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Predictions for Match-Ups in the Western Conference Play-Offs


As the regular season winds down, the Western Conference teams still currently in the play-off race have between 11 and 13 games remaining. I have looked at each team's remaining schedules and would predict that the 8 teams currently in the play-off race will finish in the following order (Sacramento is likely to finish at 42-40 in 9th place, about 6 games back from the LA Clippers at 48-34:

1--Golden State Warriors (57-25)

2--Houston Rockets (55-27)

3--Denver Nuggets (54-28)

4--Portland Trailblazers (53-29)

5--Utah Jazz (51-31)

6--San Antonio Spurs (50-32) wins tie-breaker with OKC

7--Oklahoma City Thunder (50-32)

8--LA Clipppers (48-34)

With that finish, the first round match-ups would be GSW (#1) vs. LA Clippers (#8); Portland (#4) vs. Utah (#5); Houston (#2) vs. OKC (#7); and Denver #3 vs. San Antonio (#6). With those match-ups, I would predict the first round winners to be GSW, Utah, OKC and San Antonio. Therefore, the second round match-ups would be GSW (#1) vs. Utah (#5) and OKC (#7) vs. San Antonio (#6). With those match-ups, I would predict the second round winners to be GSW and OKC, with GSW (#1) vs. OKC (#7) in the Western Conference Finals. With that match-up, I would predict GSW to be the winner and Western Conference Champion.

Please share your thoughts.

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.