Kevin Durant says a wide-open NBA playoff race is enjoyable. It’s exhausting to argue with that

Would it shock anybody if the Pistons, the Celtics, or New York or Cleveland emerged from the East? Probably not. Would it shock anybody if the Thunder, the Spurs, Houston, Minnesota or Denver survived the playoff gauntlet within the West? Again, in all probability not. And be at liberty so as to add a number of different groups to these lists as effectively.

Durant was requested in regards to the wide-open really feel to this title race over the weekend. His eyes lit up.

“We wanted some parity and I think the last few years we’ve gotten exactly that,” he mentioned. “I mean, it’s fun for everybody watching the game, not knowing exactly who’s going to be around at the end of the season. And as a team, it gives you confidence to know that even though you don’t play your best ball around this time, nobody really is. … Teams are trying to figure out which lineups they want to use, (after) trades, all of that stuff, so it’s a fun time to be in the league.”

Fun. That’s an attention-grabbing selection of phrases proper now.

The West is brutally powerful, as nearly at all times appears to be the case. Houston began Monday in third, simply two losses forward of the sixth-place Los Angeles Lakers, simply 3 1/2 video games forward of seventh-place Phoenix. On that facet of the league, as has been the case in every of the final two seasons, a .600 profitable proportion within the common season in all probability received’t even be adequate to ensure home-court benefit in Round 1 of the playoffs.

Fun?

“I don’t know if fun’s the word,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka mentioned. “You try to handle your own business and take care of yourself and be playing the right way and try to get healthy, healthier, as healthy as you can be going into the playoffs. You can’t afford to have off nights in our conference. You can go from 3 to 7 pretty quickly.”