Forecasting the NBA West: Projections for 11 Playoff Contenders — Based on Advanced Stats
The REAL Western Conference standings, and what to expect for playoff matchups
With five weeks left in the regular season, it’s crunch time in the wild West.
Let’s look ahead to the rest of the season to determine the postseason outlook for each of 11 Western Conference teams — including its chances of making the playoffs, most likely playoff seed, and likely playoff matchups.
For the projections, I’m using xRAPM and updated rotations that mirror the playing-time distributions in recent games, while taking into account injuries.
The rest of the season is simulated 10,000 times, while also taking into account each team’s strength of schedule and its number of home and away games.
The rankings below are for the current-strength versions of the top 11 playoff contenders in the West.1
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