Glancing at the Western Conference
Standing at the NBA regular season’s halfway point, this is a great time to take stock of how the playoff race is shaking up and what could happen over the next three months.
The Western Conference is incredibly deep, with a plethora of teams able to say they are title contenders with a straight face. With the Eastern Conference looking extremely inferior to the West, the journey to the NBA Finals might actually be tougher than winning in the Finals.
Here is how the current Western standings look as of Tuesday morning:
1. Golden State Warriors    33-6
2. Portland Trailblazers      31-11
3. Memphis Grizzlies           29-12
4. Houston Rockets              29-13
5. Dallas Mavericks              29-13
6. Los Angeles Clippers       28-14
7. San Antonio Spurs           26-16
8. Phoenix Suns                    25-18
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9. Oklahoma City Thunder 20-20
10. New Orleans Pelicans    20-21
For starters, the Pacific and Northwest Divisions are over. Golden State is 6.5 games clear of the Clippers, who don’t play with enough consistency to catch Steve Kerr’s group. The Warriors look like the best team in the NBA with a lethal backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, and a frontcourt including Andrew Bogut, Draymond Green and others.
Portland has an even tighter grip on the Northwest. The Trailblazers are 10 games ahead of the second-place Thunder, who while finally healthy won’t make up that kind of deficit. Portland is extremely underrated despite having one of the top 10 players in basketball with LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge, who is set to become a free-agent after the season, is averaging 23.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, leading the team in both categories.
The Southwest Division is anything but settled. The Grizzlies are in the top spot but only lead by a half-game over both the Rockets and Mavericks. The Spurs are also laying in the weeds, sitting 3.5 games off the pace. This is not only the best division in basketball but the most entertaining with Dirk Nowitzki, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Tim Duncan and Marc Gasol involved. There is a legitimate chance that all five teams from this division make the playoffs, provided New Orleans has a run in it. With Davis leading the charge, it can’t be discounted.
At the bottom of the race, Oklahoma City is the most dangerous potential low-seed team. The Thunder have dealt with injuries to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook this year, but finally have both on the court at once. Only two games behind the Suns in the loss column for the eighth and final seed, Oklahoma City has plenty of time to make noise. The Suns do have one advantage however, already having played 24 road games compared to only 19 home dates. On the other side, the Thunder are a much better defensive team than Phoenix, giving up 5.8 points per game less.
The only teams completely out of the race are the Denver Nuggets (18-23), Sacramento Kings (16-25), Utah Jazz (14-27), Los Angeles Lakers (12-30) and Minnesota Timberwolves (7-33).
