How Will Brooklyn Nets Finish Their Season?

The Eastern Conference playoff picture has really become interesting in the last few weeks.

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The Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets have put together impressive runs late in the season, while the Indiana Pacers have also played solid basketball over the last few months, and now have Paul George back to help them do some damage to end the year.

Currently, the Celtics and Nets are in seventh and eighth place, respectively, with Indiana sitting on the outside looking in.

The Pacers are a full game back of the Celtics and Nets, while Boston holds the tie-breaker because of their better record in head-to-head matchups.

With the competition so tight, how is the East going to shake out? Where will the Nets actually land, and how will they fare against their postseason opponent?

To start, yes, I believe the Nets will stay in the playoffs, grabbing the seventh seed from the Celtics.

When looking at Brooklyn’s last three games, they happen to be against the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic. All three of the games are winnable, as the Bucks and Bulls have been on a bit of a slide recently, while the Magic have struggled to play at a high level all season.

The Celtics meanwhile have to face the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors as well as the Bucks. That’s three teams currently sitting in the playoffs to end the season, a difficult slate of games nonetheless. The chances of Boston holding on to their current spot are very slim, but weirder things have happened before.

The Pacers’ schedule is even more difficult, with three games against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Washington Wizards and Memphis Grizzlies. With the Pacers a full game back in the race right now, they certainly have their work cut out for them, but it looks like Indiana will miss the playoffs this season and hope for a nice bounce of the ping-pong balls in the lottery.

So if the Nets were to finish in the seventh spot in the conference, they would go against the Cleveland Cavaliers to open the playoffs.

With the Cavs being one of the hottest teams in the league since the midpoint of the season, do the Nets actually have a shot to knock them out and advance?

The key to the series would have to be Nets big man Brook Lopez, who has been on an absolute tear to start April, averaging 23.8 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Lopez is playing well on both ends of the floor, and more importantly he’s been healthy, which is arguably the Nets’ biggest concern.

Lopez has the talent and skill to be a No. 1 option for this team down the stretch as long as he can stay on the court.

The Cavs’ biggest weakness is in the interior, meaning that Lopez will have to be incredibly dominant for the Nets to have a shot at making some noise against them. Not only will he have to step up, but Deron Williams will also have to be special against Cleveland, like he’s been of late.

The month of April has been very good to the Nets, as Williams has also emerged just like Lopez. Over their last six games, Williams has averaged 18.3 points and 9.2 assists per game, shooting a red-hot 56.3 percent from three-point range.

The Nets have to rely on their stars in Williams and Lopez if they’re going to win any games in the postseason. These two, along with Joe Johnson, were given big money to carry this team to a championship, so it’s time for them to step up and prove themselves against a worthy opponent.

Ultimately, I believe the Nets will fall to the Cavs, but it’s not completely inconceivable to think that the Nets could make it interesting, possibly even upset Cleveland because of the way they’ve been playing of late. As long as the Nets play within themselves on offense and put together a reasonable effort on defense, then they have a shot in any game they play.

Each player needs to stick to their role while Williams does his best setting up his teammates for easy shot attempts from the perimeter and at the rim.

Brooklyn has the talent to compete, now let’s see it happen this postseason.

*Statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.

Next: How Lopez Has Changed Nets' Playoff Hopes

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