You want to know how ridiculous the West is?
On January 23rd, the Utah Jazz were 10th place with a 19-28 record. 16 games later, during which the Jazz went 14-2 and now own a 33-30 record, the Jazz are
still in 10th place in the West, 2 games out of a playoff spot.
Took a quick look at the remaining schedules of the current 3rd to 11th seed in the West. The number in brackets at the end means how many games out of their remaining schedule are against teams that are currently 3rd to 11th in the West/other playoff teams.
3. Portland: LAL, LACx2, OKC, NOP, SA, DEN, UTA, as well as 6 games against other playoff teams (14/19)
4. Minnesota: SA, LAC, UTA, DENx2, LAL, as well as 5 games against other playoff teams (11/16)
5. New Orleans: LACx2, UTA, SAx2, LAL, POR, OKC, as well as 7 games against other playoff teams and the LAL game being on a B2B2B (15/21)
6. San Antonio: OKCx2, NOPx2, MIN, UTA, LAC, LAL, POR, as well as 7 games against other playoff teams (16/19)
7. Oklahoma City: SAx2, LAC, POR, DEN, NOP as well as 7 games against other playoff teams (13/17)
8. Denver: LALx2, OKC, MINx2, POR, LAC, as well as 7 games against other playoff teams (14/17)
9. Clippers: NOPx2, OKC, PORx2, MIN, SA, UTA, DEN, LAL, as well as 7 games against other playoff teams (17/21)
10. Utah: NO, SA, MIN, LALx2, LAC, POR, as well as 4 games against other playoff teams (11/19)
11. Los Angeles: POR, DENx2, NOP, UTAx2, SA, MIN, LAC, as well as 6 games against other playoff teams (15/20)
So it definitely looks like San Antonio and the Clippers have the toughest schedules, and luckily for the Lakers they're not going to be completely out of the race yet because the teams in front still play each other a lot, with some difficult games as well. That said, we have a lot of those games ourselves and our next game is going to be a good test against a red-hot Blazers team. The only games I'm really worried about are Portland, New Orleans (AD feasts vs us), Utah, and San Antonio if they get Kawhi back.
Pop may not have the luxury of resting his guys this year because they're nowhere near safe for the playoffs yet, and even if they lock up a spot they'll want home court advantage.
The West is gonna be a bloodbath.
EDIT: According to Tankathon's
remaining strength of schedule, the difficulty of the remaining schedule of the teams listed above are as follows, from hardest to easiest:
1. San Antonio .562
2. Oklahoma City .553
3. Portland .537
4. New Orleans .536
5. Clippers .531
6. Los Angeles .523
7. Minnesota .509
8. Denver .500
9. Utah .481
I don't want to say that San Antonio is in danger of missing the playoffs, but at the very least, their 50-win season streak is in jeopardy. They're currently 36-27 so they have to go at least 14-5 the rest of the way.