Western Conference Rivals watch thread

[cdubbz]

I feel we should have a thread dedicated to our Western Conference playoff rivals. Other than the Around the NBA one -- this one can be specific to the state of the Clippers, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Rockets, Spurs, Blazers, & Thunder.















Feel free to post anything related to these teams and how good they're doing, how bad they're doing, matchup potentials, player news etc.

[cdubbz]

I'll start! The Los Angeles Clippers are STREAKING!!! They've won 9 games in a row and are only 3.0 games behind the Warriors in the division. They've seemed to be out of the media spotlight, but are playing really good basketball.

Haven't seen them play too much, but Griffin is only averaging 7.7 rpg -- is he playing away from the basket on offense a lot more now? Or did someone else pick up some rebounding slack? I actually think Griffin can stick with Draymond on the perimeter.

[Onus]

I want to face Dallas, Portland or the Clippers in the first round. Think we could win in 6 or less games against these teams. I think Dallas or OKC is most likely if we maintain a 1-2 seed.

OKC, Houston, SA, and MEM will be tough match ups, I'd expect 6 or more games in those series.

[turk3d]

West Standings (already a logjam):

http://espn.go.com/nba/standings

1-7 only separated by 3 1/2 games.

[510TWSS]

Only teams I could see giving us a lot of trouble is SAS and Memphis. LAC, Portland, Dallas are not to be taken lightly either, however if at full health I think we could take those latter 4 teams. I'd have to pause against SAS and Memphis until we play them more. That Memphis - Warriors game could be epic.

[floppymoose]

The crazy part is if you add the Warriors to those teams, it's 8 teams. Every single WC playoff team will be amazing.

[HiRez]

Only teams I could see giving us a lot of trouble is SAS and Memphis. LAC, Portland, Dallas are not to be taken lightly either, however if at full health I think we could take those latter 4 teams. I'd have to pause against SAS and Memphis until we play them more. That Memphis - Warriors game could be epic.

I agree, Spurs and Grizz worry me. The Grizz pose a danger to slow us down, make us trudge through mud, that is bad news for our offense. Randolph is a handful for us, it will be interesting to see if 2014 Draymond Green can slow him down, and the Spurs are, well, the Spurs.

Houston I'm not sure about, frankly they surprised me with how tough they played last night, but we can't be sure yet how it would play out with the addition of Bogut and Howard.

I think OKC could be a problem, and a first round matchup with the Warriors is not looking too unlikely right now. We are only 2-4 against them in the 2 years prior to this year.

Pretty much everyone else I feel fairly confident we could beat (LAC, Portland, Dallas, Phoenix, Sacramento, New Orleans). Even though they are talented, I feel we have figured out the Clippers and give them enough problems where we could win a series. They are still relatively soft and mentally fragile, you can rattle them, and in the playoffs, getting rattled is death.

[cdubbz]

I feel the league could just pick teams out of a basket to see who faces who in the playoffs. seeding doesn't really matter (to an extent of course). At the end of the season any of these teams can be #1 and any can be at the bottom of the race.

[Darren_Errman]

Better hope Pelicans Kings Nuggets and Suns close season strong and one of them grabs 8th seed. Why?

OKC is very unlikely to catch Dallas/Portland for 6th/7th. A first round matchup with 8th seed OKC would be pain.

[Mikayal]

My only fear is playing OKC in the first round, I have a gut feeling we won't play Spurs first. Everyone else I feel we could take. Excited to see how we fare against Dallas and Memphis this week.

[510TWSS]

Only teams I could see giving us a lot of trouble is SAS and Memphis. LAC, Portland, Dallas are not to be taken lightly either, however if at full health I think we could take those latter 4 teams. I'd have to pause against SAS and Memphis until we play them more. That Memphis - Warriors game could be epic.

I agree, Spurs and Grizz worry me. The Grizz pose a danger to slow us down, make us trudge through mud, that is bad news for our offense. Randolph is a handful for us, it will be interesting to see if 2014 Draymond Green can slow him down, and the Spurs are, well, the Spurs.

Houston I'm not sure about, frankly they surprised me with how tough they played last night, but we can't be sure yet how it would play out with the addition of Bogut and Howard.

I think OKC could be a problem, and a first round matchup with the Warriors is not looking too unlikely right now. We are only 2-4 against them in the 2 years prior to this year.

Pretty much everyone else I feel fairly confident we could beat (LAC, Portland, Dallas, Phoenix, Sacramento, New Orleans). Even though they are talented, I feel we have figured out the Clippers and give them enough problems where we could win a series. They are still relatively soft and mentally fragile, you can rattle them, and in the playoffs, getting rattled is death.

Yeah, I agree OKC could be an unfortunate draw in the 1st round. I'm hoping they don't even make it at all.

[ChuckDurn]

I don't mean to wish ill upon them, but I wouldn't be surprised if either Westbrook or Durant goes down again later this year - if either misses anything more than a few games, OKC is done, and the playoffs loses a major threat.

[azwfan]

1-7 is clogged up but also check out the race for the 8th spot.

There's 4 teams within 1 1/2 games and OKC coming up.

[cdubbz]

Does anybody here care if the Warriors are the #1 seed entering the playoffs?

I don't think it matters in the long run, but for the franchise, fans, players, and Steve Kerr I'm sure it would mean a lot. Just all the hard work that went into the season to have the best record in the West has to mean something.

[Coxy]

Does anybody here care if the Warriors are the #1 seed entering the playoffs?

I don't think it matters in the long run, but for the franchise, fans, players, and Steve Kerr I'm sure it would mean a lot. Just all the hard work that went into the season to have the best record in the West has to mean something.

Depends on who we end up playing in the 1st round.

[HiRez]

Does anybody here care if the Warriors are the #1 seed entering the playoffs?

I don't think it matters in the long run, but for the franchise, fans, players, and Steve Kerr I'm sure it would mean a lot. Just all the hard work that went into the season to have the best record in the West has to mean something.

It matters if you get into later rounds, where the #1 seed would guarantee you home court against say the Spurs or Grizzlies, which could easily be the deciding factor in a close series.

Every game is going to matter this year, we can not afford a lapse in focus to throw any away (and fortunately so far we haven't). In this stacked conference it's not crazy to imagine the #1 and #5 seeds could be separated by just a couple games.

That said, it's nice that we are finally starting to gain a tiny bit of separation in the standings right now, and Sacramento is beating a tired Rockets team tonight while OKC is surging, I will be shocked if they don't make the playoffs.

[Mikayal]

Does anybody here care if the Warriors are the #1 seed entering the playoffs?

I don't think it matters in the long run, but for the franchise, fans, players, and Steve Kerr I'm sure it would mean a lot. Just all the hard work that went into the season to have the best record in the West has to mean something.

It matters if you get into later rounds, where the #1 seed would guarantee you home court against say the Spurs or Grizzlies, which could easily be the deciding factor in a close series.

Every game is going to matter this year, we can not afford a lapse in focus to throw any away (and fortunately so far we haven't). In this stacked conference it's not crazy to imagine the #1 and #5 seeds could be separated by just a couple games.

That said, it's nice that we are finally starting to gain a tiny bit of separation in the standings right now, and Sacramento is beating a tired Rockets team tonight while OKC is surging, I will be shocked if they don't make the playoffs.

OKC beat a Cavaliers team without LeBron and Kyrie almost blew out his knee. I'm not impressed with their win, thats a game you SHOULD win.

Phoenix/Sacramento are going to make it hard to achieve that 8th seed for OKC. Denver and Pels might get a run at it too.

[Plossum]

Okc will make it no probs. I see Phoenix falling short again. They just can't string two good performances together.

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[HiRez]

OKC beat a Cavaliers team without LeBron and Kyrie almost blew out his knee. I'm not impressed with their win, thats a game you SHOULD win.

Phoenix/Sacramento are going to make it hard to achieve that 8th seed for OKC. Denver and Pels might get a run at it too.

Forget that game, you know who they are. Durant. Westbrook. Ibaka. If you have those guys, you have a pretty high floor. Normally they are reliably a 58-60 win team, so applying that % to their remaining games and adding the 9 they've already won yields about 52 wins, which I think will be enough to get in. By contrast, Phoenix is on pace to win 43 games, so even if OKC has a few stumbles, they should still make it.

[timlin500]

Freaking Sacramento should've beaten the Rockets. Arrrg.