So we've officially reached the All-Star break, which, this season, is a seemingly-interminable seven-day stretch without a single meaningful basketball game. I know it's probably for the best for the players to get a full week off of work as opposed to the four-five day halt they got in previous years, but I feel like it's going to take forever to pass. How are we supposed to pass the time?
Anyway, since we're at the not-really-halfway point (every team has played over 50 games this season, so we're well beyond the actual halfway mark), I figured I'd try and pass the time by taking a look at what the L.A. Clippers have to contend with during the latter stages of the year. Actually, let's start with them.
Los Angeles Clippers (35-19, 6th in the West)
As we've established by now, the Clips got off to a sluggish start this season before perking up around December. It's been a rocky, inconsistent road to this point, and now they've got an injury situation to fret over. Blake Griffin had surgery on the Staph infection in his right elbow earlier this week, and the timetable for his return seems uncertain at best. Obviously, the All-Star break came at a rather good time for him, since it'll mean he won't miss as many games as he would've had we not had a weeklong layoff. But it does seem likely that he'll not be ready to go when the Clips get going again on Thursday against San Antonio.
Even with Griffin healthy, this team remains paper-thin and is in dire need of talent infusion on the bench. Considering they've essentially exhausted all of their draft pick trade assets, their best hopes for upgrading the roster lies with the buyout market. Doc and friends are surely keeping a close eye on the wire as we wait and see whether or not players like Kevin Garnett and/or Amar'e Stoudemire are bought-out. KG doesn't really seem capable of playing more than 20 minutes a game at this point, and Amar'e continues to battle a number of nagging injuries, but they would both be upgrades over what the Clippers are currently summoning off-the-bench. 20ish minutes of KG/Amar'e is almost certainly better than 10-20 minutes of Glen Davis.
If they arrive in the playoffs relatively intact from a health perspective, despite all the naysaying and second-guessing that's gone on, the Clippers are still a championship contender. Really, any team with two of the best 10 players in the league (plus a third, DeAndre Jordan, knocking on the door of the top-30) is going to be in the picture. They came a few close calls and bad breaks from knocking-off Oklahoma City during the playoffs last season with the entire Donald Sterling situation hanging over their heads. It'd be foolish to count these guys out again, especially without a similar off-court cloud mucking things up this time around.
Many will scoff at the notion that the Clippers are capable of winning it all, but they're actually one of the few teams out there that could prove problematic come playoff time for...
Golden State Warriors (42-9, 1st in the West)
On TNT last Thursday night (I know, I know), Charles Barkley claimed that the two best teams in the West, in his opinion, are Memphis and Portland. Meanwhile, here sit the Warriors, with the NBA's best winning percentage (an insane .824) just kinda sitting there, feeling sad. The league's biggest surprise (this side of the Atlanta Hawks) has lost just nine games all season, which is nearly half as many as the 76ers did to start this season. Read that again. The Sixers lost their first 17 games this season. The Warriors, 51 games into this season, have lost nine.
Steve Kerr's done a masterful job with this team in his first season of coaching basketball on any level, which is completely insane. This is a team that legitimately goes nine-deep and has two former-All-Stars coming off-the-bench. Steph Curry may be the frontrunner for league MVP, yet his backcourt mate, Klay Thompson, has already taken home three Western Conference Player of the Week Awards so far this year.
They true key for them is probably having a healthy Andrew Bogut once the playoffs roll around, which is something they didn't have last year when the Clips beat them in a seven-game, first-round series. Bogut's the anchor of the NBA's top defense, a beast of a rim protector that changes the game completely when he's on the floor. The Warriors' defense is still solid when he's out, but having him out there has to make them title frontrunners.
Houston Rockets (36-17, 4th in the West)
Speaking of healthy big men, the Rockets are currently playing without Dwight Howard, whose return this season is questionable due to a lingering knee problem. Houston's played well without him, but it seems doubtful that they'd be strong enough to run the gauntlet of the West without their primary rim protector.
Their GM, Daryl Morey, has done an excellent job of upgrading his roster as the season has gone on. He's already acquired both Corey Brewer and Josh Smith in exchange for essentially nothing, and he may not yet be finished. Reports out Friday indicate that the Rockets have major interest in Suns guard Goran Dragic, who may be on the move before next Thursday's trade deadline. A pickup of Dragic combined with the return of a healthy Dwight Howard makes the Rockets, on paper, look as imposing as any team out there.
And we haven't even gotten to James Harden, who's another guy with legitimate MVP hopes. The league's leading scorer does it in a variety of ways and is the single most important player to his team. Per NBA.com, Harden creates 16.8 points per game via assists (he averages 6.7 dimes a game), in addition to the 27.4 points per game he scores himself. That's a total of 44.2 points per game contributed by James Harden, which is the most of any player in the league. LeBron ranks second with 43.4.
Memphis Grizzlies (39-14, 2nd in the West)
Here are the Grizzlies, just casually gritting-and-grinding along as the second-best team in the most loaded conference in NBA history. Marc Gasol, with a renewed sense of offensive aggression, is a pretty solid dark horse candidate to take home Most Improved Player honors, which says a lot considering he was already heralded as one of the NBA's best bigs. His injury last season essentially sunk Memphis' chances at nabbing coveted home court advantage for the playoffs, and they STILL came within a game (and a stupid Zach Randolph suspension) of making the Western Conference Finals as a No. 7 seed.
They swung a midseason trade that netted them Jeff Green, which gives them the capable wing scorer that they've lacked over the last couple of years. This moves reeks of one that flies a bit under-the-radar during the season, only to look brilliant once he lights an unsuspecting team up come April and May.
Everyone is always quick to point out that the game tends to slow down into a war of attrition during the postseason, and, if that's the case, Memphis is well-equipped to handle it. I'm not sure they have enough offensive firepower/depth to hang with a team like Golden State in a seven-game series, but counting them out would be extremely foolish.
San Antonio Spurs (34-19, 7th in the West)
Speaking of lurking, the defending champions, the team that steamrolled its way through the playoffs a year ago, are currently sitting in 7th in the West. 7th! The Spurs are 7th!
There's an outside shot this team misses the playoffs altogether, but let's be real: That ain't happening. They have a six-game cushion over 9th-place OKC, and Gregg Popovich will give the greatest sideline interview of all-time before he allows his team to miss the postseason.
They've had plenty of injuries with which to deal this season, too. Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter and Marco Belinelli have all missed considerable time, which has surely halted their progress.
Regardless of wherever they're seeded, are you really going to doubt their championship chances? The Spurs are like the Patriots. Every time we think they're too old and that their window is shut, they prove us wrong in triumphant/embarrassing fashion.
Dallas Mavericks (36-19, 5th in the West)
Rick Carlisle deserves real consideration for Coach of the Year for what he's done with this year's iteration of the Mavericks. This team was overhauled like crazy over the summer, with the likes of Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons entering the fray. And that was before a midseason blockbuster that threw Rajon Rondo into-the-mix. Dallas has endured its struggles at times, but they still have a very realistic shot at a top-four seed, which means home court advantage in the first round.
The Mavs have recently been hit with a rash of injuries. Rondo fractured his orbital bone, which, as a fella with experience with such an injury, can put you down a while. Both Chandler and Monta Ellis were hurt in the first quarter of last Monday's loss to the Clippers, and there's some uncertainty there. Ellis wound up playing in Dallas' next game, but we don't know how long Chandler's bum ankle may keep him out.
At full capacity, they're still trying to figure out how Rondo fits-in. They owned the NBA's No. 1 offense prior to the Rondo trade, but they've fallen-off a bit since then as he tries to find his place. On the plus side, their defense has improved tremendously in that same stretch, up from near the bottom of the league to a top-10 unit over the last couple of months.
Don't forget it was Dallas, last year's No. 8 seed, that came the closest to taking down the Spurs in the postseason. The plucky Mavs took San Antonio all the way to a Game 7 in the first round before bowing-out. This is the same coach that led Dallas to an out-of-nowhere championship back in 2011, too. They'll be a tough out for any team.
Portland Trail Blazers (36-17, 3rd in the West)
The Blazers have the same starting five they ran out there last year, when they were one of the league's biggest surprises. Their primary weakness was their bench, which they fortified a bit with a couple of under-the-radar signings. Chris Kaman got off to a hellacious start this season but he's dropped-off considerably since. Steve Blake is an upgrade over last season's backup point guard, Mo Williams.
But will it be enough? Nicolas Batum has been in a curious season-long funk where he's apparently forgotten how to shoot, though he has kinda gotten it together a little bit of late. LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard are both legitimate superstars, but they're also not much better than they were last season. The biggest thing to happen for Portland this season was Aldridge's decision to forgo surgery on his injured hand and just play through it. Had he opted for surgery, he'd have been on the shelf for a looooong time, and that could've crushed the Blazers' home court hopes. But he's playing (at as high a level as ever, by the way), and Portland doesn't appear to be going away.
Still, their starting five is as good as anyone else's in the league. Their defense has been their biggest improvement from last year to this year. They were absolute fire on offense last year (and this), but ranked 16th in defensive efficiency. So far this season, they're all the way up to No. 3 in the NBA, tied with the Spurs. Pretty interesting, considering they're essentially the same cast of characters they were last year.
Phoenix Suns (29-25, 8th in the West)
So much for the Suns being a one-year wonder. The young Suns came within one stinkin' game of cracking the playoffs a year ago despite going into the season as a team most believed was trying to tank/rebuild. Jeff Hornacek has been a brilliant hire as the team's head coach and has Phoenix knocking on the door of the final playoff spot once again.
The next week may well dictate the Suns' fate this season, however. As mentioned in the Rockets section, Phoenix is at risk of losing Goran Dragic as an unrestricted free agent this summer. If they're not confident about re-signing him, the Suns may well decide to trade him within the next week and at least get something in return. With fellow guards Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas already locked-in to long-term deals, retaining Dragic may be overly redundant and could make Phoenix too guard-dependent. As arguably the team's best player, losing him may also torpedo their playoff hopes for this season. Lon Babby, the team's president of basketball ops, has already come out and said the Suns' long-term prospects are more important than the here-and-now. He also said they would be "active" around next week's trade deadline. A bit of foreshadowing, perhaps?
Even if they do wind up jettisoning Dragic, don't be surprised if the Suns are in the thick of the postseason race until the end.
Oklahoma City Thunder (28-25, 9th in the West)
Hot on the tails of the Suns is the Thunder, now just a half-game out of the playoffs. This season has been a trainwreck for OKC from just about every angle. They've endured injuries to both Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant (among others), but, even worse, they've continued to have to endure Scott Brooks.
The head coach of the Thunder has done a nice job over the last few years of developing his young talent and piecing together a solid defensive team, but it's maddening beyond belief to watch a team with such offensive firepower continually play such underwhelming offense. Seriously. My sister's infant son could draw up a better late-game play than Scott Brooks could.
Still, despite it all, the Thunder seem like they're going to sneak into the postseason as a lower seed, which is downright terrifying for whichever other seven teams get in. Can you imagine? "Congrats on the No. 1 seed, Warriors! Your reward is a first-round showdown with Kevin freaking Durant and Russell freaking Westbrook. Enjoy!"
The Thunder bench is an experience in and of itself, with the likes of Reggie Jackson and Dion Waiters each trying to shoot the ball every time they touch it. Combine that show with Kendrick "Somehow Still in the League" Perkins and a cavalcade of random wing players and you've got the biggest wild card in the entire league. The fact that it wouldn't be a shock to see OKC either win the title, flame-out in the first round or miss the playoffs entirely tells you all you need to know about how their season has gone to this point.
New Orleans Pelicans (27-26, 10th in the West)
The Pels seemingly have the worst shot at working their way into the playoffs by the end of the season, but they're still hanging around on the periphery. They're almost entirely riding the coattails of Anthony Davis, who is seemingly coasting his way to one of the greatest individual statistical seasons of all-time.
The Brow is averaging 24.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in just about 36 minutes per game. If he finishes the season averaging at least 24 points, 10 boards and 2.5 blocks, Davis will become just the eighth player in the history of the league to do so. Others on the list? David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Bob McAdoo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Patrick Ewing and Elton Brand. Save for Elton Brand and his great '05-'06 season (with the Clippers!), that's a lot of Hall-of-Famers. Prettay, prettay good company.
New Orleans has a solid top-six of Davis, Ryan Anderson, Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon and Omer Asik. Unfortunately, beyond that, it's a slew of suboptimal talent that may well be their collective downfall this season. Still, though, for this team to be heavily involved in the Western playoff picture is an impressive feat.
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