of making the playoffs.

What makes an NBA Coach of the Year?

james Harden’s legacy, status, and reputation forced their way into the NBA news cycle during his recent on-camera interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols. In it, Harden reacted to Nichols’ line of questioning with faux disinterest, as if feeding his own narrative was beneath him, while what he actually wanted was to set the record straight.

James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo still have some bad blood over last year’s tight MVP race. The two superstars have been taking subtle shots at each other through the media ever since Antetokounmpo edged Harden to win the award. With Antetokounmpo set to capture his second straight MVP this season, Harden escalated the beef during an ESPN interview with Rachel Nichols that surfaced Friday.

1st Quarter:
The Heat were aggressive to start with Jimmy Butler scoring twice early on. On the other end it was Giannis and Middleton getting things done for the Bucks.

“How have you been able to balance spacing the floor and operating in the mid range area?”