The NBA regular season is in full swing, and with the arrival of the wave of injuries, it also adds a bit of suspense to the already competitive NBA.
Although the West has been far less competitive than the East compared to past seasons, teams such as the Rockets, Spurs, Pelicans and Thunder are almost in a state of flux.
But there are also some dark horse teams emerging, such as the Timberwolves, which have always been fishy, and have now reached the ninth place in the West, in addition, there is a team that makes a fortune, in the absence of the star, the team bucked the trend, 12-10 wins rushed to the fourth place in the West, the Lakers and Warriors should be careful.
Throughout the West, the real champions are none other than the Warriors, Suns and Lakers, of which the Warriors can be described as a far away from other teams.
Even if the record is not as good as the Suns, the Warriors' ceiling is higher, and the Warriors' strength is destined to increase greatly after the return of Klay and Wiseman in the future.
Coupled with the fact that the team can also trade high-pick new stars such as Wiseman, Cuminga and Moody to seek reinforcement objects like Turner and Sabonis Jr., the Warriors are undoubtedly the biggest title favorites of the season.
The second is the Suns, who reached the Finals last season, and this season they have continued their strong performance, Paul is getting older and more demon, playing the role of a backcourt brain in the team, combing the team well.
In addition, the core players such as Bridges, Ayton and Booker have clearly undergone a transformation in experience and confidence on the field after the baptism of the finals.
However, the upper limit of the Suns is difficult to compare with the Warriors, but the stability is better, and it is not yet known whose hand the deer died.
In addition, the Lakers, who are currently in a very difficult situation, with their impressive core configuration and a list of strong reinforcements, are also regarded by the outside world as a reasonable championship team, but they need to spend some time to find their own rhythm.
In addition to these three teams, the Jazz, which currently ranks third in the West, are also eyeing the tiger, the overall team is getting better, the defensive level is constantly improving, and after solving the defensive problem, the team continues to narrow the gap with the Warriors.
And these four teams are almost all strong teams in the regular impression of fans, in the past period of time, there is a team in the West in the absence of the star of the home, quietly climbed to the fourth position in the West with a 12-10 win performance, this team is the Grizzlies.
During a game against the Hawks at the end of November, Grizzlies star Morant sprained his knee and has been out for nearly a month.
Just when the outside world thought that the Grizzlies would fall, the tenacious Grizzlies instead rose to prominence, achieving an impressive record of 12 wins and 10 losses in the past 12 games.
The team made it all the way to fourth in the West and is getting closer to the Jazz in front of them, who have suffered two straight losses.
It can only be said that because of Morant's injury, the Grizzlies were blessed by misfortune, but inspired another path.
The Grizzlies have an overall winning percentage of less than 50 percent when Morant wasn't injured, but they currently have a 60 percent win rate.
The team's defensive efficiency has improved from losing 115.9 points per 100 rounds to losing only 96.6 points per 100 rounds to the league's first place, which is the main reason for their transformation in the past period of time.
The improvement of the Grizzlies' defense is mainly reflected in the restriction of the opponent's penalty area jump shot, before Morant was injured, the opponent's jump shot in the Grizzlies box was 57%, and after Morant was injured, this data fell to 44%, also from the league's highest to the lowest in the league.
In addition, after Morant's absence, the overall Grizzlies' overall shooting choice and quality improved significantly, from 24th in the league to 14th, and became the team with the most mistakes against opponents, and the overall offensive efficiency also improved from 12th to fifth.
If the Grizzlies can maintain this momentum, after Morant returns to integrate into the new system, the Grizzlies are destined to become a big dark horse in the West, and the Warriors, Lakers and Suns must be careful.