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.
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