I doubt Denver falls from its current place so I just concentrated on 6th thought 9th place. The Rockets are said to have the easiest schedule with a bunch of home games vs opponents that have less than .500 records.

This is the way I think the west will finish.

6. Rockets (46-36) we win the tie breaker vs GS

7. Warriors (46-36) They have a lot of home games but I think they end up losing 4 in a row at the end.

8. Lakers (44-38) Most of their away games are vs teams under .500

9. Jazz (43-39) I think they fall apart in March. They have a stretch of 10 games where 7 are on the road.

So in the first round we either get the Clippers or the Grizzlies.