Four weeks remain in the NBA's regular season and the Memphis Grizzlies are in a dogfight atop the Western Conference standings for the number two seed. A three-way tie between them, the Denver Nuggets, and Houston Rockets stares them at the moment as they face a five-game west coast road trip beginning against the ninth-seeded Sacramento Kings.
The Los Angeles Lakers only trail them by one game for a top-four spot and the surging Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves have pulled themselves within three-and-a-half games of the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies and others have reached a point where a two-seed is just as possible as a play-in position at number seven.
Also, the Grizzlies have the eighth toughest remaining strength of schedule, including games against all of the teams they are battling with for the two seed except the Rockets, who they lost the season series to 3-1. It comes as no surprise that the Western Conference is dominating the new NBA Power Rankings top 10.
Grizzlies rise to 9 in the Week 22 NBA Power Rankings
After a couple of weeks of consistently falling down the power rankings from the top five, the Grizzlies survived falling out of the top 10 with five wins in their last six games. Despite their wins coming over teams ranked 18th and below, they had just lost four straight games with two of them coming to teams ranked 16th and below.
Regardless of who is on the schedule, a win is a win and counts on your record no matter the standard of the opponent. The Grizzlies are 5-5 in their last 10 games with three of those losses coming to the number eight ranked New York Knicks, number two ranked Oklahoma City Thunder, and number one ranked Cleveland Cavaliers.
Not much to be disappointed about in that context except for the fact the all losses occurred at home. However, Memphis holds the fourth-best net rating in the NBA with +5.9 and has the point differential of a team that's 48-20, instead of their 43-25 record.
That is the difference between them holding a five-game lead for the two-seed and the position they find themselves in now. Their Western Conference counterparts in competition with them rank fourth (Warriors), fifth (Lakers), sixth (Timberwolves), seventh (Nuggets), and 10th (Rockets).
After winning their last four clutch games (games that were within five points in the last five minutes) the Grizzlies are 17-15 in such games and are tied with the Orlando Magic for first in defensive rating in clutch minutes. That trend will need to continue as they have games against the Los Angeles Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, and Nuggets remaining in their last 14 games.