With the Warriors’ win over the Lakers, the race for the playoff seeding has now become even closer than it was previously. However, this is nothing new. Every season in the Western Conference of the NBA, even until the very end, there always seem to be lingering questions about which team will land any of the seedings between 1-8.
The West has always been extremely competitive, and there is no straight forward answer to who will represent the West in the NBA Finals. Sure, SGA and the Oklahoma City Thunder have been on pace to win 70 games this season and have led the West with a 64-12 record so far. But are you willing to bet that a young Thunder team without much playoff experience will knock off everyone in the West? After all, the best player in the world, Nikola Jokic, is still playing and is not going away anytime soon.
The Western Conference of the NBA can be compared to soccer’s English Premier League, where almost every team is ultra competitive and on any given night, a bottom seed can pull off a huge upset with a win over the top seed. Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference, in most seasons, seems to have a clear distinction between the top seeded teams and the bottom seeds.
This season, in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers are leading the way, with the reigning defending champs, Boston Celtics, currently at the second seed. If you look at the standings in the East, almost every team has locked in their playoff spots except the Bucks and the Pistons, who are currently tied with a 42-34 record.
After the Lakers lost against the Warriors, that helped the Nuggets move up to the third seed in the West. However, this season, the Nuggets have been inconsistent throughout and we just do not know what to expect from them. Even though they are the 3rd-seed, their recent loss against the 7th- seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, despite the Joker having a 61-point triple-double, raises concerns.
And an embarrassing loss against the injured San Antonio Spurs team makes us wonder if they can maintain that 3rd-seed going forward because they are only a couple of games away from being in the Play-In Tournament.
Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers just lost against the Warriors, and in our opinion, it was a must-win game for them. They have a tough stretch of games coming up as they have to play the Oklahoma City Thunder twice. They also have to play the second-seeded Rockets, and if the Lakers lose all three of those games, we could be looking at them being in the Play-In Tournament. The Lakers need to avoid the 4th or 5th seed in the West because that would mean that they’d have to face the Thunder in the second round.
The Warriors are currently sitting at the fifth-seed in the standings and are only four games away from the eighth-seed in the West. Even though they are at the 5th-seed in the West, they share the same fate as the Lakers because that would mean that even if they win the first round of the playoffs, they’d face the Thunder in the second round.
While they have been on a roll ever since acquiring Jimmy Butler, we still do not believe that they are well-equipped to beat OKC. They need to continue winning games in order to stay out of the Play-In Tournament, and should definitely aim for the 3rd seed.
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Meanwhile, the 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-seeded teams, who are the Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Los Angeles Clippers respectively, are still battling for the 6th seed in the West. The Grizzlies and the Timberwolves are currently tied with a record of 45-32, and the Clippers are only a win away from tying the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves.
The Grizzlies ended up firing their head coach, Taylor Jenkins, at a very odd time of the year, and are currently 3-7 in their last 10 games. With Ja Morant in and out of the lineup for the entire season and his disliking the kind of offense that the Grizzlies are currently running, Memphis is struggling and they are on the verge of entering the Play-In Tournament. If they do not figure it out soon, they could lose the 6th-seed to the Timberwolves.
The Timberwolves are the 7th-seed in the West, and they have found a little rhythm in their last 10 games. They somehow got a win over the Denver Nuggets despite the Joker going off for a 61-point performance, and they also managed to pull off wins against the Detroit Pistons and the Brooklyn Nets.
The Timberwolves are in a favorable spot going into the playoffs, provided that they hold onto the 7th-seed. If the season were to end today, the Timberwolves would have to play the Houston Rockets, and they would have a much better chance of beating the Rockets since Coach Udoka’s team is entering the playoffs, with this group, for the first time.
The L.A. Clippers, ever since they got Kawhi Leonard back into their line-up, have been on a roll. They have won 8 of their last 10 games and if Leonard can remain healthy in the playoffs, we expect the Clippers to make a deep run in the playoffs. They are currently sitting at the 8th seed in the West, and if you take a look at their line-up, they have everything they need to compete in the postseason.
Norman Powell is having his best season, James Harden has risen back from the ashes and is playing terrific basketball, Ivica Zubac is also quietly having the best scoring season of his NBA career, averaging 16.5 points per game. They have shooting, they have a deep bench, they’re athletic, they have the size, and they also got back one of the greatest two-way player of all time in Kawhi Leonard.
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Apart from the OKC Thunder, we believe that the Clippers can beat anybody in the playoffs. The only thing that the Clippers need to do is try to get out of the Play-In Tournament, and when we look at the 6th and the 7th seed, the Clippers can still climb up and avoid the Play-In Tournament altogether.
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