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With only days remaining in the regular season, things are far from decided in the wild West. The Lakers, having defeated the Mavs on Wednesday, secured a playoff berth and avoided the play-in for the first time since 2020.
The lowest they can fall now is fifth and the highest they can reach is third. Many teams are in the same spot as the Lakers as six seeds remain undecided.
The No. 2 seed was just secured by the Rockets and virtually all season long, the Thunder have been the top team in the conference. This a 65-win season and counting for OKC and it’s now their most successful regular season in franchise history.
With the Thunder being so dominant from start to finish, we asked NBA fans in our latest Reacts poll if they’d rather take the Thunder or the field to come out of the West.
This shouldn’t be viewed as disrespect toward the Thunder. Regardless of the subject, whenever it’s one person or team against the field, it’s often a good idea to take the group.
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In this instance, yes, the Thunder have been great, but they are also unproven. OKC last won the Western Conference in 2012, which is, believe it or not, 13 years ago. It is tough to assume they will go through teams with top talent and a championship heritage.
The Lakers demolished the Thunder last weekend and, had Luka Dončić not been wrongfully ejected in the rematch on Tuesday, Los Angeles would’ve won the season series.
When you also factor in teams like Golden State and the No. 2 seed Rockets, it’s understandable that fans would rather take all the other above .500 teams combined over OKC to come out of the West.
FanDuel has the odds of the Thunder coming out of the West at -150, followed by the Lakers at +650 and the Warriors at +750.
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With the race in the West being so close, a great team is bound to make the play-in. We also asked fans which potential play-in team could make a run and 43% of fans liked the Warriors, 27% picked the Nuggets and 14% selected the Wolves.
The Warriors are currently play-in bound after losing to the Spurs on Tuesday, but that can change.
If they do reach the play-in, they’ll certainly be a dangerous team. Since trading for Jimmy Butler, they’ve gone 22-7, the fourth-best record in the NBA.
The Nuggets seem to be in a tough spot now that they fired both head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth on Tuesday. However, they did beat the Kings on Wednesday, so perhaps the firings will galvanize the team.
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What’s clear is that nothing is certain in the West; the top teams are unproven, the veteran teams are flawed and seeding is far from secured.
This will make for an epic end to the regular season and an equally exciting postseason, with intriguing matchups from the play-in to the Western Conference Finals.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
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