The NBA Western Conference couldn’t be closer.
Living on the West Coast all my life with no plans to go anywhere else, I’ve spent a lot of time following every NBA team on this side of the map. This year is so close between second place and the bottom of the West that it’s hard to know what the playoffs will bring. As you may have read before, my favorite team in the NBA is the Phoenix Suns. They started the season with a blaze and were the first team in the league to post ten wins. 2010 has not been so kind to them. After losing heavily earlier in the month, they can’t seem to win without losing the next game. This routine has put them back in the belly of the Western Conference.
At the moment, the difference between the fourth-place Jazz and the 11th-place Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Western Conference is just two games. With something like 40 games left in the season, anything can happen. What needs to happen is the Suns come out of the regular season with no less than the fourth seed for the playoffs. They’ve been playing such sloppy basketball lately that anything worse could mean almost immediate elimination come the postseason.
The only team I really see out of the race to possibly make the playoffs in the West is the Timberwolves. They have no fight this year. Phoenix right now is a single game behind fourth place and four games behind third in the West. They will win tonight against the Bobcats unless we see a complete collapse of Nash and Amare. Even if Nash plays tired, the team should beat the losing Bobcats. Without a doubt in my mind, the Lakers will take the NBA Division title. It pains me to say it, but Kobe has been playing with a lot of fire, especially in the clutch this season.
As for the east side of things, the spread is much steeper from fourth place. The Magic are 5.5 games behind the leading Cavs team. Just behind the Magic is the Miami Heat, who trail Cleveland by 11 games. From there it gets even worse. The Eastern Conference now is really a fight for second, third, fourth and fifth place. My dream would be to see the Suns and Cavs meet in the final. This is just an NBA dream. In reality, we’re more likely to see another tiebreaker between Kobe and LeBron.