Good afternoon and welcome to Locked on NBA Daily.

On today's show, it's time to check in on the playing race in the east.

Who could still escape the playing tournament and make the playoffs outright?

Do we trust the Sixers of the Heat?

The Hawks to the Bulls will talk about all the teams involved.

Plus are the Hornets a team that we need to be paying more attention to.

All that and more coming up.

You are Lock locked on NBA your daily NBA podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day all right welcome back to locked on NBA daily

part of the locked on podcast network now the number one sports podcast network, however you're tuning in. On YouTube or on your podcast app, thanks for making us your first listen every day. I'm Wes Goldberg, and today we're checking in on the playing race in the Eastern Conference. We're doing it with the help of Lockdown's local experts. I have two of the best with me, as always, from the Lockdown Nuggets podcast. He's a senior NBA writer for the Action Network. It's Matt Moore. I'm wearing my Vancouver Grizzlies hat today, and thinking back to simpler times when the owner of the Grizzlies wasn't accused of war crimes. So that's what I'm up to. From the Lockdown Bulls podcast, also a Bears and Bulls creator for Bleacher Report. it's Hayes. After one day off, I'm back and I'm pettier than ever. Let's jump right into it. We are checking in on the play-in races over the next couple of days. We're going to start in the Eastern Conference right now. 7 through 10 in the East are the heat, the magic, the Bulls, the Hawks, the Bucks, or I'm sorry, that's 7 through 10. And then you've got the Bucks and the Hornets sort of on the outer edges there of the playing tournament. Little graphic here for those watching on YouTube. On the lower end, we've got the Bucks here, three games back of the Hawks at that 10th spot the hornets are three and a half

games back we'll talk about those teams in a second but when you look at the teams right now

in the playing mix all of them have been up and down for various reasons throughout the season

but who do you trust the most to climb out of the playing tournament haze oh um probably you're your Miami Heat because of coaching.

My answer usually would have been the Orlando Magic here, which I still do think

they'll get out the plan, but like the magic season has just been so weird that I don't

have very much trust for the magic right now.

That could change here maybe towards middle of February, but I say you're Miami Heat

right now.

Are the Sixers included in this?

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

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