CREDIT: WINDSOR EXPRESS
Windsor’s Darren Duncan fights off London’s Jermaine Johnson in a Central Division regular season tilt.

The Central Division is strong this year. And for once, the London Lightning is not the top team.

Barring the lowly Mississauga Power causing any issues, there are four legitimate contenders coming out of the National Basketball League of Canada's “Ontario Division”: the Ottawa Skyhawks, London, Brampton A's and Windsor Express.

Ottawa has come from a lower tier record to pull toward .500 near the end of the season. They have an explosive core of forwards in Justin Tubbs and Ryan Anderson that allows them to run down teams with a real run-and-gun style. They will likely play Mississauga — a team that is really lacking a good core of guards — in the first round. Assuming Ottawa wins, they will play the number one seed in the Windsor Express — a team that has two of the best guards (Stephen Bonneau and Darren Duncan) to choose from.

London will be in tough against Brampton in the first round. They have been lacking that spark for most of the season, but bringing in big dudes Dwight McCombs and Jermaine Johnson will allow some other players some space on the floor — that includes their go-to shooter in Garrett Williamson. He has started to get his shooting back on track due to the space on the floor. The last time London played Brampton, on February 17, he notched 30 points and 10 assists for a double-double. On that Family Day game, Brampton was exhausted after playing back to back games, losing 114-96. London needs to be wary ahead of their first round matchup.

Brampton was built with NBLC vets, and it is really paying off for them. Lanky, attack-minded player Kevin Francis has been tearing up the team that averages in most three's completed per game. They have the ability to come back into games really quickly. With a good core of bigs like Cavell Johnson, they really don't have any real weaknesses. However they are not very active on the ball. They are last in steals and pretty low in blocks as well. It will be interesting to see if they get exhausted (like they were against London) and see if they lose their edge.

Finally, the best team in the league. After coming off of a league-leading 11-game winning streak, the Windsor Express are ready for the playoffs. They will take on the Mississauga Power or Ottawa Skyhawks in the first round. Although both teams have managed to play well against Windsor, they will be no match over a seven-game series. Led by their core of aforementioned guards, they also have a strong core of low players like Chris Commons and DeAndre Thomas. We've seen those guys take control of games against London and others. But the one thing that will bring Windsor to the top is their defense. They are first in field goal defense, and overall scoring defense. Good luck trying to get buy a team who have been known to grind down teams to under 100 points easily. They are the favourites, but we'll see who will come through when the playoffs come around in March.

Marty Thompson is the play-by-play voice of the London Lightning for their livestream, SportsLive24.net.