With less than 20 games in the NBA season remaining, the LA Clippers and every other potential playoff team are paying more and more attention to the standings.
The Western Conference is heavily contested with the middle of the pack changing positioning by the day. Seeding will matter, especially with teams like the Lakers still in the bottom half of the standings due to injuries plaguing them all season.
As it stands at the time of writing, here’s how the Western Conference is currently seeded:
- Utah Jazz
- Phoenix Suns
- LA Clippers
- Denver Nuggets
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Portland Trail Blazers
- Dallas Mavericks
- Memphis Grizzlies
- San Antonio Spurs
- Golden State Warriors
The current standings would be the best possible route for the LA Clippers in the playoffs.
Based on that, the Clippers would get Portland in the first round, the 7 seed (play-in winner) or Phoenix, and then whoever comes out the other side of the bracket. I’m not going to pretend that this is an “easy path” given the talent in the Western Conference, but let’s think about this for a second.
The other side of the bracket would have the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, and Los Angeles Lakers. Seeing as how those three teams are likely the biggest threats in the Western Conference, avoiding all but one of them would be a pretty solid treat.
Out of all the top teams, Phoenix also seems like the “easiest” for the Clippers based on matchups and we have seen twice that Paul George has their number.
With such a tight playoff race on their hands, the Clippers cannot worry about what everyone else is doing. They need to just go out and take care of business each and every night and hope that other teams keep the standings as they currently are.
Regardless of who they face in the playoffs, the Clippers are going to have a lot to prove and will have to advance to the Western Conference Finals in order for this season to feel like any sort of success. Let’s just hope they get a little help.