Returning from my college basketball induced haze…I’ve come to find a Western Conference that is not so wild. Do not get me wrong..the conference still runs 9 deep and is full of great teams…but things are getting figured out now.
Denver isn’t even in the playoff race right now and even if they make it they are more than likely headed towards a first-round exit. They are playing well right now and the Nene thing may have brought them together in a way no one thought possible. But when you’re depending on Najera and Anthony Carter to play big minutes in the playoffs you’re not going to go far. I’m sorry.
Dallas is done. We all know this. People were scratching their heads before Dirk went down. I know Dirk might come back at some point but to be honest, by the time his knee and ankle are ready they might already be gone fishin’. The Mavs find themselves in 7th place, only 1 game ahead of a surging Denver team. Everyone and their mother is so quick to say that Denver is going to make the playoffs and Dallas won’t. However let us take a look at their schedules the rest of the way:
Dallas (10 games left…4 home, 6 away) – @G State, @Clippers, G State, @Lakers, @Phoenix, Seattle, Utah, @Portland, @Seattle, New Orleans.
Denver (10 games left…5 home, 5 away) – G State, @Phoenix, Phoenix, Sacramento, @Seattle, @Clippers, @G State, @Utah, Houston, Memphis
Denver owns the tiebreaker by winning the season series 2-1. Both are pretty bad road teams with sub .500 records. Both play 6 Western Conference playoff teams in their final 10. I’m going to have to go with Denver taking the playoff spot. They are going to win one of those back-to-backs against Phoenix and they’ll beat Seattle, Clippers, Memphis and Sac to go 5-5 at worst. Dallas meanwhile can’t beat the Warriors and probably can’t hang with the Lakers and Suns without Dirk. So that means unless they steal one of those against Utah or New Orleans it ain’t happening.
Houston can’t win a championship this year, mainly because they have no Yao. I love their togetherness, I love how hard the play and I love how they play defense…I just feel that in a 7-game series a team is eventually going to figure out how to neutralize them. We’ve seen the game year after year where T-Mac is killing but no one else is. Or the other way around. Even though they’ve kept winning games, their Cinderella story will come to and end. It would be nice if they got out of the first round for T-Mac’s mental health.
Golden State can’t win a championship. They are a big man away from being dangerous. By the way…is it ok to make fun of Chris Webber’s “comeback” yet? I for one think it is. The Warriors cannot beat a team with an inside presence. And unfortunately for them the West is loaded with teams who have at least one if not TWO big guys to deal with. IE, New Orleans, LA, Utah (who owns their soul), San Antonio and Phoenix. So that means their only chance of even advancing pass round one is to play Dallas (who is a 1/2 game ahead of them…so not happening) or the Rockets. If I’m Don Nelson I’m hoping Houston can hold on to that 2 seed and we can get that 7 seed. Not going to happen though.
Then there are still questions surrounding everyone else.
As well as the Suns are playing, can you really buy into a team that is depending on both Boris Diaw AND Grant Hill to play well in crunch time??
Even though we all know the Spurs are just getting out of hibernation, can we just blindly forget the fact that a) they never win back-to-back and b) they’ve looked older than ever this year?
Can we ignore this sinking feeling in the gut that New Orleans could be the worst #1 seed in the history of the game?? I mean how can you pick a team to win a championship that needs consistency from Jannero Pargo, Morris Peterson and Bonzi Wells? I’m sorry…I can’t.
As great as Utah is at home can we forget that they are 16-21 on the road?? And will more than likely only have home court advantage in Round 1?? Also the fact that AK has disappeared and they are a 2 man away from dominance??
And you can’t help but wonder about the chemistry issues the Lakers are going to have. Remember….Bynum and Gasol have never played together. Bynum hasn’t played in a long time and Gasol will have to work his way back into it. The first round is going to be very telling for the Lakers because if they don’t get their shish together and face the wrong matchup, they could be going home.
(Also why is Kobe turning into Rasheed Wallace circa 2001? Anyone have any answers for this? Skip Bayless had the nerve to call Kobe’s psyche “fragile”. Yep the same guy who flew from court for rape charges and played the same day has a “fragile” psyche. Some people never cease to amaze me.)
Think about it now…is the West so wild now??
(yes)