The NBA regular season has entered the final stage, and compared to the past few seasons, the competition between the East and the West in the closing stage is significantly more intense this season.
In particular, there is great uncertainty in the competition for places in the Western Conference and the finalization of the rankings in the upper half of the Eastern Conference.
Fortunately, with the advancement of the schedule, the competition for places in the Western Conference playoffs has gradually become clear, and the latest ranking of the West has been released, in which the Lakers missed a good opportunity, the Rockets killed two birds with one stone, and the Warriors sat on the profits.
First look at the results of the race about the Western Conference rankings:
Lone Rangers 103:135 Wizards, Kings 122-117 Rockets, Clippers 153-119 Bucks, Pistons 110-101 Thunder, Suns 114-122 Grizzlies, Trail Blazers 111-130 Spurs, Timberwolves 136-130 Nuggets, Lakers 111-114 Pelicans.
After eight games, the latest ranking in the West is (specific rankings in parentheses): Suns (1), Grizzlies (2), Warriors (3), Lone Rangers (4), Jazz (5), Nuggets (6), Timberwolves (7), Clippers (8), Pelicans (9), Spurs (10), Lakers (11), Kings (12), Blazers (13), Thunder (14) and Rockets (15).
First, look at the 12-15 teams in this gear, the teams in this file are the Kings, the Blazers, the Thunder and the Rockets.
Among them, the Rockets continued to swing badly, and the Kings completed a 19-point reversal, but for the rebuilding Rockets, such a reversal killed two birds with one stone, not only helped the team stabilize the record, but also allowed the team to let go of the hand to cultivate young players, the leader Green blasted down 33 points, Porter Jr. 27 points and 11 assists.
The Blazers and Thunder did not slow down their pace, losing to the Spurs and Pistons respectively, the Thunder made a lot of money, lost a top two games, and is expected to surpass the Pistons into the bottom three of the league.
Then came the 7-11th pick, which was in the middle of the playoffs, where the Lakers had plenty of opportunities to make it through the playoffs, but the team recently suffered a five-game losing streak.
At the same time, the team has missed good opportunities one after another, constantly losing to the Spurs and pelicans, two teams that directly form a ranking competition with themselves, after losing to the Pelicans again, the Lakers have fallen behind the Spurs by 1 win, 3 wins behind the Pelicans, and only theoretical promotion opportunities are left.
Among the remaining teams in this slot, the Timberwolves are worth mentioning, the team has been in better shape lately, in the card game against the Nuggets, the Timberwolves ended the losing streak, narrowing the gap between the team and the Nuggets to 2 wins, preserving the possibility of reaching the top six.
This is followed by the 3-6th gear, which is a stable playoff team, and it is not surprising that they will directly win the playoff spot.
But with the Lone Rangers losing one after another, the ranking of this slot is not clear, and the Warriors have reaped the benefits and rose back to third, but only 0.5 wins ahead of the Lone Rangers behind them.
The Jazz also took the opportunity to narrow the gap between the team and the Lone Rangers to 1.5 wins, and the Nuggets had a chance to surpass the Jazz, but after losing to the Timberwolves, they were 0.5 wins behind the Jazz.
Finally, there are two teams, the Suns and the Grizzlies, which belong to the only slot in the West and even the only slot in the league, in which the Suns still lead the Grizzlies by as many as 7.5 wins despite losing to the Grizzlies in the card battle.
And the Suns have long locked the first position in the league, and the Grizzlies are the big dark horses this season, which has overturned the Suns and shown the team's strong competitiveness.
Therefore, with the Lakers most likely missing the playoffs and playoffs, there are still a large number of teams worth watching in the West, such as the Suns, Grizzlies, Warriors and Clippers.