The NBA\u2019s Eastern Conference race has been reduced to a two-horse race between the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat. On the other side, the Western Conference race remains wide open, with no fewer than five teams having a legitimate shot at claiming the conference crown.[ad-4468020]
\nHere\u2019s a look at those five teams and their chances of claiming the West\u2019s top seed.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City Thunder (43-12) +130<\/strong><\/p>\n The Oklahoma City Thunder have used an extended winning streak to get themselves in position to run away with the conference. Also, it sounds like they\u2019re going to get Russell Westbrook back sooner rather than later. However, that may not be the best thing for them, as the team has been able to thrive because of the emerging killer instinct of Kevin Durant. The duo of Westbrook and Durant have seemed to have chemistry issues in the past and that could be an issue that re-emerges given how well Durant has played of late, and his latest character developments. The team has a tough schedule remaining, and plays six of its final eight games on the road to close out the regular season.<\/p>\n San Antonio Spurs (38-15) +475<\/strong><\/p>\n The Spurs continue to chug along and would surely love home court throughout the postseason, but head coach Gregg Popovich has been content to rest his top players in hopes of keeping them healthy for the postseason rather than focusing on winning out now. San Antonio has shown an ability to win on the road in the playoffs, and they hold the association\u2019s best road record at the moment. The team went into the All Star break on a 7-7 run, and barring some unforeseen philosophy changes, it\u2019s hard to imagine them even making a push for the West\u2019s top spot, so it\u2019s probably best to lay your money elsewhere. The Rockets seem to be the forgotten team in the Western Conference race this season. The team has hovered around the middle of the pack since the start of the year, but it\u2019s important to remember they made a significant change in the offseason when they brought in Dwight Howard, and it\u2019s taken some time to fully incorporate him into the offense. The team started the year at 5-4, but went into the All Star break on a 13-3 run. They\u2019ll come back from the break with a five-game Western road swing in front of them, but if they can survive that, they\u2019ll be in a great position to challenge for the West\u2019s top spot down the stretch.<\/p>\n Los Angeles Clippers (37-18) +550<\/strong><\/p>\n The Clippers should have been out of this race once Chris Paul went down, but Darren Collison filled in admirably, and now the Clippers are in position to make a run in the second half. In Paul\u2019s two games back he didn\u2019t miss a step, dishing out 20 assists, and the Clippers scored 122.5 points per game in back-to-back wins. Power forward Blake Griffin has stepped up his game in a big way, averaging 35.4 points per game over the final five games before the All Star break, scoring 36 or more in four of those contests. They\u2019ll need to be better on the road than they have been if they hope to get there, but the West\u2019s top spot is certainly within reach.<\/p>\n Portland Trail Blazers (36-17) +750<\/strong><\/p>\n The Trail Blazers held the Conference\u2019s top spot for a good portion of the season but have since fallen back. There\u2019s no question the squad can score points, ranking first in the Association in that category at 107.9 points per game, but the team\u2019s ability to play defense has been put to the test, and they just haven\u2019t been able to answer the bell. The Trail Blazers rank 27th<\/sup> in the Association in that category, and it\u2019s really hurt them in matchup against the conference\u2019s elite teams. The Trail Blazers are 0-4 in their last four games against the other top five teams in the West. The team also went into the break on a 3-6 run.<\/p>\n The play: Los Angeles Clippers +550, Houston Rockets +700<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gambling On NBA Hoops? The NBA\u2019s Eastern Conference race has been reduced to a two-horse race between the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat. On the other side, the Western Conference race remains wide open, with no fewer than five teams having a legitimate shot at claiming the conference crown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":976,"featured_media":68047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[61139,61140,8154,747,61141,10544,60984],"class_list":["post-72444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-2014-nba-western-conference-odds","tag-2014-nba-western-conference-predictions","tag-nba-basketball-odds","tag-nba-lines","tag-nba-western-conference-futures","tag-nba-western-conference-odds","tag-odds-to-win-the-nba-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72444"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72638,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72444\/revisions\/72638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nHouston Rockets (36-17) +700<\/strong><\/p>\n