Western Conference Playoff Preview And Predictions.

Western Conference Round 1

The Play-In Tournament Has Passed. In Its Wake, The Groundwork that marks the terrain For The 16 NBA teams,  all Treading The Course That Leads To The Championships Peak.

Grizzlies Vs. Jazz

The Young Grizzlies Won Two Straight Play In Tournament Games First Against The Spurs, Follow Up That Triumph By besting The Warriors Friday Night, the latter game, a defensive struggle that forced Overtime and secures the Grizz The Final Playoff spot and becomes the 9th or 10th seed to enter the playoffs. The Grizzlies Are Riding Momentum Into The Playoffs And For Their Efforts, They’ve Won A Ticket further West, A face Off Against The NBA Best Utah Jazz. The Utah Jazz Didnt Have Such a precarious Path Into The Playoffs. The Jazz Lead The Lead The Leagues In Both Offensive And Defensive rating, One of Only Four To Secure Top Ten ratings In both Stats In The Entire League. As Well As Tops At Defending The three Point Line A Facet Of The Grizzlies Struggled With, At 35% On The Season. In The Alternate The Jazz is The Only Team In The Top 5 Of The NBA In 3 Point Attempts And Conversion percentages. Utah Loss 20 Games On The Season And Despite 3 Matchup Versus The Grizz Not One Of Those 20 Losses Were Conceded To Memphis. Those three victories came Within the span of one of the Jazz’s three Nine game Winning Streaks. The Grizzlies Have Gotten Healthy And Hot A The Right Time. Grizzlies Center Jonas Valicunas  Is Having A a Career. The Veteran Is Assumed To be Leaned On A Bit More In This Series Fro The Inexperienced Grizzlies. The Return Of Jaren Jackson junior Could Pose A Problem For A Jazz Lineup Which Isn’t Built To defend The Long Limbed Stretch Four. With Their Satr Guard Donavan Mitchell Having A Career year In Every Significant Statistical And Center Rudy Gobert, And Two Defending Defensive Player Of the Year Rudy  Once Again In The Running The Jazz Here The Jazz Of Their Best Chance At Championship contention since the late 90s. The Grizzlies Have The Chance to Make Some Noise In The West as their team that is still processing can gain experience. Reigning Rookie Of The Year Ja Maront Headlines The Bunch But The Team Features Seven Players That Average Double Digits In Scoring And They Are Going To need It If The Hope To contend With the Jazz. Conversely Health Could Be A Concern For The Jazz, star Guard Donavan Mitchell Is Still Nursing A Sore Ankle But He’s had A Few Days Of rest.

Jazz in 5

Suns Vs. Lakers

 A trap series if there Ever Were One. For Those wondering A Trap Series takes Place When  The Higher Seeded Team in the Playoff Bracket, in this Case, The Phoenix Suns, Are Locked Into a Matchup Against a Lower Seeded team, The Lakers, Who Quite Possibly are Be The Better or more favorable team in the Series. Now That Is Our Of The Way. This Is The Only Matchup Out West that Features Two Teams In the Top 10 Of Defensive rating. Most Mid-Season Projections Would Have Station The Lakers As A Top-Seeded team In The Or At least top 5 out West. That Is Before the Injury Bug Creep In And Bite Both Lebron And AD, Saddling The Stars For Some Period Of Time. The Lakers Were 19-8 with both LeBron and AD In the Line-Up, Outscoring opponents By Double Digits. But The Tandem Tagged into The Alkers Line-up Sparingly. Coupled with the rise Of Other Western Conference predators Pushed The Lakers To the Brink of Extinction Which required Late Heroics From Lebron James To Save The Seven Seed And LA Hopes Of Repeating as NBA. The Lake show Is a Prehistoric offense that Struggles to be effective anywhere outside of the paint. They have The largest Field Goal Percentage discrepancy on Attempts inside and outside of the paint, In other words, They don’t shoot well. The Team Moves the Ball effectively, sporting the Third Highest “Hockey” Assist rate But Struggles To convert Attempts Off the Dribble.   In the  Way of the Lakers, Quest To repeat Is A Phoenix Suns, a  Team Rising From The Horizon Of Playoff Obscurity And Into The hemisphere Of The Western Conference contention Discussion. This Is Not Your Grnadma’s Suns Or Your Older Brother’s Phoenix Suns. Led By Devin Booker And Chris Paul, The Offense Rank Top 10 in paint Field Goals(1st), Mid-range(1st), and Three-point Effectiveness(7th) and Led the League In Assist To turnover Ratio As Well as the League’s best record In the Clutch. These Suns are Also One Of Four teams To rank Top ten in Both defensive And Offensive ratings.  They Rank highest In Most Field Goal Statistical categories, From Inside And Out Side Of The Restricted Area And Shot Down The Three-Point Line, On top of Being 3rd in Net Rating. The Suns boost A Plus Records in clutch Games But Neither Devin Booker Nor Chris Paul Are Plus In that Fraction Of The Game. Deandre Ayton Struggled Defensive on An Individual Level And he Will Is tested Against LA. The Suns Bested The Lakers 2 of 3 matchups, with a Late season Loss Being against The Embattled Lakers Serving as The Only Defeat, Though The Lakers Won The Point differential of The Season Series Overall and the Lebron And Anthony Davis Duo Never Paired up To Play the Suns As Both Battle Injuries Throughout The Course Of the Season.  The Suns Are Young and Inexperienced The Lakers Have LeBron’s And A tested Team.

Suns In Six

Nuggets vs Blazers

These Divisions DFoes Know Each Other Well. Only two years Removed From A Seven Game Series That saw Portland Advance To The western Finals. Despite The Mass Appeal Of Damian Lillard And Co The Blazers Aare  Still A Middling western Conference team Who Narrowly Avoided A Play in the tournament Against The Warriors. That Being said The Blazers Have That Guy Damian Lillard, He’s Lead the Portland Offense To The 2nd Highest off Rating In the League And 5th in Points per game Average, despite Having The League’s Lowest Assist percentage and ranking 28th in average, as well As The Lowest drive rate in the League. The Offset, the Three Pointer. The Blazers Shoot the Highest Percentage Of Threes And Win 3:1 When they Shoot at or Above The League Average. The Blazers Are Incendiary Inn isolation. Carmelo Virtually Never Passes, And CJ Mccollum Is Not Far behind Him in isolation situations. The Dearth of Ball Sharing As Lead to Dearth Of Ball Losing. The Balzers As A Team Rarely Turn the Ball Over And Their Starting Lineup Out scores Its opponents 13.4  Per 100 Possession, stats courtesy of NBA.com. The Nuggets Operate In Isolation A lot Up In the Mountains, Unlike The Blazers, Who Share the Ball Through Three primary Isolationist, Denver Uses Nikola Jokic As the Teams Offensive central Compass. Jokic Average The Most, the Most, Touches In The League and Made good work of Them both inside and outside of the lane. The Nuggets Center Had 56 More Isolation Touches Than Next Highest Qualifier, shooting better than 70% inside the lane and 50% Mid-Range. The Nuggets style Of Play is Laboring They Ranked Bottom Five in the pace of play or possession per game. But this Is The Playoff where A Pace Doesn’t factor In So As Historically Most teams Pace dives Mile high. Next To Jokic Will Eb Micheal Porter Jr. Porter Jr. took When Jamal Murray went down. He is Shooting 46.5 on catch And Shoot Three Pointers. The Nuggets Will Need His Marks Man Ship, Given Portland Proclivity From Deep, And Their Other Forwards, Aaron Gordon, And Paul Milsap are Both Struggling From Anywhere outside Of The restricted Area. The Nuggets Won Two Of 3 Matchup Versus Portland Two close Affairs And One Lobsided Win by Portland In their Final Matchup.

Blazers in 6.

Clippers Vs. Mavs.

A rematch of their playoff series of a year ago. The Clippers Are Keen To “Colossal collapses”. The Mavericks are A-Team with No Identity shoulder By A Young Phenom.

The Clippers Are One Of Four teams Who Are Top 10 In Both Offensive And defensive RAting. Their Offense Is Similar To Paortlands In That They Take and Make A lot Of Threes. Where The Similarities End. Where Portland Produces Most of Its Threes Of The Dribble The clippers Have Some Of The Best Catch In Shoot Players In The League, Including Paul George. The Clippers Do damage Inside As Well With Serge Ibaka Being One OF the Most Efficient Converting 70% Of His Restricted Area touches And KAhwi Leonard, Not To be An After Thought, Being One The Most Proficient Pick And Roll Maestros In The League. The Two Way Tandem Of APul George And Kawhi Leonard As also One Of The Two duos To Average 20/5/5 In 50 Plus Games. Their Starter Lineup Like To Get Ahead And when the Do The They never Look Back Winning 5:1 when Leading By Double Digits But Struggle To Recover in Adversity. Sporting A sub .500 Mark When trailing By Double digits. The Teams offense stagnates in the clutch,16-18 in tight Games. 11-22. One of those 22 losses, a 50 pointer versus Dallas. The Mavs Struggled Mid Way Through the Season and Were Considered A Fringe Playoff Team Before The team Settled At 42-30. The Mavs and Clippers Share A Status As a team Who wins Early. The Mavericks Are Undefeated When They Win the First Quarter, Which Accounts for 27 of Their 42 Wins.  The Mavericks Offense Is A Quagmire Of The Third Variety. They Scasrely Work In Transition And are unremarkable At The Three Shooting And Ball Movement But Their Pick And Roll Offense Is eXceptional And They Efficient With Their Offensive Opportunities, recording Some of The Highest Percentages on Pulls up, catch And Shoot creation. The Mavericks Are Unremarkable On Defense With One Of The Leagues Losest Defensive rating. The Struggles To force Turnovers. The offense is Lead By Luka Doncic Who Operate Primarily One on One Which Doesn’t Bode Well For The Mavs As He Will is tested Against Paul George,  Kawhi Leonard, and Nicholas Batum Every Night In This series. The Mavs Won The Three-Game Series 2-1, One of those, games the first one,  Minus Kawhi, who struggled to score against Mavs this season. Expect This Series To be Different.

Clippers In Seven.