With the NBA All-Star break over, teams are heading into the final stretch of the 2021-22 regular season with around 25 or so games remaining.
With that in mind, Yahoo Sports’ NBA experts reset their preseason predictions for a number of awards, late-playoff matchups and what will be the most interesting storylines heading into the postseason.
MVP
Vincent Goodwill: Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
Chris Haynes: Chris Paul, Phoenix Suns
Ben Rohrbach: Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
Odds to win: Embiid is BetMGM’s favorite for MVP at +125, followed by Denver’s Nikola Jokic at +275 and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo at +375.
Rookie of the Year
Vincent Goodwill: Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
Chris Haynes: Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
Ben Rohrbach: Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
Odds to win: Mobley is BetMGM’s favorite for Rookie of the Year at -350, followed by Oklahoma City’s Josh Giddey at +850 and Detroit’s Cade Cunningham at +900.
Coach of the Year
Vincent Goodwill: J.B. Bickerstaff, Cleveland Cavaliers
Chris Haynes: Monty Williams, Phoenix Suns
Ben Rohrbach: Taylor Jenkins, Memphis Grizzlies
Odds to win: Williams is BetMGM’s favorite for Coach of the Year at -250, followed by Bickerstaff at +325 and Jenkins at +650.
Western Conference finals matchup
Vincent Goodwill: Phoenix Suns vs. Golden State Warriors
Chris Haynes: Phoenix Suns vs. Golden State Warriors
Ben Rohrbach: Phoenix Suns vs. Golden State Warriors
Odds to win: The Warriors are BetMGM’s favorite to win the West at +175, followed by the Suns at +190 and the Utah Jazz at +600.
Eastern Conference finals matchup
Vincent Goodwill: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Miami Heat
Chris Haynes: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Ben Rohrbach: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Miami Heat
Odds to win: The Brooklyn Nets and Bucks are BetMGM’s favorite to win the East at +280, followed by the 76ers at +350 and the Heat at +500.
NBA Finals matchup
Vincent Goodwill: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Golden State Warriors
Chris Haynes: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns
Ben Rohrbach: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Golden State Warriors
Odds to win: The Warriors are BetMGM’s favorite to win the championship at +425, followed by the Suns at +450 and the Nets at +600.
Most surprising team
Vincent Goodwill: Memphis Grizzlies
Chris Haynes: Cleveland Cavaliers
Ben Rohrbach: Los Angeles Lakers
What we’re looking forward to watching down the stretch
Vincent Goodwill: The battle for playoff positioning in the Eastern Conference. It’ll all come down to matchups compared to team excellence, and it’ll be interesting to see who avoids who in this.
Chris Haynes: Seeing if James Harden and Joel Embiid can succeed together in competing for a championship. The last few months of the season will be telling.
Ben Rohrbach: The jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference playoffs is going to be insane. The Brooklyn Nets would actually benefit from being a seventh or eighth seed, because of Kyrie Irving’s vaccination status, and nobody is going to want to be the Nos. 1 or 2 seed as a result. It is going to be brutal, and the fight starts with the road each team lays out for itself over the final 25 games.
We got these preseason predictions right
Vincent Goodwill: The Brooklyn Nets being a mess.
Chris Haynes: The Los Angeles Lakers are the mess we thought they would be.
Ben Rohrbach: I was wrong about the Lakers in 2019-20, when I said they were wildly overrated, and again in 2020-21, when I said they would repeat as champions, so I’ll take a victory lap while I can, since I said they were more pretenders than contenders to start this season. (Now watch them win the title.)