New format explained: https://youtu.be/BPnTfHyOnoE Even tho all the latest news has us questioning the return of the NBA season, I am still optimistic and wanted to talk about a few X-factors that will be crucial in the playoffs. The format where all the teams are going to be playing in 1 place without an audience and after such a big break can be a blessing for some teams like the Clippers, and a curse for others like the Sixers. So let’s check out both sides. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. First, let’s talk about home court advantage. The biggest beneficiary in this whole wild scenario are the Los Angeles Clippers in my opinion. Think about it. In a possible Western Conference Finals against the Lakers, this would have been a series where every game would be a home game for the Lakers. As you may have noticed throughout the season during their 3 matchups so far, you could see that Staples Center was rocking in support for Lebron, Anthony Davis and company even tho in 2 of those battles, the Clippers were listed as the home team. However now, in this situation playing on a neutral court in a quiet surrounding, the sixth man is gone for the Lakers and I feel like this could be a nice little unintentional help for the all time second NBA team from LA. On the other hand you have the Bucks and the Sixers. Milwaukee would have definitely benefited from a potential home court advantage. As the team with the best record in the league, they would have had 1 more game at home throughout the entire playoffs, and that would have come in clutch in a potential finals matchup against the 2 teams I just talked about. This way however, Giannis and his teammates are still the heavy favorites to come out of the east, but they miss out on a nice opportunity due to this unfortunate situation that we’re in. And before I move on from this topic, let me highlight the biggest loser in these circumstances, the Philadelphia 76ers. Do you guys remember or even know that their record at home this season is 29-2. They’ve been virtually unbeatable. But to be only 6th place in the East with this type of record at home, must mean that they play horrible on the road. And that’s absolutely the case. The Sixers are 10-24 in games where they don’t have the home crowd support, so you wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that this is going to be a tough road for them to go through in the playoffs. Moving on. I’d like to point out the biggest winners in terms of physical transformations during this quarantine period. First we saw images of James Harden looking significantly slimmer, saying that he’s been working on his cardio a lot and dieting. So knowing how explosive and unstoppable he’s been with all that extra weight on him, I can only imagine how scary he’ll be off the dribble. But as surprising as Harden’s transformation looked, seeing Nikola Jokic looking like Porzingis and fitting in skinny jeans was absolutely stunning. Personally I’m impressed at the amount of change his body has gone through. First he came into training camp this season being severely overweight, to now looking like this in just a few months. Although I do give him props for losing all the weight, I’m not sure how that would translate on the court. He could be more mobile, but at the same time, that wasn’t a big part of Nikola’s game. Rather the bumping and banging under the basket. And it’s going to be a lot more difficult to do that now. So it remains to be seen how he modifies his playing style and how far can Jokic take the Nuggets in the playoffs. And lastly, teams like the Pacers for example I’m sure are happy that they could give their franchise player some more time to recover from his injury. Victor Oladipo came back in January after the knee injury he suffered last season but admittedly he didn’t look good at all, lacking rhythm-as you can see from his shooting percentages right here. He also sat out games in the middle of all that, due to some minor troubles that the knee was giving him. So let’s see how Oladipo looks on the court with the extended rest that he’s had. I also mentioned in a previous video that the Blazers are fortunate to get both Nurkic and Collins back and the team is going to be at full strength as they try to make a run for the playoffs in this new format that I fully explain in detail. I’ll link the video in the description. All in all we can talk about winners and losers and who benefits, who doesn’t but the fact is that this is an entirely new and unseen territory and things are going to be the same for every team, so let’s see who makes the most out of it and who comes out on top. That’s it for now, if you liked this video, subscribe and hit the notification bell so that you don’t miss my future in depth analysis. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.