NBA's wild West playoff chase: The most likely, most petty and most entertaining scenarios

Each week during the 2024-25 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.[Last week: Kevin Durant to the Celtics just makes sense]Fact or Fiction: We solved the Western Conference standingsThe Western Conference playoff picture is a more confounding landscape than the Grand Canyon.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOne game separates the Nos. 4 through 8 seeds. Depending on who wins what over the final two games of the season, there are, by my count, several million different ways the first-round playoff field can come into full view, and my math is definitely wrong. Even then only two first-round series will be determined.A play-in tournament, featuring the Nos. 7 through 10 seeds, will dictate the other two. As a result, the first-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder will not know whom they face in the opening round for another week.Make it make sense. Or let...