http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/146779.html
Shifting landscape in NBA's Western Conference
Several subpar teams still have legitimate chance to extend their season
By Scott Howard-Cooper - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, March 30, 2007
Some race. Downhill, on a slalom course, metal roller skates on pavement, after a couple of six-packs, maybe, but not the kind of leaning dash to the finish that has become customary in the Western Conference.
This is the stuff of the East. That was supposed to be the land that humility forgot, where at least one club, and sometimes more, got to call itself a playoff team because it drowned less than others. And now look.
The Denver Nuggets are No. 7 in the West at 35-35. The Los Angeles Clippers are No. 8 at 34-37. The Golden State Warriors are one game behind, the New Orleans Hornets 2 1/2 behind. The Kings ordinarily would be out of the picture as the 11th-place team, and especially at 30-40 in a conference that historically hasn't considered letting a sub-.500 team sit at the grown-ups' table. But the same Kings are only 3 1/2 games behind the Clippers and could dig closer when the teams meet tonight at Arco Arena.
Eleventh place with 12 games to play normally would guarantee impending elimination. At that point, it becomes a matter of needing several squads to falter, not merely of closing distance on the targeted team. But this is the gentler West of 2006-07, and, really, who among the contenders for the final spot appears imposing enough to instantly take control?
Or as Nuggets assistant Doug Moe said, "Whoever can put together any sort of run has a lock."
Run nothing. A jog could do it.
We're talking statistical anomaly of an NBA generation here.
No team has made the West playoffs with a .500 record since the Timberwolves in 1998-99, the lockout season of 50 games. None has made them with a full 82-game schedule since the Rockets in the 1997-98 season.
Not since the 1996-97 season has a team qualified with a losing record. In a possible similarity to this season, the '96-'97 postseason party-crashers came as a group, with the Suns and Timberwolves at 40-42 and the Clippers at 36-46.
Won't the Jazz be thrilled to see it happen again 10 years later? Utah was 41-41 last season -- and finished three games behind the Kings, the final postseason entrant. Or the 2004-05 Timberwolves, who won 44 and still couldn't crack the top eight.
It became the "Mild, Mild West" without warning and mostly without explanation. The Hornets played the first half of the season with the training room full, and the Warriors had a similar, though less severe, run of injuries. But that happens to some unfortunate teams each season.
Everyone else: The dog ate their homework.
"It is unusual," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I think what happened was, the top got really heavy in the sense that Dallas never lost a game, we haven't lost many games, San Antonio has been on a (hot) streak. Somebody has to lose 'em."
The middle class has practically been eliminated, in other words. The Mavericks, Suns and Spurs have separated from the pack, leaving the Jazz and Rockets as the good teams and a lot of others to flail away. It's how, with 2 1/2 weeks left in the regular season, the Clippers, Warriors and even the Kings have a chance to make the playoffs ... or to finish last in the Pacific Division.
Some race, indeed.
About the writer: The Bee's Scott Howard-Cooper can be reached at showard-cooper@sacbee.com.
Shifting landscape in NBA's Western Conference
Several subpar teams still have legitimate chance to extend their season
By Scott Howard-Cooper - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, March 30, 2007
Some race. Downhill, on a slalom course, metal roller skates on pavement, after a couple of six-packs, maybe, but not the kind of leaning dash to the finish that has become customary in the Western Conference.
This is the stuff of the East. That was supposed to be the land that humility forgot, where at least one club, and sometimes more, got to call itself a playoff team because it drowned less than others. And now look.
The Denver Nuggets are No. 7 in the West at 35-35. The Los Angeles Clippers are No. 8 at 34-37. The Golden State Warriors are one game behind, the New Orleans Hornets 2 1/2 behind. The Kings ordinarily would be out of the picture as the 11th-place team, and especially at 30-40 in a conference that historically hasn't considered letting a sub-.500 team sit at the grown-ups' table. But the same Kings are only 3 1/2 games behind the Clippers and could dig closer when the teams meet tonight at Arco Arena.
Eleventh place with 12 games to play normally would guarantee impending elimination. At that point, it becomes a matter of needing several squads to falter, not merely of closing distance on the targeted team. But this is the gentler West of 2006-07, and, really, who among the contenders for the final spot appears imposing enough to instantly take control?
Or as Nuggets assistant Doug Moe said, "Whoever can put together any sort of run has a lock."
Run nothing. A jog could do it.
We're talking statistical anomaly of an NBA generation here.
No team has made the West playoffs with a .500 record since the Timberwolves in 1998-99, the lockout season of 50 games. None has made them with a full 82-game schedule since the Rockets in the 1997-98 season.
Not since the 1996-97 season has a team qualified with a losing record. In a possible similarity to this season, the '96-'97 postseason party-crashers came as a group, with the Suns and Timberwolves at 40-42 and the Clippers at 36-46.
Won't the Jazz be thrilled to see it happen again 10 years later? Utah was 41-41 last season -- and finished three games behind the Kings, the final postseason entrant. Or the 2004-05 Timberwolves, who won 44 and still couldn't crack the top eight.
It became the "Mild, Mild West" without warning and mostly without explanation. The Hornets played the first half of the season with the training room full, and the Warriors had a similar, though less severe, run of injuries. But that happens to some unfortunate teams each season.
Everyone else: The dog ate their homework.
"It is unusual," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I think what happened was, the top got really heavy in the sense that Dallas never lost a game, we haven't lost many games, San Antonio has been on a (hot) streak. Somebody has to lose 'em."
The middle class has practically been eliminated, in other words. The Mavericks, Suns and Spurs have separated from the pack, leaving the Jazz and Rockets as the good teams and a lot of others to flail away. It's how, with 2 1/2 weeks left in the regular season, the Clippers, Warriors and even the Kings have a chance to make the playoffs ... or to finish last in the Pacific Division.
Some race, indeed.
About the writer: The Bee's Scott Howard-Cooper can be reached at showard-cooper@sacbee.com.
