In case you missed it, Tom Ziller wrote a piece for SB Nation bemoaning the race for the 8th-seed in the Western Conference. In it, Ziller broke down each of the teams still alive for the postseason as we glide past the halfway point of the NBA season. Spoiler alert: all the teams sitting outside the where-you-want-to-be bubble are reasonably still alive for the playoffs. From Portland all the way down to the friggen Suns, no team in the West is more than 4.5 games out of the postseason.
That cluster of teams who can at least pretend they still have a season worth playing for is butt.