This isn’t the Eastern Conference of year’s past in 2019-20. No longer is it the “Leastern Conference”, and the Boston Celtics are part of the reason why. Where does their top duo rank with the others in the playoff picture in the east?
Much of the success of the 2019-20 Boston Celtics can be attributed to the team’s best five players. While injuries have caused the quintet of Gordon Hayward, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker to play limited minutes as a unit, the Cs have been able to band together and come away with a top-three record in the east.
The latter duo of that group, Walker and Tatum, has emerged as an explosive offensive All-Star pair this season. Tatum’s historic February gave way to one of the league’s top records heading into and coming out of the All-Star break.
Now, during this final stretch-run, Boston finds themselves — not just with a top record in their respective conference — but in the entire NBA. At 43-19, the shamrocks find themselves with the fifth-best record in the association.
They’re not alone at the top, though. Milwaukee has been the league’s biggest problem, losing single-digit games thus far. The defending NBA Champion Toronto Raptors have been thriving, not just surviving, in the aftermath of Kawhi Leonard‘s departure this past summer. Both teams are ahead of the Cs in the standings, and the two teams behind Boston — the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers — both also boast All-Star duos.
The Houdini is here to rank the duos from the top seeds in the Eastern Conference:
5) Miami Heat: Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo
The presence of Jimmy Butler in South Beach has made the Miami Heat feel like a legitimate playoff threat for the first time since the 2015-16 season when the duo of Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade ran the show.
The pairing of Butler and third-year big-man Bam Adebayo has the team on pace to win 48+ games, which would make it the first time the team has amassed or exceeded this total since the 2015-16 campaign.
This season, Butler has averaged 20.5, 6.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.7 steals & Adebayo has stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, 10.5 rebounds, five assists, 1.2 steals and 1.3 blocks on 56 percent shooting from the floor. With their impressive play, both were named All-Stars (Butler’s fifth, Adebayo’s first) and have the team looking like locks to the make the 2020 postseason.
The future seems bright for Miami with these two in tow. They’ll be a challenging duo to face once this year’s playoffs come around.
4) Toronto Raptors: Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam
When Kawhi Leonard opted to leave the Toronto Raptors after helping the franchise win their first championship in just one season up north, many believed 2019-20 would be quite a disappointing followup campaign, with some envisioning the team to miss out on the postseason altogether.
However, thanks in large to the team’s top two players, things have not panned out like a lot of people expected — in a good way!
With 19 games remaining on their schedule, the Raptors are realistically looking to be a top-3 seed in the Eastern Conference and, as things currently stand with their record of 45-18, hold the third-best record in the entire NBA.
Guiding Canada’s favorite team to these surprisingly great heights is Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam. Lowry managed to register his sixth straight All-Star nod, as he’s recorded averages of 19.5 points, 7.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals on 35 percent shooting from deep.
Siakam has followed up his Most Improved Player award-winning season with an equally if not more so worthy performance in 2020 as he is averaging 23.6 points, 7.5 boards, and a block per game on 46 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from 3.
Coming into the season, there was a massive Kawhi shaped hole on the wing for the Raptors. Siakam has filled it quite nicely to the look of a first of what should be many All-Star appearances.
As this season has shown us, the Toronto Raptors are capable of surprising us all. Lowry and Siakam (and yes, Nick Nurse, but we’re talking about dynamic duos here) are the two biggest reasons why.
3) Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons
Even if rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated, the Philadelphia 76ers’ two best players have overlapping skill sets. Ben Simmons is a lefty and jumper-less version of LeBron James, able to read the floor and attack the paint with measured force.
Joel Embiid is a paint-dweller too, though, and does much of his work near the basket. Though he may see himself as a floor-spacer, Embiid has been one more in theory than in practicality…much to the chagrin of Brett Brown and co.
While his 3-point shot is a work in progress–up to 34 percent on just under four shots from 30 percent the past two years on similar volume–Embiid is best-used on the block. That just so happens to be the same area Simmons frequents most. Hell, it is the only place he can shoot, being that Simmons has taken just six shots from beyond the arc all season and 17 his first two seasons.
The playoff success so far for this All-Star duo has been limited to making the second round. The past two seasons have been stopped short by the Toronto Raptors in seven games, and of course, a dominant gentlemen’s sweep by the Boston Celtics in 2018.
This season has been disappointing for Philadelphia, as they were pegged as preseason favorites in the Eastern Conference but have failed to gel with the acquisition of Al Horford but now occupy the sixth seed in the east. Because of that, they are merely a middle of the road duo in the Eastern Conference despite their immense individual talents.
2) Boston Celtics: Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum
The addition of Kemba Walker has truly changed the vibes at the TD Garden. Everyone is excelling in their roles, and their starting five–when healthy–is one of the league’s best. Above Daniel Theis‘ jump to a good starting center, Gordon Hayward‘s efficient return to a full-time role and even Jaylen Brown‘s leap is the ascension of Boston’s top duo.
Kemba Walker is proving to excel even more on a team better built for his talent. His points total is down, but he is becoming more of a threat as a spot-up shooter. As his attempts have gone down, his scoring inevitably has followed. What’s most important is his fit on a team that can finally get him deep in the playoffs.
We wouldn’t have Walker ranked so highly if it wasn’t for his co-Batman in Jayson Tatum. Tatum is excelling in a way he never could with Kyrie Irving controlling the offense. His scoring is up over 23 points per game after averaging 30 points per game in February.
Although his final game of the month came in a losing effort, Jayson Tatum finished February as the 5th player in Celtics history to average 30 points in a calendar month (min. 10 games).
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 1, 2020
He joins Isaiah Thomas, Paul Pierce, Larry Bird and John Havlicek. pic.twitter.com/CkWBf0iyPd
It’s significant to make history like Tatum just did. That he is flanked by an All-NBA point guard playing on a contender for the first time in his career makes this duo all the more dangerous. That said, as great as they are, there is one duo better.
1) Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton
Now, perhaps to some people’s surprise, this decision to put the Milwaukee Bucks’ duo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton at the top of this list was a tough one to make.
We here at the Houdini spent a while going back and forth over comparing the Bucks’ top-two players to the Boston Celtics’ duo of Walker and Tatum. Truth be told, bias aside, this was a long process.
However, it ultimately came down to this fact: while the second-best player in Boston’s dynamic duo is without a doubt better than Milwaukee’s, Antetokounmpo is far better than either one of the C’s dynamic duo.
Because of this, Milwaukee’s two talents hold the top spot.
The reigning MVP, and current frontrunner to take home the hardware in 2020, somehow managed to improve upon his stellar 2018-19 campaign. He is putting up 29.6 points (third in the league), 13.7 boards (fourth-best), 5.8 assists, and a block per game on 55 percent shooting from the field.
Middleton, too, is having himself another fine followup to his great 2018-19 season, as he’s putting up 20.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and just under a steal per game on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 42 percent.
Both were named All-Stars yet again in 2020, with Giannis being named as a team captain in the illustrious festivities. Both have led their team to the best record in the NBA (53-10). And together, they take the top spot of the best dynamic duos in the Eastern Conference.