Breaking Down The Wild Western Conference Playoff Chase

Mar 11, 2013; San Antonio, TX, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) is defended by San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard (2) during the first half at the AT

Another year and another exciting race in the Western Conference as the playoffs draw near. The talk around the coolers is not who will finish number one in the conference, but whether the Los Angeles Lakers will even make the playoffs.

In my mind, the best conference in all of basketball, the Western Conference whomever is seeded one through eight, surely has a chance of making it to the Finals.

We’ve got just more than two weeks of regular season games left. I have looked and crammed (major headache) through all scenarios and have come up with how the playoffs should turn out.

Buckle up! Here we go!

One and two seeds. We already know whom this could be.  It’s going to be San Antonio and Oklahoma City, in some order. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Spurs had a one-game lead over the Thunder.

Mark it on your calendars’ Thunder and Spurs face off Thursday night. That’s when we see how much the Spurs care about this race.  Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili did not make the trip to Memphis on Monday Night due to injuries.  If the Spurs win that game they not only stretch out their lead but also win the season series and the tiebreaker.

Three, four and five seeds. Denver and Memphis are tied at 50-24 (Denver owns that tiebreaker) with the L.A. Clippers a game and a half back of both. The Clippers as a division winner cannot slip any farther back than the four seed, but that would not give them automatic home court advantage. You really want to get the three seed and likely face Golden State or maybe Houston.  The four and the five seeds in recent history in any conference is the most watched.

The Clippers as of late have not been playing the best of basketball, dropping their last four of five.

Six and seven seeds. Golden State and Houston in some order. Golden State has a one-game lead and would like to maintain it because as scary as Denver might be as the three seed it’s not Oklahoma City. Houston wants wins for the same reason.

Eighth seed. One that everyone (Laker fans) are surely keeping an eye on. The Jazz are as of Tuesday half a game ahead of the Lakers (tied in the loss column) and 1.5 up on Dallas (one up in the loss column) heading into a huge game for both teams between Dallas and the Lakers Tuesday night.