With only 20 games left in the regular season, there isn't much time left for playoff pushes. The top eight teams for each conference have remained the same for the majority of the season and each eight spot currently has a multiple game cushion over the ninth team. The biggest surprise team currently in the playoffs has to be the young and fearless Memphis Grizzlies who were widely expected to be the worst team in the West heading into the year. After trading Marc Gasol at the trade deadline last season and then trading Mike Conley before this season started it looked like the Grizzlies were going full rebuild and were waving the white flag this season. Ja, Jaren, and Jonas had different plans as Memphis is one of two teams who have already exceeded their preseason win projection and they're only one win away from matching last seasons win total. As great as the young Grizzlies have been, 32-32 is normally not a playoff team in the Western Conference, only twice in the last 10 seasons have teams with a .500 record made the playoffs.
Last season's Conference Finals saw Milwaukee matchup with Toronto while Golden State and Portland battled it out. Milwaukee and Toronto find themselves as the top two teams in the East this year as well and have both already clinched a playoff spot. Golden State and Portland, on the other hand, are both on the outside of the playoffs looking in this year. Golden State tempered their expectations for this season with KD leaving for Brooklyn, Klay being injured, and Steph getting hurt the second game of the season. With all of that going on, the Warriors are hoping this season is just one small bump in the road for this dynasty (is it still a dynasty?). The Trailblazers finished last season on such a high note and coming into this year they were a team that was getting overlooked as possible Western Conference contenders. They lost Seth Curry and Meyers Leonard in free agency who were both huge contributors off the bench for the Trailblazers last season. Jusuf Nurkic has also been out all year since his gruesome injury late last season, but Portland went out and added Hassan Whiteside in the offseason who has filled in for Nurkic incredibly this season and has been a double-double monster. With all that being said, both Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have been healthy for the majority of this season, so there is no reason this team shouldn't be at least .500 and in the playoffs. The duo wants to be viewed as the best backcourt in the league and the Trailblazer faithful on Twitter always act offended when someone mentions eventually splitting up the backcourt, but if they don't find a way to grab that eight seed from Memphis I think this offseason we will see Portland move McCollum and try to build something else around Lillard.
In the final month of the regular season, we not only get to see the battle for the eighth spot, but we get to see the other playoff teams competing for home-court advantage as both conferences have virtually six teams each competing for spots two through seven. The battle for the eighth seed in the West appears to be coming down to the two rookie of the year candidates (Memphis and New Orleans), two of the most consistent playoff teams (San Antonio and Portland), or two of the worst teams of the last decade (Pheonix and Sacramento). At the end of the day, we need to remember what these teams are fighting for... a seven-game series against Lebron and the Lakers. Is it really worth it?! After watching King James in action this weekend against both the Bucks and the Clippers, I am only sure of one thing, you don't want to play that man until you HAVE TO play that man.
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