2022 NBA All-Star weekend has passed us by, shifting our focus to the home stretch of the regular season.
With 20-plus games remaining, there is still enough time for underachieving teams to right the ship, Play-In teams to become playoff teams and injured players to get healthy, but the postseason will be here before we know it.
As we get set for the unofficial second half of the season to tip-off on Thursday, members of our Sporting News staff came together to point out some must-watch storylines for the remainder of the season.
MORE: Watch the NBA All-Star Game live with Sling TV (3-day free trial)
Biggest storylines of second half of NBA season
Kyle Irving (@KyleIrv_): With the breaking news that Chris Paul could miss the remainder of the regular season with a fracture in his thumb, I'm particularly interested in seeing how the first-place Suns and co-star Devin Booker respond.
The Suns went into the All-Star break with a jaw-dropping 48-10 record. According to StatMuse, 48 wins is tied with the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors – the team that went a record-breaking 73-9 – for the most wins in NBA history before All-Star weekend. Phoenix was firing on all cylinders, but everything could change without CP3.
This gives Booker the opportunity to prove that he can be the guy on the best team in the league. Booker was playing some of the best basketball of his career prior to the break, tallying eight 30-point games and two 40-point games since the start of the new year. He's also stepping up his game on the defensive side of the ball and he was starting to position himself as a potential MVP candidate if not for sharing the spotlight with Paul.
Let's see what the Booker-led Suns look like as they remain hopeful for Paul's return at the start of the postseason.
Scott Rafferty (@crabdribbles): So, uh, are the Nets title-contenders or what?
Coming into the season, the Nets were most people's pick to win it all. Safe to say, nothing has gone as planned, to the point where this team now looks completely different. It's still built around two of the league's deadliest scorers in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but the Nets swapped James Harden for Ben Simmons and added depth in the form of Seth Curry and Andre Drummond at the trade deadline.
MORE: Did Sixers or Nets win the Ben Simmons and James Harden trade?
At full strength, I'm still a believer in the Nets being one of the two best teams in the Eastern Conference, but that hinges on — takes a deep breath — Durant playing at the MVP level he was prior to his knee injury, Simmons being the player he was last season when he was flirting with triple-doubles on a nightly basis and earning Defensive Player of the Year votes, and Irving being more than a part-time player.
Will the Nets put it all together? Maybe, but they're running out of time.
Gilbert McGregor (@GMcGregor21): I'm very intrigued by how the MVP race will play out over the stretch run of the season.
At this point in the year, is there really a clear-cut favorite? Depending on who you ask, you might get an answer of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic while DeMar DeRozan has emerged as a legitimate candidate as well.
When you think about each of the above names, there's a fun narrative to go along with their MVP candidacy.
Jokic, of course, could go from being selected in the middle of the second round to winning MVP in back-to-back seasons, cementing a unique legacy. Antetokounmpo, on the other hand, could win his third MVP trophy before turning 28, further forging his path towards all-time greatness.
NBA MVP LADDER: Who currently has the best shot at winning the award?
It's always fun to see first-timers win regardless of circumstance, which would apply to both Embiid and DeRozan, but seeing DeRozan grab the award for the first time in his 13th season is a different kind of first-time story.
Those guys might be the frontrunners now, but a late run from Dallas could propel Luka Doncic into the conversation, while Booker's body of work in Paul's absence could sway some voters.
There might be a photo finish for the MVP award winner, and it'll be exciting to follow.
Carlan Gay (@TheCarlanGay): Anyone that says they're not intrigued by how LeBron James and the Lakers will finish the season is lying.
By now you know that the Lakers currently sit ninth place in the West — 6.0 games behind the Nuggets who are clear of the Play-In Tournment. Anthony Davis will be out of action for quite some time with his latest injury. Russell Westbrook has struggled to figure out how to be, well, Russell Westbrook, in L.A. It looks grim for the Lakers, but they have LeBron James. And history tells us never count out LeBron James.
Will the Lakers be a title threat this season? Heck no. But can LeBron carry this Laker team to the playoffs and scare one of the title favourites in the first round? It's not out of the realm of possibility.
I'll say this: if I'm the Warriors, the last team I want to see is a healthy Laker team in the first round. Can you say bad matchup?
