With the All-Star Game in the books, it's time to reset the NBA's title race heading into the stretch run of the regular season.
The Boston Celtics, preseason championship co-favorites with the Milwaukee Bucks after adding Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, have lived up to that billing by taking a four-game lead over the rest of the league with a balanced combination of offense (No. 1 on a per-possession basis) and defense (No. 3) that augurs well for a deep playoff run.
Out West, the race for the top spot is more competitive. Although the Minnesota Timberwolves have opened up a 1½-game lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the top four teams -- including the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets -- are separated by just three games.
Meanwhile, three of the teams with the most playoff experience in the field, the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, lurk in play-in range after the Heat and Lakers rose up through the play-in a year ago to reach the conference finals (and, in Miami's case, the NBA Finals).
Now that rosters are largely set with the trade deadline complete and the buyout market unlikely to yield any other players of note, let's look at who is most likely to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy in June by sorting the contenders into tiers based on their chances of winning.
