Thunder Secures #1 Seed, Rockets and Lakers Battle

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00:00Thunder, about two and a half weeks ago, already clinched that number one overall seed.

00:04They have a 12 and a half game lead in front of the Houston Rockets.

00:08I said the Rockets had already clinched the number two seed.

00:12Technically, a little bit still more at stake.

00:14The Rockets, a three and a half game lead with only three games remaining.

00:18If they were to lose their final three and the Lakers were to win their final four in a row,

00:22it would come down to some tiebreakers.

00:24We don't expect that to be the case.

00:25Houston should be the two seed.

00:27We'll talk about their odds to win the conference crowd in just a moment

00:30because they keep getting worse seemingly week over week, which is crazy.

00:35The Lakers, led by LeBron and Luka, a game and a half advantage over the Denver Nuggets.

00:40The three seed, Denver in a tailspin.

00:42The last week, they have dropped four straight, four straight games, the RS were.

00:46In two of them, Nikola Jokic has recorded the first ever 60-point triple-double in NBA history

00:52and most recently, a 41-point triple-double in the Nuggets' recent loss on Sunday

00:57against the Indiana Pacers.

00:59And then the story that you see there, five through eight, the Clippers, Warriors, T-Wolves,

01:07Grizzlies, all with the same exact record, but just four games left, 46-32.

01:12Yeah, you got to perform at this point in the year.

01:14And also, the troubling point about the Nuggets is I don't think people are worried about

01:17once they get to the playoffs.

01:18Like, they have a championship, like Nikola Jokic is playing great basketball, but that's

01:22the issue.

01:23You can't have a 60-point triple-double and 40-point triple-doubles and losing those basketball

01:26games.

01:27It's one thing to say that they're on a slide because they're trying to manage an elbow

01:30injury, let's just say, for Nikola Jokic, or, hey, he's just not right right now.

01:34His cardio's a little bit off.

01:35His triple-doubles are 15, 12, and 10.

01:38Like, epic performances like that.

01:39Somebody else needs to step up for that basketball team, and they have the players to do it, but

01:43they're just not performing.

01:44And also, the alarming rate of, let's just say they don't play great basketball.

01:48They go from the 4th seed to the 8th seed at that point, or something like that, which

01:51is crazy.

01:51It sounds crazy, but one or two losses where you might finish 500 the rest of the way,

01:56and the other two teams are going 3-1 or 4-1 or 5-1 down the stretch, however many games

02:00they got back.

02:01No choice, but you're out of it here.

02:02So, playing not your best basketball at the end of the season when you desperately need

02:07to be in tune with the playoffs to make a championship run, and if your seeding drops,

02:10that hurts you.

02:11That's a tough scene there.

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