Thunder - 9-1 (won 3 straight). Thunder are 20-3 in their last 23.

Spurs - 9-1 (won 9 straight). Spurs are 25-2 in their last 27.

Lakers - 9-1 (won 4 straight). Lakers are 16-2 in their last 18.

Nuggets - 8-2 (won 6 straight)

The Nuggets are the only of the four whose recent dominance does not extend far beyond the last ten (they’re 9-2 in their last 11 and had some struggles before then). These numbers will go down, as the Thunder play the Lakers twice and Nuggets once. The Nuggets play San Antonio twice and OKC once.

But this is shaping up to be an all-time second round and conference finals that will feature what are clearly the best four players in the league, either in their primes or emerging towards it, and three of whom that have won a title or been in the finals within the last three years.

Ok_Cancel8139

95 | 4 hours ago

Playoffs are gonna be so fun

Debits_equals_credit

24 | 4 hours ago

The teams that lose won’t be having fun

Tough_Lawfulness8380

23 | 4 hours ago

So the kings will have fun then

LilSwampGod | Raptors

3 | 3 hours ago

I mean Cancun is fun

jluc21 | Kings

1 | an hour ago

man what the hell did we do?!

kanokari | Timberwolves

3 | 4 hours ago

Bloodbath

OUEngineer17 | Nuggets

76 | 4 hours ago

2 of those teams aren’t making it to the WCF, and it’s going to be hard on those fans when the team is that good.

headbangershappyhour | Timberwolves

39 | 4 hours ago

At least 2. The bottom of the west might be tankapalooza, but the rest of the playoff picture is filled with dangerous teams.

OUEngineer17 | Nuggets

20 | 4 hours ago

Yeah, I wonder if the Wolves are looking at that 6 seed and thinking a Lakers/Spurs route to their 3rd straight WCF seems a lot more attractive than a Nuggets/Thunder route.

mas1108 | Lakers

20 | 3 hours ago

Lol, obviously Minny would rather face lakers who they gentlemen swept last year and spurs with no playoff experience then the defending champions and another recent nba champion with much of its core still intact. No need to wonder my guy.

purplenyellowrose909 | Timberwolves

4 | 2 hours ago

We’re trying to find a way to play Houston. Community is split on Denver vs LAL

mas1108 | Lakers

1 | 2 hours ago

As an NBA fan, I would love to watch a Wolves Nuggets first round.

Malificari | LAL

1 | an hour ago

dont think that will be possible. no way the fading rockets are getting pass yall and the nuggets. nuggets would ahve to fall to 6th. lakers are not falling out of third. we are still in the lead even if we lose both okc games

Answer70 | Rockets

1 | 16 minutes ago

Rockets don’t look like they’re fading anymore.

Zestyclose-Draft-724 | Lakers

0 | an hour ago

I don’t think Minny wants the Lakers this season.

Lakers swept Minny during the regular season 3-0.

Sektsioon | Mavericks

6 | 3 hours ago

2 of those teams are possibly not making the 2nd round lol. I think OKC and Spurs will easily beat the play-in winners but Wolves and Rockets could very well beat Lakers and Nuggets, especially Wolves who have beat both of those teams in the playoffs these last few years.

Ace_FGC | Lakers

2 | 3 hours ago

Idk as a Lakers fan I’d be pretty surprised if we made it to the WCF

SebastianC1

1 | 2 hours ago

Nah we we a first round exit all year you can’t make me disappointed

Debits_equals_credit

-8 | 4 hours ago

The Celtics handed the thunder that loss

StrikeElectrical9400 | Nuggets

6 | 4 hours ago

What?

Debits_equals_credit

0 | 3 hours ago

You heard me

StrikeElectrical9400 | Nuggets

2 | 3 hours ago

Yea the celtics beat the thunder convincingly but what does that have to do with this

Debits_equals_credit

1 | 3 hours ago

It says the thunder are 9-1. And 1 loss is the Celtics

StrikeElectrical9400 | Nuggets

2 | an hour ago

I know that the celtics are a good team… really could have put ur point across in a better way…. It feels like you want me to get ragebaited..

fattymcdabs | Thunder

1 | an hour ago

Proof?

Debits_equals_credit

0 | an hour ago

SGA glazers are out again

fattymcdabs | Thunder

2 | an hour ago

I’m fuckin with you weirdo

HotCom12 | Lakers

29 | 4 hours ago

At what point does the west being so much better than the east become a problem? How is it fair that that these teams have to destroy themselves while Boston and Detroit get to play the Hawks/6ers/Raptors?

EmphasisOk8298

40 | 4 hours ago

Boston and Detroit probably have harder first round matchups than OKC and SAS.

justFramy | Thunder

-4 | 4 hours ago

i’d say it’s about even really

edit: lmao reddit is such an echo chamber, one person downvotes so everyone else downvotes as well

EmphasisOk8298

20 | 4 hours ago

Hornets are much better than anyone in the west play-in.

Other than that it’s pretty even.

Odoaiden | Timberwolves

13 | 4 hours ago

I’d take clippers and Suns over Hornets in a 7 game series

EmphasisOk8298

5 | 4 hours ago

Hard to predict which version of the Clippers we get, you might be right.

Hornets over Suns is the easiest bet of my life. They have a very solid chance to win in round 1 imo. Have been a comfortably top 5 team for more than half of the season now.

MrNegative69 | Suns

7 | 4 hours ago

Top 5 team lol. They are not beating the Celtics and the only reason they can beat Detroit is because of Cade’s injury.

mjseminoles2 | Hawks

5 | 3 hours ago

They actually have been a top 5 team since January according to some efficiency metrics. He’s not wrong about that. An actual top 5 team if we were to rank all of them rn? No likely not.

devinstated1 | Bucks

5 | 3 hours ago

You are aware they have the 4th best record in the NBA since Jan. 1st right? They have been one of the best teams in the league for the last 3 months now.

EmphasisOk8298

2 | 3 hours ago

I mean they just objectively have been top 5. You can think it won’t hold up, that’s a fine opinion to have.

moistkebab32 | Suns

1 | an hour ago

What reason do you have for Hornets over suns so easily? They just got spanked by Phoenix recently missing half their side.

They have no one to guard Booker and their strength is interior defense behind Diabete. Their wing defense is bad and Suns rely on perimeter and mid range play significantly rather than bigs that Charlotte are good at shutting down.

EmphasisOk8298

3 | an hour ago

They’ve had the best net rating in the league since Jan 1. I just think they are a much better team.

Electronic_Pea_4845 | Iran

29 | 4 hours ago

East to west head to head record is 203-190 that’s hardly “so much better it’s become a problem” teams like the Celtics are 19-10 vs the west and teams like the lakers can’t beat the hornets it’s safe to say things would shake out the same in any hypothetical

kalebglover | Trail Blazers

18 | 4 hours ago

the east has more teams above .500 this year fyi

Heshrat

20 | 4 hours ago

Damn this is next level bitching

guimontag

1 | 4 hours ago

Multi-track bitching?!

SunKing210 | Spurs

6 | 4 hours ago

West is top heavy, but yeah, overall I think the West is just much more of a gauntlet than the East. It’s been this way for a long time. We got T-Wolves fans eagerly waiting for the expansion to happen so that their team can get switched to the Eastern conference haha

Electronic_Pea_4845 | Iran

-1 | 4 hours ago

We are a Haliburton injury away from the east 2-0 championships in recent history. The path isn’t any harder in the west.

Normal-Weakness-364 | Canada

6 | 4 hours ago

that doesn’t necessarily prove them wrong though?

they are saying the west is tougher to get through. by the logic, winning a championship as an eastern conference team would be easier because the western conference team would be coming off of harder match-ups, longer series, etc.

two years isn’t really a good sample size either. if we take the last 10, it’s 6-4 in favour of western conference teams. i’d say 6-4 is about what i would expect here based on the west still generally being stronger.

Electronic_Pea_4845 | Iran

-6 | 4 hours ago

You could go back 50 years and it still won’t be relevant to the conversation we are having. Catchup Kiddo!

Normal-Weakness-364 | Canada

1 | 4 hours ago

are you stupid??

Electronic_Pea_4845 | Iran

0 | 4 hours ago

You could be nice. No reason to both stupid and shitty

Normal-Weakness-364 | Canada

3 | 4 hours ago

i asked a question because i didn’t want to jump to conclusions. some people are just mentally challenged and not stupid, so i didn’t want to be ableist towards you :)

Electronic_Pea_4845 | Iran

-3 | 3 hours ago

You just Lash out instead of asking for help. I work with kids like you everyday for my job I don’t mind explaining why you are wrong if you ask.

mkLOW | Lakers

4 | 4 hours ago

This is just not true this season.

captain_ahabb | Lakers

3 | 4 hours ago

It’s been that way for like 30 years and it’s fine

Nice-Way2892

2 | 4 hours ago

Idk man Boston or Detroit aren’t that much better than Hawks/6ers/Raptors

MumrikDK

2 | 4 hours ago

This was never structured to get the best two teams to the finals, only the best one and then whoever did best in the other conference.

eZreazy | Lakers

2 | an hour ago

Minnesota really should be east especially with Seattle coming. That should help abit.

bald-broke-hoeless | Celtics

-5 | 4 hours ago

The Celtics are better than every team in this list except the Spurs. The Pistons are better than every team here except the Thunder and Spurs, the Knicks are better than the Nuggets and arguably the Lakers.

The “superiority” of the west to the east is greatly exaggerated and does not reflect reality.

Mg29reaper | Celtics

1 | 4 hours ago

Its because the west has the superstars while the east has more well rounded teams. Every good east team has a atleast 2 mid all star or above level guys while the west teams are much more top heavy.

nba2k11er | Warriors

16 | 4 hours ago

Normal West behavior

zhendexihuanniya

3 | 4 hours ago

Now imagine anyone of SGA, Jokic, Luka or Wemby joins another one of the top 4 teams through FA next year, it was what happened when KD joined Warriors.

KiowaBear | Thunder

4 | 3 hours ago

I think Luka joining the Thunder would be the closest comparison

SwizzGod | Lakers

4 | 4 hours ago

Nuggets haven’t had a “stretch of recent dominance”

Radalek | Nuggets

1 | 3 hours ago

Because we are finally getting mostly healthy just recently. When we were healthy early we looked absolutely dominant.

augswaldo

-4 | 3 hours ago

How about the last 10 years of Nuggets playoff series vs Lakers? Seems like a stretch of recent dominance to me.

Puzzleheadpsych2345 | Lakers

4 | 2 hours ago

All that to have same amount of chips as lakers whilst boasting a player that supposedly shouldve won every mvp since 2020. Hilarious franchise mayn

SebastianC1

1 | 2 hours ago

You mean the dominant 2-1 series lead

SwizzGod | Lakers

0 | an hour ago

This how you know you’re right. When people have to bring up stuff that has nothing to do with the current conversation.

Underrated_user20 | Minneapolis Lakers

1 | 4 hours ago

Looking forward to the playoffs this year!

heat_fan_ | Raptors

1 | 4 hours ago

Playoff can’t start fast enough

BuckSleezy | Supersonics

1 | 4 hours ago

I want the Thunder to lose in the second round and have a new champ because this is a crazy stretch of unique champs and failure to repeat.

devinstated1 | Bucks

0 | 3 hours ago

That would only really leave Detroit or New York as logical teams in that scenario and I would prefer neither of those teams ever win a chip again.

xdgaymer69

1 | 6 minutes ago

…and no logical chance for the team that beats the thunder?

rethinkingat59

1 | 3 hours ago

🎶I love the NBA, but it’s the season of the tank.🎼

(Sung to the tune of Stick Season)

Jack_The_Sparrow_ | Warriors

1 | 3 hours ago

West about to blow out each other’s backs so egregiously, that they’re gonna be doing the limp of shame into the finals

uncertifiablypg

1 | 2 hours ago

Always funny to me when people pick a random number to say 20-3 in last 23 lol. That probably literally means 20-4 in last 24 hahahaha. I’d rather we find a random whole number and use the same for everyone

spacetime9

1 | an hour ago

good point, I’ve had the same realization about runs in games, like they’ll say “7 to 2 run” but that pretty much also means 7 to 4, since otherwise they’d have said 9 to 2 run, and 7-4 is really not even worth mentioning.

Top-Lane-Bad

1 | an hour ago

I wonder who makes the WCF’s. Idk why but I have a feeling with this being LeBrons last serious year and Luka going off, we might just see the team jump into the WCF and honestly that would be hype. SAS are too young and the nuggets I just don’t trust anymore.

devinstated1 | Bucks

-1 | 3 hours ago

OKC and San Antonio are the only 2 that have been good all year. Fakers put together a good month of March but prior to that were a joke. The nuggets have been a steaming pile of shit a majority of the year blowing 4th quarter leads left and right.

Human_mind | Lakers

3 | 2 hours ago

Well with that flair, I suppose you are an expert…

Old_Supermarket_7575 | Thunder

1 | 29 minutes ago

Lakers are fake idc what anybody says

blazerlove7

-10 | 4 hours ago

the only one of those four teams that is not insufferable is Denver. Lakers are just impossible to like in any way. OKC is a stolen team, and those Zombie Sonics still are not deserving, even if they do have a crazy great roster. The Spurs did not deserve multiple top 5 picks and then landing THE generational player after they already had that kind of thing with Duncan etc prior… I’m just so sick of the Spurs always getting the luck. Oh well. Haha, I’m salty as a Blazers fan.

LardHop | Lakers

10 | 4 hours ago

Every good team is insufferable for you if your team is ass.

blazerlove7

0 | 3 hours ago

LeBron is annoying. And the whole shiny big market thing where free agents want to go there for the exposure, nightlife etc- it’s just hard for small markets to compete with that in free agency. So yeah, the Lakers are just an unlikeable franchise… ever since Showtime era anyhow, because it was impossible not to be a fan of Magic and Kareem.

manindenim | Lakers

6 | 4 hours ago

Didn’t even give a reason for the Lakers lol.

Ienjoymyself

1 | 3 hours ago

Getting gifted another generational player for the nth time in a row when they fuck it all up.

Debits_equals_credit

-18 | 4 hours ago

SGA is literally top 5 all time

EsotericPotato | Timberwolves

16 | 4 hours ago

Get your home checked for a gas leak

No_Heat2685

7 | 4 hours ago

At flopping success rate, maybe

Debits_equals_credit

-2 | 4 hours ago

The only person I can think of that’s better than him is Rashard Lewis

_Caek_ | Thunder

3 | 4 hours ago

What the fuck are you talking about

Debits_equals_credit

0 | 3 hours ago

Everyone will argue but no one can name 5 better players

The Top Four in the West are 35-5 in Their Last 40