The West is making the NBA regular season matter again

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win's basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here's Mike Sykes

Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you've had a great week and have an even better weekend ahead of you.

People love to look at the NBA and tell you that the regular season doesn't matter. We've seen take after take about it over the years.

I'm not sure how anyone could think that this season with how competitive the Western Conference has been. Obviously, the West has always generally been great. But this year, things are so tight. One false move and your favorite team could find itself in the Play-In Tournament.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have sat a tier above everyone else all year long. That hasn't changed and it won't — the Thunder have a 10.5-game lead on the No. 2 Los Angeles Lakers, who are currently on an eight-game winning streak.

But as for the rest of the conference? Man. Things are right.

• Only three games separate the No. 2 seed Lakers (40-21) from the No. 5 seed Rockets (38-25)
• The No. 6 seed Warriors (35-28) are only three games ahead of the No. 10 seed Mavericks (32-31) at the bottom of the Play-In Tournament.
• Four of the top eight teams in the conference are on a winning streak of at least three games.

That last point is critical because losing a single game in the West could mean dropping down a spot or two in the standings. The Lakers are only a half-game above the Nuggets for the No. 2 seed. The Warriors are just a half-game above the Timberwolves at No. 7. The Grizzlies have lost four games in a row and gone from the No. 2 seed in the West down to No. 4.

That stuff matters. Would you rather play LeBron James and Luka Doncic on your home floor or do you want to do it in LA? Would you rather face Nikola Jokic in the Conference Finals or the second round? That all gets determined by how a team performs in the regular season.

We saw the difference last year with the Nuggets in their quest to repeat. Had the Nuggets gotten the No. 1 seed in last year's playoffs instead of the No. 2, they'd have faced the Mavericks in the second round instead of the Timberwolves. Things probably play out a lot differently if that happens.

So the next time someone tells you the regular season doesn't matter or that there's no significance in these games, just point them to the West. Hopefully, they'll see the light.

Draymond the Jerk

Somebody needs to remind Draymond Green that it's alright to admit that you're wrong — especially when you're spreading a lie in the first place.

Green told his entire audience that he'd heard that Karl-Anthony Towns skipped the Knicks' game against the Warriors this week because Jimmy Butler was in town. That obviously wasn't true. It turns out that Towns missed the game because he attended a funeral with his girlfriend, who lost a friend to breast cancer.

Instead of owning up to it, Green just said he was telling people "what I heard" and that the "Draymond Green show with Baron Davis will go on."

Our Bryan Kalbrosky says Green owes Towns an apology. A real one.

"Why he felt that he needed to mention the name of his podcast twice in that answer is tasteless, but that is hardly the biggest concern.

More alarming is why Green was so willing to spread misinformation and false claims about an NBA colleague on his platform without looking into it at all.

Then, once it was proven that he was blatantly wrong about the allegations, he backed away from remorse and instead just talked about the inevitability of death. It was gross, misguided, and in poor judgment.

It's disgusting behavior and if this is the kind of approach he is going to take, it should not get rewarded with more air time and publicity on a major network once his playing career is over."

Well said.

Shootaround

— ESPN is paying Stephen A. Smith to run for president. This is so weird.

— Speaking of Stephen A. Smith, LeBron James had some choice words for the ESPN personality after the Laker game on Thursday.

— Kendrick Perkins and Charles Barkley also reignited their beef. This is an interesting one.

— Barry Bonds told the All the Smoke podcast that he can still hit a 100 mph fastball at 60 years old. I believe him.

That's a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Have a great weekend. Peace.

-Sykes ✌️