Obi Toppin set to shine over final week

The final week of the regular season is always unique. The top teams don't want to force their stars to play through injuries, as we have seen with Nikola Joki\u0107 over their last three games. Some teams on the bottom have already lost their stars for the season, like Cade Cunningham for Detroit and LaMelo Ball for Charlotte. Other teams on the bottom are getting their young guys as much run as possible, like Houston, San Antonio and Orlando. There's teams still fighting for playoff positioning that will treat these final few games like playoff games. Then there's the teams that have completely pulled the plug on their season in order to improve their lottery odds. Some have been subtle about it, like Washington and Utah, who have still fielded competitive teams and won a few games. Then there's Portland. There's a few other teams that have gone all in on the tank, but nobody does it like the Blazers. When it became clear that they wouldn't be playing postseason basketball, they shut down Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons, Jerami Grant and Jusuf Nurki\u0107. They signed Jeenathan Williams on Saturday and gave him 13 minutes on Sunday. They did the same thing last season, and they now have the fifth best odds at the top pick. We didn't see the generational tank battle that we expected for Victor Wembanyama, but teams are making up for it over the final couple of weeks. That creates a few silly season hotbeds for managers that are brave enough to play through the final day of the regular season, when all 15 teams play and half of them will bench their entire rotation. So let's take a look at a few of the hotbeds that played on Sunday, and then a few other players that should play big minutes over the final weeks.

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