This is March!
The best month of the basketball calendar year is here.
We’ve hit March baby!!
We are in the home stretch in the NBA season with just over a month to play, the NBL Finals are tied up at 1 game a-piece and College Basketball gives us some March Madness!
The NBA was turned on its head out West, with Kevin Durant joining the Phoenix Suns and Kyrie Irving teaming up with Luka Doncic in Dallas.
The KD move has worked a treat for Phoenix, with the Suns a couple games back on the Sacramento Kings for the division lead with 17 games to play.
Unfortunately for Dallas, they’re yet to hit their stride with Kyrie, falling into 7th place out West, and in danger of having to qualify for the playoffs through the Play-In tournament. The Mavs and Suns got extra chirpy earlier in the week, with Phoenix stealing one in Dallas, and having NBA fans praying these teams somehow match up again in the playoffs!
There are some heavy hitters just waiting for Sacramento to fall off a cliff to finish this season. They’ve been by far the best story of the NBA season, a solid 12 games over .500 with 18 games to play, in what will be one of the best atmospheres in playoff basketball at the Golden One Center if they hold on for a top 3 seed!
There’s a clear Top 3 out East, as Milwaukee, Boston and Philly are going toe to toe for the number one seed.
Milwaukee currently have a 2 game lead on the Celtics, with Philly a further 2 back on Boston.
The best story out East this season is the New York Knicks.
New York are playing on another level, and haven’t lost since picking up Josh Hart, and the Villanova connection with Jalen Brunson is clear to see.
Brunson has been ballin’ on another level this season, as well as All-Star Julius Randle, this team has the Garden rocking again and readying them for a potential top 4 finish in the East if they can top the Cavs (currently 1.5 games behind).
The NBL Finals has also now reached boiling point, with Sydney and NZ locked up going into Game 3 of the Championship Series on Friday.
It’s still unclear if the Kings will have a healthy Xavier Cooks, with the MVP recently picked up by the Washington Wizards on a 2 Year Deal (HUGE SCENES!!).
The Kings were too good for the Breakers on Sunday in New Zealand, but will need their MVP as well as Derrick Walton Jr to grab the ascendency heading back to NZ for Game 4.
Either way it’s going to be a cracking contest, with a huge crowd expected out at Olympic Park.
Last but not least, March brings about one of the greatest tournaments in the basketball world.
March Madness is in full swing with some of the smaller conference tournaments kicking off this week and a number of teams having punched their tickets already.
It’s a big week for teams like North Carolina, who may need to win the ACC Tournament just to make the field of 68 named on Monday, with the preseason number 1 a huge disappointment this season after their big run to the final in last year’s tournament.
It’s sure to be a huge couple of weeks of basketball ahead!
Bauky