At the moment, the Golden State Warriors are up 3-1 on the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. It's the only Western Conference series that's clearly going in favor of one team. The top-seeded Suns are being pushed to the brink by the eight-seeded Pelicans tied 2-2 in their series; the two-seeded Grizzlies are up 3-2 on the seven-seeded Timberwolves after winning 111-109 tonight; and the five-seeded Jazz will look to force a game seven on Thursday against the Mavericks.
The Warriors are on cruise control right now and assuming they advance, they'll face either a Grizzlies team that got pushed to the brink of elimination or an up and coming Timberwolves team that doesn't seem ready to reach the conference finals. And then who knows who'd be waiting for them in the conference finals if they get there. Even if it's the Suns and Devin Booker is back, the Warriors have more championship experience. And that's really the whole point here. The Warriors are the only team in the entire Western Conference playoffs who have proven championship DNA. Everyone else for one reason or another can be called into question.
This isn't to say the Warriors are perfect or that they don't have their flaws. They do. There's a reason they didn't get the top seed in the West. But when looking around the rest of the conference, it's hard to not look at the Warriors and think they should be favored to come out on top. Stephen Curry is back, Klay Thompson is back, Draymond Green is healthy, and Jordan Poole is a rising star. They have their core championship unit intact and appear to be heating up at the right time.
As of this moment, I believe the path to an NBA title out West goes through Golden State. Their overall body of work speaks for itself and nobody else in the conference appears ready to grab the bull by the horns and take control. It'll be interesting to see if Golden State goes on to win the West rather unopposed or if some worthy challenger out of all these other struggling teams will emerge.
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