As the regular season enters the final chapter, the situation in the West is finally becoming clear in the final sprint of the closing stage of each team. The top four spots of the Timberwolves, Nuggets, Thunder and Clippers are basically solid, and the Space City, which was defeated by the Warriors, has also begun to prepare for next season with the Jazz, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers and Spurs. And the most fascinating play-off round is finally in the spotlight.
The Mavericks and Suns are currently out of the encirclement and are expected to catch the last train straight to the playoffs. Among them, the prospects of the Lone Ranger are more optimistic, and even Ramadan can't limit the pace of Ou Shenxian's progress, so what's there to fear? In addition to the slightly challenging games with the Warriors and the Heat, most of them are warm games, and the final game is against the Thunder, and the young talents of Oklahoma choose to take turns to rest if they don't do well, and the initiative is still in the hands of the Lone Ranger.
By comparison, the Suns' bottoming out was quite surprising. Because since the All-Star Weekend, the Phoenix people's schedule difficulty is the only one in the league, but recently, they have put up a series of strong opponents such as the Nuggets, Pelicans, and Cavaliers, and re-entered the top six in the West, completing self-rescue! Durant can be called a model worker, playing more than 30 minutes in each game after the All-Star Weekend; Booker is full of firepower, scoring 92 points in two games. It turns out that the Suns' victory or not has little to do with the strength of the opponent, the key is how well the BIG 3 plays, they are worthy of any team, and they can also overturn the ship in any game with their ability...... Therefore, despite the tough stubble of the last 6 opponents such as the Timberwolves, Pelicans, Clippers, and Kings, other teams are definitely underestimated when they encounter such schedules, but the Suns still hope to deliver a satisfactory answer.
What is more surprising is that the Kings are down, the absence of Monk and Huerter has stretched their rotation, and even Barnes has been infected and chose to stay put. At this time, Fox, the former king of the stubble, has become a stable crotch puller in the stubble, and the brush attributes of the three pairs of little experts Sabonis Jr. are exposed.
The Sacramento Kings' weakness has given another "king" team an opportunity to take advantage of. The Lakers, who are ninth in the West, are only 0.5 wins away from the Kings, and the Kings have to face back-to-back devil schedules, but the Lakers can afford to play at home. At present, there is a high probability that the Lakers can move up the rankings, which means that the Purple and Gold can put a "repechage armor" in the play-offs. In fact, the meaning is much more than that.
Although the king is extremely weak, but from the perspective of the Lakers, he has to consider Sabonis's blood suppression of Davis, if he can squeeze the king to 9th, then he can grasp the initiative, as long as he wins the first game, he does not need to consider the head-to-head confrontation with the king. As for the match against the Pelicans, when Zion meets his full body plus, he is destined to be the side with a small chance of winning.
From the perspective of the Warriors, they have already won the "Battle Royale" game with the Rockets, and the next step is to seriously prepare and study the playoff opponents, compared to the Kings and the Lakers, who will the Warriors hope to face? There is no doubt that it must be the former, in the last playoffs, the Warriors proved that it is not unreasonable for the Kings to be called the "Warriors Second Team", not to mention, now the Kings are not in order, and they don't take advantage of your illness to kill you? The Lakers and the Warriors are each taking what they need.
In this case, I'm afraid that Xiao Hua, the helmsman, is so smiling that the snot bubbles are about to come out, originally Hu Yong met in the play-offs, although this one is full of traffic, but then the two traffic teams will definitely lose one of them, such a strong man breaking his wrist will inevitably make Xiao Hua very embarrassed. Now there is hope to lift both the Lakers and the Warriors into the playoffs, is there an ending that is more in line with the interests of the league and the expectations of fans? Don't blame Xiao Hua, make money, don't be cold, if you sit in Xiao Hua's position, you will inevitably make such a choice. It remains to be seen whether the final trend will go as expected.