And 7th seed 4 games out, 8th seed 4 1/2.
But 1 through 6 separated by ONE game? Has it ever been so insanely close? Is this the Western Conference of the NBA or the last race at Santa Anita? Crazy, baby!
So the Lakers slipped a hair again, losing to the #8 Warriors at Staples, 115-111 Sun. night, mostly due to giving up too damn much early and having to climb a big hill back.
That bumps 'em back to #2 seed behind New Orleans again, by miniscule percentage pts. And shrinks their lead over #3 Phoenix in the Pacific Division to a precarious 1/2 game. The Stoudemire-Shaq tandem gelled and dominated against Houston, their most recent game, I think, so look out!
Come on back, Pao, wade that ankle into the crazy fray, reinforced, if possible. Ditto Andrew close behind. We need you!
12 games left in the reg. season, and this DEEP photo-finish just intensifies the observant fan's desire to just get on with the playoffs! Let's see who's left standing when these 6 frickin' virtual clones (plus 2 more close behind, as of 3/23) go toe-to-toe.
Damnedest thing. Lakers look the best they have in 4 years -- then the whole damn 8 seeds follow suit! I can't EVER remember their being virtually NO breathing room between the seeded teams. Snooze you lose; stumble you're out.
Though the Eastern Conference has the teams with the top 2 records, Boston and Detroit, it falls off considerably after that -- especially when you get to #8. Atlanta has a .435 "winning" percentage. By comparison, #8 Golden State in the West is .623. Yikes. The East is "old school," in that records like their #8 is the reason I used to think the playoffs went too deep in the seeding, seemingly inviting everybody, deserving or not.
Not if you're in the frying pan of the Western Conference. We can only hope the Lakers get their key other guys back pronto and stumble no more down the home stretch. It's crazy crazy close.
Stay tuned!
Keywords: Lakers, neck-in-neck, Western Conference
