NBA Power Rankings - Western Conference playoff race hits home stretch

There are just two weeks left in the 2022-23 NBA season, but there are still countless possibilities regarding the Western Conference playoff seeding.

The top three seeds are nearly locked up by the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings, but there is an eight-team logjam for the final seven seeds of the playoff and play-in picture. All eight teams are separated by 3.5 games. (The Utah Jazz, meanwhile, are still hanging around below them at 1.5 games out of the last play-in spot.)

A handful of head-to-head games between teams in the playoff race in the coming days will go a long way in determining the final playoff picture, including showdowns between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers on Friday and the LA Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday.

Note: Throughout the regular season, our panel (Kendra Andrews, Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, Nick Friedell, Andrew Lopez, Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Ohm Youngmisuk) is ranking all 30 teams from top to bottom, taking stock of which teams are playing the best basketball and which teams are looking most like title contenders.

Previous rankings: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20 | Week 21 | Week 22

1. Milwaukee Bucks 2022-23 record: 54-21 Previous ranking: 1

The Bucks will host both the Celtics and Sixers this weekend as Milwaukee looks to wrap up home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. Khris Middleton is starting to look like his old self just in time, averaging 20.8 points, 7.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds on 48% shooting and 31.5 minutes since moving back into the