All 30 NBA teams finished their last game of the 2020-21 regular season on Sunday, putting an end to this 72-game campaign.

In the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Brooklyn Nets, the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks are the top four teams that will enjoy home advantage in the first-round of the playoffs. They are followed by the No. 5 Atlanta Hawks and No. 6 Miami Heat.

The Boston Celtics, the Washington Wizards, the Indiana Pacers and the Charlotte Hornets will compete for the last two postseason berths in the play-in tournament. One will go to the winner between the Celtics and the Wizards. The losing team will have to play the winning one between the Pacers and the Hornets for the other spot.

Things are more interesting in the Western Conference. The Los Angeles Clippers managed to avoid meeting the Los Angeles Lakers until the Conference Finals. After two straight losses in the end, they are No. 4 in the West and will meet the Dallas Mavericks in the first round.

The Denver Nuggets (No. 3) won't meet the purple and gold either after losing to the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center on Sunday. Thanks to that victory, the Trail Blazers (No. 6) stay out of the play-in competitions and will meet the Nuggets in the first round.

The Utah Jazz (No. 1) and the Phoenix Suns (No. 2) will not know who they will play against in the first round before the play-in tournament is over.

The Lakers, expected by many, fell into the play-in zone as No. 7 and will meet the Golden State Warriors (No. 8) first. If they win, they will play against the Suns; if they lose, they will host the winner between the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs.

The Lakers have good reasons to watch out for the Warriors after Stephen Curry claimed 46 points against the Grizzlies on Sunday. That performance lifted Curry's average points to 32, bringing him the second scoring title in his career. The 33-year-old also joined Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the only four in NBA history to win multiple Championships, MVP awards and scoring titles.

Curry also buried 337 triples, the most in the league and averaged 5.35 per game, the most in NBA history. He also drained 10-plus shots from downtown in seven games. It's hard to say whether this is Curry's best-performing season or the 2015-16 unanimous MVP season.

Despite his epic performance, Curry is unlikely to win the NBA MVP Award this season. In fact, no one can even challenge Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets in that competition. The Joker has not missed even one game and averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists. The Nuggets lost their other ace, Jamal Murray, from April 12 but still managed to win 13 of the following 18 games because they had Jokic.

More importantly, like Jordan and Tim Duncan, Jokic's stats actually grow in the postseason which has more intense defense. As the Nuggets' opponents in the first-round playoffs, the Trail Blazers will have to scratch their brains trying figure out how to limit the Joker.

A surprising figure may receive some votes in the MVP competition, Julius Randle of the New York Knicks. The 26-year-old finished the best season of his career dropping 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and six assists per game, all career highs. However, his team, the Knicks are actually a bigger surprise.

The last time the Knicks appeared in the playoffs was in 2013 when Carmelo Anthony was still playing at Madison Square Garden and was the scoring champion. In the following eight years, the Knicks were stuck in a vicious circle in which they tanked, made wrong drafting choices, and then tanked again.

The arrival of coach Tom Thibodeau changed everything. He made the Knicks the one of the best-defensive teams in the league. He made the team's young players realize that working hard will pay off. It's hard to say how the they will perform in front of the Hawks and possibly stronger opponents in the postseason, but at least the Knicks are looking at something bright after years of darkness.

Another great example of a hero returning this season is Russell Westbrook who scored 38 triple-doubles, the most in the league, and surpassed Oscar Robertson (181 triple-doubles) to lead the NBA history (184) in this area by himself.

Though he's already 32 years old and has gone through multiple injuries with both knees, Westbrook managed to combine his energy, athleticism and court vision while maximizing the power of such game style this season. He is the assists leader of the season with 11.5 rebounds per game, the sixth-most of the league. Moreover, Westbrook is the only guard of the top 20 on the list.

The Wizards couldn't have risen to No. 8 in the East without the explosive performance of Westbrook. Judging by the difficulties the No. 7 Celtics have been dealing with recently, the Wizards are very likely to drive their way into the playoffs and challenge the Nets in the first round.

Compared with the above 20 teams that still have games to play, the other 10 can start preparing for their work in the offseason, with their tasks being quite different.

The Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder should be very satisfied with their tanking job. With the league's worst 17-55 record, the Rockets are looking at the first-overall draft pick for a talent pool filled with promising young blood like Cade Cunningham and Jalen Suggs.

Of course, the Detroit Pistons (20-52) and the Orlando Magic (21-51) will have the same chance of getting that pick.

The Thunder (22-50) will have a total of 34 draft picks from 2021 to 2027, 17 of them are first-rounders. Their general manager Sam Presti won't need anyone to do his job of selecting young talents.

The Cleveland Cavaliers (22-50) can start looking for the right help for Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, if they are convinced that the two guards are the ones to rebuild around. A top 5 pick should be good enough to either select a quality young man or make an attractive asset in a trade.

Compared with them, the Chicago Bulls should spend some time looking for a new head coach who can lead a squad that has two All-Stars – Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic – to the playoffs. Meanwhile, their front office will need to get creative trying to convince Lavine to stay when he as only one year left of his contract.

As for the remaining three teams, they better find new front office members. The New Orleans Pelicans and the Minnesota Timberwolves should focus on finding GMs who have no hobby of wasting young talents or throwing around big contracts. As for the Sacramento Kings, before they figure out how to end their longest playoff drought (15 years), they should learn how not to miss Luka Doncic for Marvin Bagley III.