With the NBA Playoffs race heating up, there are still a lot of moving parts going on around the league. Let’s take a look at each conference and how it’s going:

Western Conference 

The biggest debate, inarguably, is which LA team is going to come out on top in the West. With Kawhi Leonard leaving Toronto in the off-season to team up with Paul George on the Clippers and Anthony Davis joining forces with LeBron on the Lakers, the Western Conference runs through Southern California this year. Other than just those teams, the Denver Nuggets are looking for redemption after blowing a 17 point 2nd-half lead to Portland in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals last year; the Nuggets are still in prime position for the 2 seed in the West. Nikola Jokic has been playing at a high level, and Jamal Murray is contributing enough to give every opponent lots of problems. 

A giant question mark in the Western Conference is how Houston’s new and innovative small-ball lineup will do. After trading away former starting center Clint Capela, the Rockets’ tallest player in their starting lineup is 6 foot 7 inches Robert Covington. The Rockets are trusting their MVP candidate James Harden – averaging 34.9 pts, 7.4 asts, and 6.3 rebs a game — to go isolation ball on teams and find shooters for 3. Alongside him, Russell Westbrook is fitting in just fine in his first year with the Rockets after being traded last year. Westbrook is averaging 27.5 pts, 7.8 rebs, and 7.1 asts this season. 

Further down in the standings, the race for the 8th spot has been on since the all-star break with the Memphis Grizzlies holding the final spot. The Grizzlies, led by Rookie of the Year candidate Ja Morant (17.6 pts, 3.4 rebs, 7.0 asts), have a slight lead over the Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans and the Portland Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers are 3.5 games back of the 8th spot with Damian Lillard nursing a groin injury. After missing the first couple of games after the All-Star break, Lillard has said he will do whatever it takes to get to the 8th spot. 

Eastern Conference

After losing Leonard after their championship run, the defending champion Toronto Raptors are still playing at a high level without their star from a year ago. Despite the Raptors sitting at a 44-18 record and 2nd in the East, the general consensus is that the Milwaukee Bucks are favored to earn a trip to the NBA Finals. MVP frontrunner Giannis Antetokounmpo (29.6 pts, 13.8 rebs, 5.8 asts) has the Bucks sitting atop the standings with the best record in the NBA. They became the 10th team in NBA history to achieve 50 wins in a season before losing 10 games and are in a position to be the 3rd team in NBA history to win 70 games in a regular season. 

Other than the Bucks, the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and possibly the Philadelphia 76ers are considered true contenders, while the Indiana Pacers are right under them. The Sixers have been riddled with injuries and are underachieving in many people’s eyes. Despite all of this, they still have time to prove doubters wrong in the playoffs. 

The Heat and Celtics are both taking advantage of their young cores and playing at high levels in a way that can compete with the Bucks and the Raptors. Jayson Tatum is leading the Celtics along with Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, while the Heat do not have a true full leader and like to spread the ball around more with all of their three-point shooters. 

The Brooklyn Nets came into this season with expectations of at least going to the playoffs with just Kyrie Irving, as star Kevin Durant recovered from his ruptured Achilles tendon in last year’s NBA Finals. However, Irving shut himself down this past month after getting shoulder surgery, leaving the Nets hovering around the final East playoff spot. Still, the Nets are going to reload going into next year with a healthy Durant and Irving back to lead them.