The Celtics currently hold a 14-game lead for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, making them a very strong favorite to reach the NBA Finals, though that outcome is far from assured.
The standings are much more competitive in the West though. The seedings are still up for grabs, but the top 10 teams are all but secured after Golden State beat Houston on Thursday.
The Timberwolves are currently the No. 1 seed due to a tiebreaker over the defending-champion Nuggets, who hold an identical 53-24 record. The upstart Thunder are one game back at No. 3, followed by the Clippers, Mavericks and Suns.
The Pelicans, Kings, Lakers and Warriors are currently the Nos. 7 through 10 seeds, meaning they’d be in the play-in tournament if the season ended today. Only two games separate Phoenix and the Lakers, however, so things could certainly change between now and April 14, when the regular season concludes.
Each of the top teams in the West has question marks ahead of the postseason, mostly due to injuries. Minnesota may not have Karl-Anthony Towns back before the first round, and the team has only advanced past that stage one time in franchise history. Denver, which went 16-4 in last year’s playoffs en route to its first title in 2023, has been playing without star guard Jamal Murray of late, though he may return soon.
Oklahoma City is young and is not playoff tested, plus MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been sidelined recently with a quad injury. Kawhi Leonard is currently dealing with a knee injury for the Clippers.
The Mavericks have dealt with injuries to rotation players throughout the season, though they’re the hottest team in Conference at the moment. Phoenix’s “big three” has only played in 36 games together in 2023/24. New Orleans, Sacramento, the Lakers and Golden State have all been inconsistent throughout the season.
With so many unknowns, it makes it difficult to pick a favorite. That leads us to our question of the day: Who do you think will advance out of the West and make the NBA Finals? Head to the comments and let us know what you think.
Clippers Celtics finals and you can take that to Vegas
Celtics yes.., Clippers.., on paper perhaps but I think the Nuggets or Silver’s Lakers.
Nuggets have the easiest path to #1 seed.
Okc or Den though
I don’t see anyone beating Denver.
I’ve seen OKC beat the Nuggets three out of four times this season and Minnesota’s beat them in two out three.
Nuggets won’t show their hand to possible playoff opponents. “Go ahead and beat us now we’ll watch the tape and see how you go about it.”
OKC and Minnesota are pretty good this year but remember you have to get there and fail first before you can push through and make it. That’s the case for both those teams in this early going with their amazing young players.
You don’t have to fail first though, sometimes teams make surprising deep runs. The 2019-20 Lakers that won the bubble championship(and yes it counts) were 37-45 the prior season and hadn’t been to the playoffs in six seasons.
Good point, and yes it definitely counts.
Of course they had LeBron and although he’s lost more finals than he’s won, no one alive knows what it takes to get there better than he does.
Lol, no it doesn’t count. The league gave lebron his own floor in a hotel, and lakers players all had suites, while the rest of the league was huddled up two to a room, no family allowed. The league made sure LA won and it was sad. Only little kids regard that as a legitimate win. LOL @ you
B.S. LeBron didn’t have a floor, he had a presidential suite. He wasn’t the only one though. There is documented that other star players had suites. Giannis posted to Instagram the lake side view he has from his suite. CJ McCollum showed a picture of Dame’s door after CJ had decorated it for his birthday and it said presidential suite on a placard on the door. Rondo who was on the Lakers championship roster showed a picture from inside his room, the furniture was dated and it basically looks like a Simi fancy Motel 6. Haslem made a big deal of how he and Butler didn’t sleep in the beds in their suites and instead chose to use the couch to show they had grit. They made that choice but they had suites.
None of the players were two to a room, in fact players and staff weren’t allowed in others rooms and no one was allowed family until right before the 2nd round of the playoffs. Then every player was allowed up to 4 family members or close personal friends.
There was no home court advantage, no travel, everyone had a chance to heal up from injuries. There were no excuses.
Only sad idiots who hate LeBron and/or the Lakers and look for any reason to invalidate
his or the Lakers accomplishments didn’t regard it as one of hardest environments to win a championship in.
Denver is the to team beat. Clippers could surprise. Suns could surprise. TWolves probably biggest threat to Nuggets.
Denver wins it all, just not as easy as last season