The NBA Western Conference playoffs are confirming a changing of the guard at the top of the conference.
Sure, the playoff tournament is just getting started, but traditionally powerful franchises featuring some of the league’s biggest names have been eliminated or are struggling to advance — while less accomplished teams, featuring young and mostly homegrown stars, have established themselves as the pace-setters as they await second-round opponents.
This is interesting.
The Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James are done, having been beaten soundly by the frisky Minnesota Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards in five games.
The Timberwolves, though seeded just sixth, established themselves as a serious challenger to the favorite — the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, the only Western team to win their first-round series in fewer games than Minnesota when they swept Memphis.
The Wolves will face another team featuring elite veterans, whether it’s the fourth-seeded Denver Nuggets — led by three-time and reigning MVP Nikola Jokic — or the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, led by perennial All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.
L.A. forced the only seven-game series of the first round thus far when it beat the visiting Nuggets 111-105 on Thursday night.
The Thunder have been idle since April 26, waiting to see if their next opponent will be No. 2 Houston or No. 7 Golden State, which is trying to make another deep run in the latest iteration of the Steph Curry-Steve Kerr-Draymond Green era.
The Warriors hold a 3-2 lead on the up-and-coming Rockets going into their home game Friday, but they squandered their first opportunity to advance in a 131-116 road loss Wednesday.
Perhaps the Nuggets, just two years removed from an NBA championship, or the Warriors, who have won four championships with Curry, Kerr and Green since 2015, will succeed the Dallas Mavericks — vanquished in the play-in tournament — as Western champions.
But despite their skins on the wall, it would be surprising if either of them actually advances to the Finals.
Golden State is in better shape than Denver, which — like Memphis — panicked and fired a successful head coach less than a month before the end of the regular season in a desperate hope of keeping up with the new kids on the block.
But even if the Warriors advance out of the first round, they’ll run into a Wolves team that will be well rested after pushing around the Lakers. L.A. pulled off the most talked-about in-season trade in years, which will keep it relevant beyond whenever the James era ends, but the arrival of Luka Doncic couldn’t make it adequately competitive with Minnesota.
And then there is the Thunder, the No. 1 seed for a second consecutive season. Though they made an early exit last season with a second-round loss to the Mavericks, they grew from the experience and won a franchise-record 68 games this season.
They began the postseason with 51-point and 19-point victories against Memphis before having to battle to wins by six and two points.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the regular-season scoring leader and is one of the MVP finalists. One of the top young coaches in the NBA — Mark Daigneault — has choreographed one of the most smartly constructed and deepest rosters in the league, thanks primarily to general manager Sam Presti.
Additionally, OKC has demonstrated a closeness, swag, and balance of competitive fire and joy that is most commonly found on teams that recognize when they’re on the cusp of something special.
All of those traits are going to make it very difficult for anyone in the West — no matter how many championships they have won in the past or how many household names are currently on their roster — to beat the Thunder.
Except the Wolves.
Maybe.
