NBA Playoff Race Update: The West is Set

Western Conference - Sure Things

(1) Golden State Warriors (47-22, clinched)
(2) Denver Nuggets (47-22, clinched)
(3) Houston Rockets (44-26, 100.0%)
(4) Portland Trail Blazers (43-27, 100.0%)
(5) San Antonio Spurs (42-29, 99.7%)
(6) Oklahoma City Thunder (42-29, 99.9%)
(7) Utah Jazz (41-29, 99.9%)
(8) Los Angeles Clippers (41-30, 99.8%)

The race to make the postseason in the Western Conference has officially gotten boring.

The eighth-place Clippers have a commanding six-game lead on the ninth-place Sacramento Kings, who have a 2.5-game lead on the next closest team themselves. There was a time around midseason when just about every team out west other than the Phoenix Suns seemed to have a shot at fighting for a postseason berth, but now all eight teams currently occupying a playoff spot have odds of making it north of 99%, according to our algorithm, with over three weeks left before the end of the regular season. Yawn.

That's not to say there's nothing interesting going on in the Western Conference playoff picture, however.

The Warriors and Nuggets are tied at the top of the standings, while teams three through eight are only separated by only 3.5 games. At this rate, legitimately any order you can imagine for these eight teams to land in is on the table, considering the first-place Warriors and eighth-place Clippers only have seven games separating them.

We actually might get to the last night of the season before a single Western Conference playoff matchup is determined, and that's a decent consolation prize for already knowing to a pretty certain degree which teams are going to make it in.