The Season is Here

Your weekly NBA Pacific Division Update

By Tara Sadat-Tehrani

Frederic J. Brown / Getty Images

The time has come, and the NBA season has started.  Rankings and predictions were made all of preseason and during training camp, but how have teams done keeping these projections of their performance in mind.  For the NBA Pacific Division, the predictions and guesses have been quite on point with a little surprise for some teams, but I believe that there is always rust when it comes to the beginning of an 82-game season.  Let’s see which teams are on the road to success in the West, and which others may have no hope even though there has only been up to four games.

First place goes to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers did lose to the Lakers opening night, but since then, they have put the Warriors to shame and “Lob City” has yet to leave its game plan like originally wanted by Doc Rivers.  Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have had chemistry from anywhere on the court, and the Clippers should come out as No. 1 in the Pacific Division and the Western Conference based on their talent and other analyst opinions.

Golden State Warriors take second.

 This is a whole new team this year.  People doubted the trade of Monta Ellis two years ago, but the team has only improved.  Andre Iguodala has brought tenacity, and Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have already showed that they are going to play their best this year.  With the Warriors’ fan base and young exciting team, there is a huge chance that they will make it far in the West this year. 

The Phoenix Suns have been the most shocking so far this season after three games coming in at third.

 No one has paid attention to the Suns for the past years after Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion left the team.  The team’s struggles just kept going, and nobody noticed them like they used to.  But with players like Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Archie Goodwin, anything can change.  Give them a couple of seasons for this roster to spark and change people’s views of the Suns.  Hopefully they can keep this streak going, but it’s likely that their chemistry won’t outlast the rest of this competitive West.

Lastly, the Los Angeles Lakers (2-2) and the Sacramento Kings (1-2) place last, but that should not be a shock for most NBA fans. 

The Lakers had an impressive performance against the Clippers without Kobe Bryant, but without their franchise player, clutch moments will probably not come in clutch times.  The Lakers need Kobe Bryant even if he does not fully come back with his star power.  They need his support on the floor either way.  The Sacramento Kings, on the other hand, need to make more changes and mature before the team have any chance of having a new appearance in the West, let alone the Pacific Division.

Overall, the West once again is looking like a dominant conference that will have close calls when it comes to entering the playoffs.  Forgetting about predictions and analysts, it is time for these teams play their hardest and win games if they want to live up to what people think of them.