All 30 NBA teams have two regular-season games remaining, but there is still plenty left to be decided.
The Eastern Conference seeding is largely sorted out — the top six are virtually locked into place — and lottery races are mostly decided, but the Western Conference playoff picture remains in chaos, with Nos. 3 through 8 separated by just 2 games entering Friday.
And even after the West order is set behind the runaway No. 1 seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, no one knows where that side of the playoff bracket could be headed. «It's matchup dependent and then it's rock, paper, scissors from there,» a West executive told ESPN.
As a result, we spent the past week canvassing the league for scouts and executives' West playoff predictions — from the Los Angeles Lakers' status as a title contender to how much noise the surging LA Clippers can make to what's next for the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies after surprising coaching changes.
Jump to a section:
A Lakers issue LeBron or Luka can't fix
Why Warriors are dangerous right now
Nuggets, Grizz chances after major moves
Teams are 'going to hate' facing Houston
Do Clippers and Wolves have a chance?
Brian Windhorst weighs in on Luka Doncic's return to Dallas and why it's a defining night for him.
The theme of size, and teams who have it vs. teams who don't, could define this postseason. That's particularly true for the Lakers, who are running a perimeter-based scheme to fit the talents of their roster. Coach JJ Redick has spent the past two months trying to formulate a strategy to balance the ball sharing of the team's scorers and mitigate the Lakers lack of interior size.
"Luka [Doncic] historically made his bigs have these great seasons. [James] Harden is the same way — they get
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