NBA: Predicting how the Western Conference playoff race will play out

Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers were looking like a playoff lock early in the year. They even occupied the No. 1 seed in the West for a brief time. However, they did eventually come back down to Earth but were still a good team and a tough out.

But that all changed when they traded away their leading scorer and best player, Tobias Harris at the deadline.

It seems clear the organisation didn’t want to just be an average team, happy with just making the playoffs and instead opted to go in the opposite direction, looking to rebuild. Because of this, don’t expect this team to still occupy the final playoff spot when the season is over. I imagine they’ll slip below .500 before too long.

That means it comes down to the Jazz, Spurs and Lakers; the teams who I think have the best chance of making the playoffs. Now, Utah and San Antonio currently occupy the sixth and seventh spots; both have been playing well as of late and both teams are healthy. So it isn’t too much of a stretch to have them remain in the top eight for the rest of the year. Things get interesting when we talk about the third and final team from this list; the Los Angeles Lakers.