Our picks for the dark horse, champion, and biggest flop for the NBA

The NBA is a thrilling league: Name one other sport where you can dunk, break ankles, and score 100 points per game. Now let’s hear all about it. In this article, we are going to be talking about the dark horse, the predicted winner, and the biggest flop in the quest to become this season’s NBA champions. 

The Dark Horses

Yusuf: First, why don’t we talk about who the dark horse is? I think that the Dallas Mavericks will be the dark horse of the NBA. Why don’t we talk about some amazing players on their team? Number one is easily Luka Doncic; he has already racked up more than 1,200 points this season. At the age of 24, not only will he be a future star but also a legendary player for the Mavericks. At number two, we’ve got Kyrie Irving. Throughout his career, he has scored more than 16,000 points, and this season has already totaled 700 points while playing limited games. 

Alex: For my dark horse team, I have to go with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are currently 9th in the Western Conference, which seems bad, but let's look at last year. The Lakers finished 7th in the West and pulled off a 4-2 series upset against the two-seed Memphis Grizzlies in the Playoffs. The Lakers would eventually lose to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference championship game. It is worth noting the Nuggets would go on to win the NBA championship, so the Lakers losing was not surprising. The Lakers have kept their starting lineup from last year, except for adding Christian Wood. The lineup features LeBron James, who is a 4-time MVP in addition to many other accolades, paired up with seven-footer Anthony Davis, who has been named to four all-NBA 1st teams. The Lakers team also features D'Angelo Russell, who in 2019 was named an All-Star. Even though these three are all past their prime, they are formidable threats still performing at a high level. While age can sometimes be a negative factor, for the Lakers, it is an extremely positive factor to feature veterans who have been in extreme playoff situations. All in all, the Lakers’ age has been a factor when it comes to playing an 82-game regular season, but when it comes down to a playoff series, no one will want to face them.

The Flops

Alex: Predicting a team that will flop when it comes down to the biggest moments boils down to a few factors: inexperienced players, injuries, coaching experience, and past cases of failure. All these signs point to the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers are extremely dependent on last year's MVP, Joel Embiid. The Sixers this season are 26-6 when the MVP is on the floor, but are only 3-7 without him. This makes complete sense, as Embiid is currently the frontrunner to win his second MVP, dropping 70 points in a game recently. He leads all NBA players in 40-point games,with eight this season. The only problem is that Embiid is quite prone to injury, standing at seven feet tall. All it takes is one injury and the Sixers are out of it. They still have a great team behind Embiid, featuring Tyrese Maxey, who is averaging nearly 26 points and 7 assists. The only problem is Maxey and the rest of Embiid’s supporting cast are inexperienced and can not win without Embiid. Last year, even with Embiid, when it came down to a decisive game seven in the Playoffs against the Celtics, the 76ers flopped. While the 76ers have very legitimate playoff hopes, one injury and they could be going home.

The Winners:

Alex: My predicted winner might be a little generic, but I have got to pick the Boston Celtics. The Celtics are currently multiple games ahead of the second-place team in the east, the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks just fired head coach Adrian Griffin, so team chemistry will be an issue going forward for them. As far as teams in the west, the Celtics have already proven they can beat top teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are currently contending with other teams for the number one seed in the west. The Celtics easily have the best starting five in the league, featuring one of the best two-way guards in the league, Jrue Holiday. The lineup also features multi-time All-Stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. It also features another great defensive guard in Derrick White and 7’3” center Kristaps Porzingis. Their bench also features veteran all-star Al Horford and role-players like Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser. The Celtics were most experts’ pick at the start of the year and are generally still the consensus to be the predicted victor. 

All in all, the NBA is so packed with talented players and teams that predicting the winner is so difficult. While we wrote this, Joel Embiid tore his left meniscus and is projected to miss at least a month. The  Los Angeles Clippers also climbed from the sixth seed to the first, which just goes to show how uncertain the NBA is.

Credit to ESPN for information on player statistics and standings.