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While the Los Angeles Lakers are in the middle of a disappointing NBA season, LeBron James continues to be the lone bright spot. James passed Karl Malone on Saturday night, moving into the No. 2 spot on the all-time scoring list. Though James racked up another individual milestone, his team fell to the Eastern Conference’s 11th-ranked Washington Wizards. The Lakers are running out of time to climb the Western Conference standings. At No. 10, they are five games back of the No. 8 LA Clippers and seem destined for the play-in tournament.
Elsewhere in the West, the Golden State Warriors were supposed to be complete again with Draymond Green’s return from a two-month absence, but they lost Stephen Curry for at least two weeks when he sprained a ligament in his foot on Wednesday in a loss to the Boston Celtics. The Phoenix Suns are nine games ahead of the No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies, but the Warriors are trying to stay afloat at No. 3, just two games ahead of the Utah Jazz and a surging Donovan Mitchell.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, meanwhile, are making a late-season push out of the play-in tournament, led by Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns dropped 60 points last week against the San Antonio Spurs — the most in the NBA this season — with 32 coming in the third quarter.
And Kyrie Irving followed in Towns’ footsteps on Tuesday with 60 points of his own, a career high and a franchise record for the Brooklyn Nets. However, the Nets still find themselves headed for the play-in tournament at No. 8 in the East, just one game ahead of the Charlotte Hornets.
Our experts break down where all 30 teams stand as the playoffs loom large.
Note: Throughout the regular season, our panel (Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, Nick Friedell, Andrew Lopez, Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Ohm Youngmisuk) is ranking all 30 teams from top to bottom, taking stock of which teams are playing the best basketball now and which teams are looking most like title contenders.
1. Phoenix Suns
2021-22 record: 58-14
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Source : espn
