The BATTLE for the No. 1 seed in the West is HEATING Up 🔥 | The Hoop Collective

The BATTLE for the No. 1 seed in the West is HEATING Up 🔥 | The Hoop Collective

Real quick we we talked about the top of the West the other day but I just as we um as we get down here I just wanted to take a look at uh spent a couple minutes here taking a look at the Western Conference race for first place and um

Where every where some of the tiebreakers and stuff come out so I know that you’ve paid close attention to OKC McMahon they are as we do this are half game ahead of Denver with the tiebreaker i i i attended the one time this year that OKC lost to the nuggets and it was

By a whole bunch of points but they won that Series 3 to one including an SGA buzzer beater uh in Denver so OKC has a slight Edge in the standings and the tiebreaker there okay and Denver and Minnesota who are two3 in addition to Minnesota dealing with Carl Town’s injury they

Play three more times Minnesota is up 10 in that but they play three more times and it’s going to be without towns and and by the way Denver’s already projected to have two more wins in Minnesota as it is and Minnesota’s going to be weakened down

The stretch here yeah I think it’s going to be very very very very tough for the timber woles to finish above third it’s just reality the real question is you know we talked about New Orleans the other day where people in New Orleans got very mad for me saying that they

Haven’t been talked about on the national radar since the inseason tournament uh when we spent half the Pod talking about them somehow that turned into us not talking about them but be that as it may uh is thin skin oh I just thought it was funny that just this this

One clip in a half an hour pod got pulled out as uh the US not talking about New Orleans at all and the podcast was literally headlined about the Pelicans being the hottest te in the league but I think there’s there might be a better chance frankly of Minnesota

Finishing fifth behind New Orleans then finishing first or second because they’re not going to have towns down the stretch here there’s currently a four- win Gap in the projections that doesn’t include towns being out and you know if you look at you know if you look at how

This is going to shake out I mean I I don’t I think it’s much more like that Minnesota slides some than it is they go on some crazy Rampage here and finish first or second I don’t know what you guys think yeah I think that’d be a I don’t know

That they’re going to slide that much but I guess stranger things have happened hopefully only four it’s only four losses it’s not that much hopefully our Pal goar doesn’t get uh teed up in critical situations in the final minutes of games and then double down afterwards

Well and by the way like these two games they just lost over the weekend like the Cavs were very banged up I know they were missing towns but still second I back toback but still you lose that game you lose to the Lakers we’ll see what happens tonight with this Clippers game

Like those are tough games to lose if you’re in the situation they’re in and you’re trying to maintain your standing you can’t be giving away games against anybody that you quote unquote should be beating because it’s just going to make your life that much more there’s a

Reason why Denver is projected to to be in better shape Denver has the easiest schedule left amongst all these teams they have three games left against the Spurs they have two games left against the Grizzlies they get to play the Jazz and the and the Blazers um they really the you know they

Have one game left against the Clippers that’s the only team outside Minnesota that you know they’re they’re completed with everybody else so I don’t I can totally see why D you know you don’t have to have the the computations to figure out why Denver is up there by the

Way they’ve unlike last March when they sort of took their foot off the gas and got into cruise control we spent several weeks talking about you know how good are the nuggets and are they going to be able to make a run in the playoffs this year feels like the inverse where

They’ve gotten to this point they saw a top seed in sight and we’re said we better put our foot down and let’s go get it and make sure we have it even if they won’t admit it and you know like we talked about the other day Fe sitting

There as the team like the Lakers and you’re I mean this this is a pretty massive thing where it’s like well maybe we could get the Thunder who we match up really well with in a one 18 matchup if we actually can get to the playoffs

Which is a whole other question or we could get Denver who we match up horribly with and has now won eight straight games against us and you know if you’re the Lakers and you play Denver in the first round I don’t I’m sure there’ll be discussions about can the

Lakers win the series they’re not winning the series maybe there should be discussions about can they win a game well sure but my point is my point is just we see them win a playoff game against these nuggets let’s that that’s where the discussions on this podcast

Good OB obviously but the point my point is just that this for a onew situation which is looks like this is going to come down to it’s got a lot higher Stakes than it even normally would because you’re going to see like there’s some certain matchups there that could

Really be beneficial to some of these lower seated teams and it could be either really good or really bad depending on who’s sitting there well and look if Oklahoma City is the number one seed if they’re able to to earn that um again they do have the tiebreaker and the nuggets are number

Two you could I’m sure you could find statistical nerdy models that would say hey 78 game you’d be better off losing that game as as far as the probabilities to get out of the first round now there’s no way you would take that risk I just cannot imagine because you don’t

Want to put yourself in a win or go home situation but again all due respect to Oklahoma City if I’m buying stock for five years that’s probably the first place that I’m going but nobody in their right mind would rather see uh the nuggets and the thunder in the first

Round the well the Thunder have the hard of these teams the Thunder have the hardest schedule left theyve got they play Boston they have two games with Milwaukee um got at least one with New Orleans they have New Orleans they have Phoenix um so it’s not Denver’s got the easiest

And the Thunder have the toughest and they’re half game separated we’ll call it a full game because of the tie break it doesn’t have to be any kind of collapse for Oklahoma City to not get the one seat like it know Denver could just flat out wi it

Out right just because of the strength of schedule [Applause] [Applause] situation

On The Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst, Tim MacMahon and Tim Bontemps take a look at the race for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

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