NBA Western Conference Rankings: Mavericks 5 consecutive wins to return to the top 6!The Lakers reversed the Bucks by 19 points and sat firmly in 9th
The 2023-24 NBA regular season has entered its final sprint, with the vast majority of teams remaining with only 10 games left. Compared with the East, the ranking situation in the West is much more stale! The latest game day is quite exciting, because a number of teams competing for the rankings have appeared one after another, and the Mavericks and Kings, two teams with the same record, are fighting each other! The final result can be described as a few happy and some sad.
The Lakers and Warriors are in 9th and 10th place in the West, respectively, with a win margin of just 2.5 games. In general, the Lakers still need to be a little safer, but the Warriors have tasted the burning eyebrows. Because the Rockets behind him have chased only 0.5 wins after a wave of 9 consecutive wins, as long as they lose again, the Rockets will be able to complete the overtake without a shot!
The Warriors ran into the Heat, who were the Eastern Conference champions last season, and the Heat's recent performance has been up and down, and it seems that they are deliberately fighting for 8 in order to have another "Black Eight Miracle". Jokes aside, the Heat will certainly want to overtake the Pacers in front of them, after all, they are only 1.5 wins away. So both teams want to win this game, but the Heat lacks the main player Butler, and the confidence to win is definitely not as good as the Warriors' foot.
The two teams played a stalemate in the first 3 quarters, and after the end of the 3rd quarter, the Warriors led by 10 points, and the Heat still had room for bargaining. But in the 4th quarter, the Warriors used the inside and outside lines to exert force at the same time, and blasted out a wave of small climaxes to open up the difference. The Heat hoped to use the outside line to chase points, but the 3-point shooting rate was miserable, with 0 of 9 shots! The Warriors temporarily shook off the Rockets after the victory, but the Lakers, who played at the same time, also won, and won quite a morale boost.
Before the game, Warriors fans actually had expectations, because the Lakers played against the second Bucks in the East, and Lao Zhan was also absent, but the Lakers still narrowly defeated the Bucks through 2 overtime 4 points. In this game, the thick eyebrows showed super-giant strength, cutting down 34 points and 23 boards, and blocked Lillard's layup in the final minute of the first overtime. Reaves also scored 29 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, and got his second career triple-double. The Bucks led by 19 points at one point in the final quarter, but were eventually reversed by the Lakers. Brother Alphabet scored 29 points, 21 rebounds and 11 assists in the big triple double, Lillard was once "cousin-possessed", but graduated with 6 fouls in the last moment, watching the Lakers take away the victory on their home court.
This game won't have much of an impact on the Bucks' standings, but it's important for the Lakers. The win extended their four-game winning streak and was a huge morale boost for the team in James' absence. In addition, this victory also extinguished the Warriors' desire to close the gap, and with 11 regular season games remaining, the Lakers' No. 9 is already solid.
The Thunder met the Pelicans, and there is no competition for the rankings between the two teams, but the game is just as important. Because the Thunder still have hope of hitting No. 1 in the West, while the Pelicans need a win to consolidate the No. 4 spot. The Thunder led by 20 points at one point in this game, but was later reversed by the Pelicans. In the last two and a half minutes, the Thunder suddenly played a wave of 10-0 small climax and overtook again, and finally defeated the opponent 119-112. The Pelicans took the opportunity to return No. 4 to the Clippers, while the Thunder are 0.5 wins away from the Nuggets.
The Mavericks vs. Kings, a direct race for 6th place in the West, is quite important. Falling out of the top 6 means missing out on qualifying for the playoffs, and participating in the play-offs is highly variable. Before the game, the outside world thought that it would be a close game, and did not expect it to become a one-sided crush. Doncic scored 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting in the second quarter to lead the team to widen the gap. After that, the Mavericks became more and more courageous, and at one point they pulled away to 39 points, and the game went into garbage time. In the end, the Mavericks won by 36 points 132-96, and the Kings also ceded the sixth place.