Some good games tonight.
I was bored so I was looking at the Western Conference standings and as of right now the best the Lakers could do is a 6th place finish in the western conference and 6th is highly unlikely unless they rattle off like a dozen wins in a row or something.
1 thru 5 are all solid teams with the lowest win percentage at 5 being .677. No way in hell they could crack that.
Then you look at denver who is 18 and 15 and the current #7 seed but they are actually a lot better than that record. They've played 11 home games and 22 road games right now. Once the math evens up there they will be a lot better and probably eventually locked in at the #6 slot.
That leaves Houston, Denver, Portland, Minnesota, Utah, and the Lakers all scrabbling for that 7th and 8th spot. Obviously the Lakers could make it in over those teams but it will not be easy. I think they are easily better than Portland. Minnesota kinda seems like a mess to me right now even though you can't really count out Adelman. I think Houston seems to be gelling a bit. And Utah is always tough albeit boring. Should be fun. And of course you still have like 50 games to go for most teams so this is a bit premature.