The Pacific Division doesn’t have a juggernaut right now. It has a collection of wounded animals limping toward the finish line, and the Golden State Warriors are positioned to capitalize on every stumble, every organizational meltdown, every structural crack that’s starting to show across the West Coast.
The Los Angeles Lakers are leading the division at 20-11, but that record feels more like smoke and mirrors than actual dominance. They just got demolished 128-106 by the Detroit Pistons, allowing
Cade Cunningham to carve up their defense for 27 points and 11 assists while the Pistons shot 63% from the field. JJ Redick stood in front of reporters afterward sounding like a man watching his roster fall apart in real time. Austin Reaves, their breakout guard, is sidelined for at least a month. LeBron just turned 41 and is still being asked to carry offensive possessions alongside Luka Doncic in a pairing that hasn’t found its rhythm. The Lakers are only 4 games ahead of Golden State, and they’re showing cracks that feel structural rather than fixable.
The Phoenix Suns sit at 19-13, winners of four straight, but those victories have come with all the aesthetic appeal of a dental procedure. They beat Washington 115-101, and finished with a 26-10 advantage in second-chance points because they crashed the offensive glass like their season depended on it. Collin Gillespie has scored 15-plus points in six straight games, Royce O’Neale is hitting five threes per night, and suddenly the Suns have discovered a supporting cast that can actually contribute. But are these performances more like lightning in a bottle than sustainable basketball? The Suns are only 1.5 games behind the Lakers and just 2.5 games ahead of the Warriors, and they’re doing it by outworking their opponents.
Of course, the Warriors have won two outta the three contests the teams have shared so far.
Meanwhile the LA Clippers are buried at 11-21, riding a five-game winning streak that feels less like a playoff push and more like a team finally remembering basketball exists. Kawhi Leonard recently dropped a career-high 55 points against Detroit, looking like the two-way force that won championships in Toronto, but nobody knows if this version of Kawhi shows up consistently or disappears for another month. The Clippers are 5.5 games behind Golden State, playing must-win games in December just to stay relevant in the play-in conversation.
And then there’s Sacramento, sitting at 8-25 and dead last in the conference, a franchise so dysfunctionally constructed that fans are screaming at Zach LaVine to play defense. Check out this quote from Kings blog A Royal Pain:
Co-owner Vivek Ranadive is at the core of this. He’s the one who has mismanaged the team for well over a decade, consistently putting people with no understanding of basketball in positions of power. To make matters worse, he played a big part in the decisions that created this imbalanced roster. More recently, Doug Christie and his coaching staff have created new problems. His myopic focus on creating a defensive powerhouse with a roster stocked with shoot-first guards is baffling. Instead of using players to their strengths, he’s trying to force square pegs into round holes.The Kings are 9 games behind the Warriors and showing zero signs of figuring anything out.
Damn! That sounds intense! The Clippers just destroyed them 131-90 btw.
The Warriors have 48 games left to capitalize on this chaos. The division doesn’t have a team playing sustainable, championship-caliber basketball. The Lakers are imploding. The Suns are grinding out ugly wins against bad teams. The Clippers are praying Kawhi’s knees hold together. The Kings are organizational rubble. Golden State is right there, 17-16 and within striking distance of every flawed team ahead of them. The window is open. Time to walk through it.
