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NBA Playoff Picture: Western Conference

Date: April 6, 2022

By: Alejandro Lopez

Phoenix's Devin Booker and Chris Paul high five during an NBA game.

G Fiume/Getty Images

The NBA’s “Wild” Western Conference continues to live up to the name. Even with this season’s much upgraded competition out in the East, the Western Conference has still dominated the top record holders of the NBA.

Of the top six record holders in the NBA four of them reside in the West with two of those teams, the Suns and the Grizzlies, being the only teams in the NBA with a .700-win percentage. Yet strangely enough, even with all the monsters belonging to this conference it seems to be less competitive of a conference than the East and by a significant margin.

The Favorites

The Phoenix Suns

Far and away the favorites in the Western Conference must be the Phoenix Suns. After what seemed like a magical season last year the Suns have proved that it was no fairy tale, but instead the NBA’s new reality.

This team boasts the best record in the West, leading the second-place Memphis Grizzlies (more on them soon) by seven games. For comparison, the Miami Heat have the best record in the Eastern Conference and only lead the sixth-place Toronto Raptors by five and a half games.

This team is unique in that it doesn’t really have the dominant star power you would see in most championship favorites. There is no big three, and there is no LeBron James. Instead, what you have is a roster of 17 men who each excel at what they do.

That isn’t to say there are no stars on the Suns roster. Devin Booker is one of the NBA’s brightest young players and very much deserves heavy MVP consideration, averaging 26 points, five rebounds and five assists-per-game, and Chris Paul is one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game even without having the ring that has alluded him for so long.

Led by Monty Williams, this team just seems to make the right decisions all the time. This is including clutch time, where the team is historically great. The Suns have a +45 net efficiency in clutch time, which leads the NBA not just for this season, but for the last 25 years.

Their offense is deadly, and their defense is stifling, anchored by Deandre Ayton, the versatile big man that can switch in most scenarios, and Mikal Bridges, the teams “swiss army knife” and NBA Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

For the Suns, the gameplan going into the postseason should be simple. Keep doing what you’re doing until someone proves they can stop you.

The Contenders

The Memphis Grizzlies

There is truly something strange about this team. On paper, their record is already surprising. Even with Ja Morant’s ascendence to being a superstar in today’s league, this is almost entirely the same team that was bounced out in the first round of last season’s playoffs.

It is pretty safe to say that not many people had this team in the Western Conference’s second seed heading into the season. This team’s record becomes even stranger when you account for the fact that their superstar Morant has missed 22 games this season and counting.

In those 22 games the Grizzlies have lost…two of them. Above all else, this team has proven that they don’t mind being underdogs. They are young, and they play like it.

They are in the top-10 teams of the league in terms of pace and have quick feet on defense as well, where they also rank in the top 10. But what really has taken a leap this year is their offense.

Memphis has a top-four ranked offense in the league and that is without having Dillion Brooks for much of the year, who had been their secondary scorer a majority of last season. So, what has been the key to their success?

None other than Desmond Bane is in his sophomore season in the NBA and has shown off quite the improvement. This season he has doubled his scoring average from his rookie year, now averaging 18 points instead of nine.

This Cinderella-story of a season for the Grizzlies makes their ceiling difficult to pinpoint relative to the other proven teams in the conference. One thing is for certain however, this team is poised to have a postseason that will be very fun and very loud.                                                                                                                      

The Golden State Warriors

The Warriors are back after what was a relatively dismal past two seasons, missing the playoffs in both. This team has gotten back to what made them such a titan in the league even before the arrival of Kevin Durant.

Stephen Curry began this season with one of the league’s strongest campaigns for MVP of the NBA, leading the team to a record of 42-17 before the All-Star break, which was good enough for second place in the entire NBA behind the Suns.

He was averaging 26 points and five assists on the season in that span, and it was in large part due to the play of Draymond Green ,who once again proved his value lies beyond the stat sheet as the secondary star on one of the NBA’s best teams.

With the expected return of Klay Thompson seemingly being the final piece to a championship puzzle, Golden State was poised to return to basketball in June. Yet, the problem with this team reared its ugly head after the All-Star break came and went.

The Warriors’ main struggle has been with its inability to remain healthy. The dynastic big three of the team has played just one game together in the past three seasons, and with Curry officially being out for the rest of the regular season, it seems that it is something they are going to have to learn to deal with.

Luckily for Golden State while they wait for Curry’s return, they seemed to have found yet another diamond in the rough in Jordan Poole. Poole’s play has been excellent of late, averaging 28 points, five assists and five rebounds in the last 10 games and is keeping an otherwise sinking team afloat.

It is tough to underestimate the heart of a champion, but if the Warriors want a chance to compete for another title, they have to be available to be on the court.

Alejandro Lopez can be reached at alejandro.lopez1@student.shu.edu.

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