As the NBA’s regular season winds down, teams are jockeying for playoff positioning in the hopes of holding homecourt advantage as deep as possible into the postseason. Chicago, in the East, and San Antonio in the West have already clinched the best records in their respective conferences, while the two are within one game of each other for securing overall best won-loss record. All of the sixteen playoff berths have also been determined, although some seedings are still to be decided.

Debate is hot and heavy as to the league’s MVP for 2010-11 with the top contenders being Derrick Rose of Chicago, Dwight Howard of Orlando, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade of Miami, Chris Paul of New Orleans, Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas and Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City. Rose is perhaps the favorite due to his remarkable job in leading the Bulls back among the league’s elite, which they’d been absent from ever since Michael Jordan’s retirement.