NBA Playoff Race Update: The Utah Jazz Continue to Rise

Western Conference - Bubble Teams

(3) Portland Trail Blazers (42-26, 98.6%)
(4) Oklahoma City Thunder (41-29, 92.8%)
(5) Minnesota Timberwolves (40-29, 95.5%)
(6) New Orleans Pelicans (39-29, 74.3%)
(7) Utah Jazz (39-30, 80.5%)
(8) San Antonio Spurs (39-30, 74.9%)
(9) Los Angeles Clippers (37-30, 48.8%)
(10) Denver Nuggets (38-31, 34.6%)

The third-place Trail Blazers and 10th-place Nuggets are separated by a measly 4.5 games, so look for these eight squads to shuffle like crazy over the next few weeks.

And there's so much to unpack here.

The Spurs -- a team that's made the postseason in 37 of its 41 NBA seasons, including 20 consecutive appearances -- currently sit in eighth place, barely clutching onto a playoff berth. The Trail Blazers and Pelicans have gone from being borderline playoff teams to squads vying for homecourt advantage in the first round. The Timberwolves and Nuggets are slipping a bit while the Clippers and Jazz have turned seemingly lottery-bound seasons into realistic playoff pushes. The Thunder fluctuate from one week to the next.

That's the situation this week, anyway. Check back in seven days, and everything might be flipped around again.

It's way too early to be considering tiebreaker scenarios, but they are bound to get messy as we draw closer to the end of the regular season, so get yourself mentally prepared.