It’s hard to argue the fact that the Western conference is the better of the two in the NBA this year. The west has 9 teams within 6 ½ games of the conference lead. But of all of these quality teams who is going to rise out of the West. After a flurry of trade deadline moves (most notably Gasol to the Lakers, Shaq to the Suns and Kidd to the Mavericks) it may take another week or so for the new players to get settled in before we can see who made the best move. But if I had to make the call today I would have to say that the Lakers are the toast of the West. But it wasn’t a smooth journey to get there.

     At the beginning of the season the only reason that the Lakers were making headlines is that Kobe was demanding a trade. And for a while it looked like his request would be answered as there was talk that he would succeed his Airness in Chicago. There was no talk of LA being a factor in the playoffs this year. The Lakers didn’t exactly get off to a quick start beginning the season 9-8. Just when it seemed that LA was putting a solid run together, Bynum went down with an injury. So the Lakers went out and traded Memphis for Pau Gasol. The effects were instant. LA is on a 9 game winning streak which includes a solid win at Phoenix. Looking ahead the Lakers have a huge game against Dallas on March 2nd, which will be their first game against the Kidd led Mavericks.

     As we enter the month of March we still have 6 weeks left to sort out the seeding in the West. One thing for sure is that we will be hard pressed to see a sweep in the first round as the 1 and 8 seeds are currently 5 ½ games apart. If the playoffs were to start today the Lakers would draw the Golden State Warriors in the first round. And we all saw what they could do in the playoffs after last year. They 2-7 game would be San Antonio vs. Houston. Look for that to change because with Yao out for the rest of the year the Rockets will have a hard time keeping pace with the rest of the conference. New Orleans is the surprising 3 seed but they would draw the Mavericks and one would have to believe that experience would prevail in that series. The 4-5 match up would showcase the new look Suns against the Jazz.

     It would be very difficult for any team to emerge out of the West but as it stands now I would have to say the Lakers have the best chance. The way they are playing now with the addition of Gasol they are the favorite. And we can’t forget that they will soon have Bynum back to help bolster their backcourt. Winning the conference would be one thing but there are a few teams in the East (Detroit & Boston) that may have a say in who wins it all.