NBA Playoff Race Update: Do the Los Angeles Lakers Stand a Chance of Making the Postseason?

Western Conference - Bubble Teams

(4) Portland Trail Blazers (35-23, 97.4%)
(5) Houston Rockets (33-25, 90.6%)
(6) Utah Jazz (32-25, 93.7%)
(7) San Antonio Spurs (33-26, 88.5%)
(8) Los Angeles Clippers (32-27, 71.6%)
(9) Sacramento Kings (30-28, 27.6%)
(10) Los Angeles Lakers (29-29, 16.9%)
(11) Minnesota Timberwolves (27-30, 7.0%)
(12) Dallas Mavericks (26-31, 3.3%)
(13) New Orleans Pelicans (26-33, 3.4%)

The Western Conference playoff race is going to get spicy as the season wears on. The fourth-place Trail Blazers and ninth-place Kings are only separated by five games with a third of the season left to be played, so the order of these teams is far from figured out.

The Blazers, Rockets, Jazz, and Spurs all have fairly high probabilities of making the postseason (all over 88%), but stranger things have happened. The Clippers have a fairly decent grip on the eighth and final playoff spot at 71.6%, but it's hard to count out the Kings at only a game back and 27.6% odds themselves.

The big story from here on out, however, is going to undoubtedly be the Lakers and whether or not they make it. LeBron James has not only made eight consecutive NBA Finals, but he hasn't missed the postseason since the 2004-05 season. The 16.9% odds we give the Lakers at this point makes them a relative long shot, but they're only two and a half games back of the eighth-place Clippers, and it's not like anyone is ready to count the King out just yet.

The Timberwolves, Mavericks, and Pelicans are all technically still in the hunt, but neither even has a 10% chance of making it, and they'd all have to move past three to five teams to get in. Don't expect these guys to hang in this tier much longer.