The Western Conference in the NBA continues to be extremely competitive. There are eight good teams and five very good teams in the conference. The Clippers fall into the very good team's category and the Lakers are in the little above average category. The Clippers are currently in fourth place with a record of 28-14 and the Lakers are in 10th place at 23-23.
In the modern-day NBA, you need at least three superstars to be successful and in the case of the Boston Celtics they have four and that's why they have the best record in the NBA at 34-10. The Celtics have Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. Of course, you have to have the right coach, but you must have great players to be successful.
Sometimes, like in the case of the Western Conference leading Minnesota Timberwolves team chemistry and talent can make for a winning combination. They have two A players Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards and two B players in Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley, but they do not have an A plus player.
The Lakers have two A plus players in Anthony Davis and LeBron James and they were hoping that D'Angelo Russell would be a consistent A player but that has not happened. Recently Russell has been the A player, but he needs to be consistent if the Lakers expect to climb up to the next level of the Western Conference.
The Clippers have three A plus players in Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden and one A player in Russell Westbrook and that's the reason they are in fourth place in the conference. They also have one of the best coaches in the NBA in Tyronn Lue. The Lakers' coach Darvin Ham is also a good coach, but he needs a few more years to really prove himself. This is his second year as a head coach and Lue has been a head coach in the NBA for 10 years.
Both teams start a two week road trip on Friday.