The NBA’s Western Conference is perhaps the strongest it has been in recent years, but The Ringer’s Zach Lowe believes only four teams are actually good enough to get to the NBA Finals. Lowe shared his list on the latest episode of The Zach Lowe Show, and the Los Angeles Lakers are not part of that group.
“I think there are only four teams who can win the Western Conference right now that I can take seriously, like you could make the Finals,” Lowe said. “Oklahoma City, Denver, San Antonio, and Minnesota. I don’t see it with Houston, and if this [Kevin Durant] burner thing is real, God help us all. And I don’t see it with the Lakers, and nobody else is in the conversation.”
The Lakers entered the All-Star break with a 33-21 record, good enough for fifth in the West. It’s a pretty solid record, but this is a flawed team. The Lakers aren’t good defensively, and you’d expect the four teams Lowe mentioned to give them all sorts of problems in a playoff series.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, of course, eliminated the Lakers in five games in the first round last season. Would the outcome be any different if they were to meet again? Probably not.
While you’d back the Timberwolves in a potential playoff matchup with the Lakers, they are probably the team among the four you’d be least confident in to get to the Finals. They have been quite inconsistent so far and are currently sixth in the West with a 34-22 record.
Rudy Gobert harshly called out his Timberwolves teammates before the break, and it will be interesting to see if they get their act together in the second half of the season. They got to the Western Conference Finals in 2024 and 2025, so this group is very much capable of making a deep run.
Unlike the Timberwolves, the San Antonio Spurs don’t really have any recent playoff experience as a group. The Spurs haven’t made the playoffs in each of the last six seasons, but that drought is set to end now. They are second in the West with a 38-16 record.
Victor Wembanyama has been incredible for the Spurs, but you do wonder whether the lack of experience will ultimately prove to be their downfall. It’s not often you see a group go all the way to the Finals the very first time they make it to the postseason.
Experience isn’t an issue when it comes to the two other teams Lowe mentioned. The Oklahoma City Thunder are, of course, the defending champions, while the Denver Nuggets won it all in 2023. They faced off in a titanic seven-game playoff series last season, and it sure seemed like the winner was going to go all the way. That is exactly what happened.
The Thunder currently sit atop the standings in the West with a 42-14 record, but have stumbled a bit. They were 24-1 after 25 games and looked to be on their way to breaking the single-season record for wins. Injuries have played a part in them slowing down, but they do seem to have come back to the pack now.
The Nuggets have been ravaged by injuries, too, and are third with a 35-20 record. If this team is healthy, you’d back them to beat anybody, but the injury bug just keeps biting them. There hasn’t been the kind of continuity that you’d want, and that might cost the Nuggets in the end. Time will tell.
The Houston Rockets were expected to be part of this group, but things haven’t quite gone according to plan. Fred VanVleet tore his ACL before the season, while an ankle injury has ruled Steven Adams out for the rest of the campaign.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, there is this whole Kevin Durant burner account scandal that has come up, which Lowe was referring to. Shots have been fired at Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. in those leaked chats, and it is alleged that Durant was the one behind them. Is there going to be some tension behind the scenes now? Maybe.
The Rockets are fourth in the West with a 33-20 record, so they shouldn’t be completely written off, but just like the Lakers, you wouldn’t back them against any of those four teams.
