nba, nba teamLiving on the west coast for the entirety of my life with no plans go anywhere else, I have invested some serious time into following all the NBA teams on this side of the map. This year it is so close between second place down to the bottom of the west it is hard to tell what the playoffs are going to bring. As you have read before, my favorite NBA team is the Phoenix Suns. They started out the season scorching and were the first team in the league to hit ten wins. 2010 has not been so kind to them. After losing a lot in the beginning of the month, they can’t seem to win without losing the next game. This rut has put them back in the belly of the Western Conference.

At the moment the difference between the fourth place Jazz and the 11th place Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Western Conference is just two games. With something like 40 games left in the season, anything can happen. What needs to happen is the Suns coming out of the regular with nothing less then the fourth seed for the playoffs. They have been playing such sloppy basketball lately anything worse could mean near immediate elimination when the post season does come around.

The only team I really see out of the running for possibly making the playoffs in the west is the Timberwolves. They are fightless this year. Phoenix at the moment is a single game behind fourth place and four games behind third in the west. They will win tonight against the Bobcats unless we see a complete Nash and Amare meltdown. Even if Nash plays tired, the team should beat the losing Bobcats. Without a doubt in my mind, the Lakers will take the NBA Divisional title. It pains me to say it but Kobe has been playing with so much fire especially in the clutch this season.

As for the Eastern Side of things, the spread is much more pronounced from fourth place on. The Magic sit 5.5 games behind the leading Cavs squad.  Right behind the Magic is the Miami Heat who are a whopping 11 games back from Cleveland. From there on it gets even worse. The Eastern Conference now is really a fight for second, third, fourth and fifth place. My dream would be to see the Suns and Cavs face off in the finals. This is just a NBA dream. In reality, it is more likely to see another shoot off between Kobe and LeBron.