The log jam in the Western Conference

It has been crazy in the West so far. So many good teams, and intriguing story lines. The fierce competition to make it to the playoffs and on the other end the fierce competition to the bottom. The Rockets and Warriors are head over the rest of the conference as the 2^nd seeded Warriors have a full 10 game lead over the 3^rd seeded Blazers. That’s where the certainty stops, and the mystery begins.

There are 6 playoff spots remaining after the Rockets and the Warriors. There are 8 teams competing for the final 6 spots. All the teams are fighting tooth and nail for every win, because it’s just so close. The Blazers who are in third are only 4.5 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets who are in tenth. That is just utterly ridicules as 4.5 games is literally nothing in terms of the difference between a 3 seed, who will have homecourt in the playoffs and a 10 seed who will be in the lottery. To put into prospective last season the Rockets were in 3^rd and the Pelicans in 10^th, how many games separation did they have? A distant 21 game separation last year, and 22 game separation in the 2015-2016 season. 

It gets even closer if you look at the difference between the Thunder (4^th seed) and the Nuggets (10^th seed) a crazy difference of just 3 games. 3 GAMES! Wow that’s cutting it close. That’s usually the differences between one or two spots, but for a 6-spot difference that’s just crazy. No words can describe that. 

It is just amazing at how close this playoff race will be. Any team from the 3-10 spot can get homecourt in the playoffs or even be in the lottery. This is going to a race for the ages as every game counts. Nobody is safe from being elimanted, and seeding will be crucial. Everyteam is obviously going for homecourt in the 3 and 4 spots, but the 5 and 6 will also be highly coveted as they will be going up against the potential 3 and 4 seedes instead of the two juggernoats of Golden State and Houston. 

Making it in the final 6 spots can make or break a team's future. Making in the playoffs might give ownership and management hope that if they build on the roster they can a deep playoff run for the future and so they should keep adding to the roster. Gaining homecourt can give even more hope, and get ownership energized to do whatever it takes to improve the team, even if that results in a lighter wallet. However, on the flip side losing out on making the playoffs and joining the lottery can be very discourging. Ownership and managment might be of the opinion that this roster just can't get the job done. Some reasons on not to improve the roster for ownership would be that if they can't make the playoffs how can this team contend. 

So, there is a lot riding for the remainder of the season. 8 teams 6 spots, even though they all deserve to get in there's only 6 spots. Every team will be gunning to get as high as possible. What a ride it will be for us watching. This will be a amazing end to the season watching all these great teams battle it out. 

Tommorow, I will be looking into 4 teams in this crop. The Portland Trailblazers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and the San Antonio Spurs.