NBA playoffs Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
The Western Conference is a perennial minefield for any would-be contender to navigate through the NBA playoffs. The West has more superstars, more good teams, more competition — and they have for decades. That means to be one of the best in the Western Conference playoffs is to be a cut above.
Evaluating a player in the postseason is not simply looking at their individual statistics, although that plays a part. You must also look at their on-court impact, their defense, their team’s success, and how other teams have defended them. If a player is causing the opposing coach to draw an entirely new defense in crayon on the back of a hand towel, you know that player is making an impact.
With the Phoenix Suns reaching the NBA Finals, let’s take a look at standout NBA playoffs performances as we reveal the All-Western Conference team.
Let’s take a look at the five best players in the Western Conference playoffs this year, balancing all of those many factors to narrow the list down.
All Western Conference Team: Honorable Mentions
Kawhi Leonard was a two-way savant while healthy, appearing in 11 games and averaging 30.4 points per game. His 2.5 win shares lead the West playoff field. His injury absence keeps him just out of the top 5, as does (in some small way) the Clippers’ success without him.
Devin Booker had a few absolutely brilliant games, including closing the Los Angeles Lakers out and starting off the series against the Clippers with a bang. Overall his numbers for the series were good, not elite, and the advanced stats are slightly less than the best, keeping him just outside the top 5. He could absolutely still uncork a magnificent NBA Finals.
Donovan Mitchell had a few games of simply sublime beauty, shredding opposing defenses. In his 10 games the Jazz went 6-4, and in games where he was healthy they went 6-1. A hamstring injury slowed him towards the end, but he showed that his shotmaking from the NBA Bubble was not a fluke and Spida is capable of elevating his game on the biggest stage.
Reggie Jackson, Deandre Ayton, Ja Morant, Rudy Gobert and Cameron Payne deserve a shout-out as well. Now let’s turn to the Top 5, the best of the best: The All Western Conference Team.
an elite player this postseason</a>, scoring 34.3 points per game and averaging 10.2 dimes. At the same time he appeared in just six games before his Portland Trail Blazers lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round.</p>
<p>When he played, though, he was incendiary, hitting shots from everywhere on the court no matter what defense the Denver Nuggets threw at him. For the series he hit 5.8 3-pointers per game, by far the most in the playoff field, shooting a scorching 44.9 percent despite his high volume.</p>
<p>The peak of that hot shooting was of course Game 5, with the series tied 2-2, when Lillard went into Denver’s home court and dropped 55 points on 12-of-17 shooting from outside. Every time his team needed a miracle he was there, hitting impossible rainbow shots.</p>
<p>Far from a shooter alone, Lillard was also setting up teammates throughout the series. He had double-digit assists in five of the six games, averaging 10.2 assists per game. As much as one point guard can will his team to victory, Lillard did everything he could.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background:#222423" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Luka Doncic </a>
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<img class="wp-image-430246 size-full" src=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_1249,w_1600/http%3A%2F%2Fhoopshabit.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1320092891.jpeg" alt="NBA playoffs " width="1600" height="1249" srcset="https://hoopshabit.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1320092891.jpeg 1600w, https://hoopshabit.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1320092891-768x600.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:1600px;">NBA playoffs Photo by Harry How/Getty Images</p>
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<h2>NBA playoffs All-Western Conference Team: Luka Doncic</h2>
<p>The Dallas Mavericks have landed on an offensive game plan to leverage their greatest strength in defeating opponents: give the ball to <a href=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/doncilu01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-%22 target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" ref="nofollow">Luka Doncic</a> and let him destroy the defense with his scoring and passing. As simple and reductive as that sounds, it almost was enough to beat the mostly-full-strength LA Clippers.</p>
<p>In the regular season Luka Doncic lead the league in usage percentage, using 36 percent of his team’s possessions while on the floor. That number somehow went up in the postseason despite the Clippers devoting every bit of defensive attention to Doncic, rising to 40.4 percent in the Mavericks’ seven-game first round series.</p>
<p>Doncic scored at an insane level, pouring in a league-leading 35.7 points per game. He hit 4.4 of his 10.9 3-point attempts per game, both the third-most among all players. Not simply a scorer, Doncic was running the entire offensive like the conductor of an orchestra, cuing his teammates to the tune of 10.3 assists per game, the most in the Western Conference playoffs.</p>
<p>Doncic wasn’t perfect, averaging 4.6 turnovers per game and shooting with marginal efficiency as he tried to overcome all that the Clippers defense threw at him. The advanced metrics were undaunted, clocking him at an 11.8 box plus-minus mark that trailed only Damian Lillard in the postseason. The combination of scoring and assists was mind-blowing and a herald of what is to come for the third-year player.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background:#222423" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Paul George </a>
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<img class="wp-image-431738 size-full" src=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2225,w_3200/http%3A%2F%2Fhoopshabit.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1233458774.jpeg" alt="NBA playoffs " width="3200" height="2225" srcset="https://hoopshabit.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1233458774.jpeg 3200w, https://hoopshabit.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1233458774-768x534.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:3200px;">NBA playoffs Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images</p>
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<h2>NBA playoffs All-Western Conference Team: Paul George</h2>
<p><a href=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/georgpa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-%22 target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" ref="nofollow">Paul George</a> was not supposed to be on a list such as this. He was the wingman on the LA Clippers, not the star. His playoff failures have been plastered across the world as career-defining indictments of who he is as a player. If the Clippers made noise in the playoffs, such as reaching the franchise’s first-ever Conference Finals, it would be because of Kawhi Leonard, not “Playoff P.”</p>
<p>Yet Kawhi Leonard went down in the second round, suffering a knee injury that kept him out the rest of the postseason. George responded by taking on the mantle of solo star and performing in his way, running the show but allowing the offense to spring players open to score. He didn’t run the heliocentric offenses that Portland or Dallas did, instead letting his teammates pop for career nights.</p>
<p>George led the Clippers to a pair of wins without Leonard to beat the Utah Jazz, then helped push the Clippers to win two more games in the conference finals before the Phoenix Suns closed things out. He was often on the floor with a pair of buyout players, a second-year second-round pick and a former undrafted free agent. Yet George and the Clippers found a way to win.</p>
<p>For the postseason George played by far the most minutes of any player, logging 776 minutes when the next highest total was Devin Booker’s 647. He scored 26.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game to go along with a solid 5.4 assists. He wasn’t perfect, but he stepped up and proved his doubters wrong (at least to a nuanced extent) with a strong two weeks leading his team.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background:#222423" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Nikola Jokic </a>
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<img class="wp-image-430247 size-full" src=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2134,w_3200/http%3A%2F%2Fhoopshabit.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1321249983.jpeg" alt="NBA playoffs " width="3200" height="2134" srcset="https://hoopshabit.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1321249983.jpeg 3200w, https://hoopshabit.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1321249983-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:3200px;">NBA playoffs Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images</p>
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<h2>NBA playoffs All-Western Conference Team: Nikola Jokic</h2>
<p><a href=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/07/04/nba-playoffs-western-conference-team/"https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jokicni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-%22 target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" ref="nofollow">Nikola Jokic</a> averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists in the regular season, hitting 1.3 3-pointers per game and earning the first MVP award in Denver Nuggets franchise history. That adds up to 45.7 combined points, rebounds and assists.</p>
<p>Jokic rolled into the playoffs without his wingman, as Jamal Murray suffered a devastating knee injury that will keep him out until late next season. He was also missing other key members of the guard rotation when the postseason began, slowly getting players back as he drove the Nuggets through into the second round.</p>
<p>The Portland Trail Blazers chose to largely guard Jokic one-on-one, using only selective double teams in order to stay home on shooters. That may have been their best tactical decision, but it didn’t do much to stop the 6’11” center. Even DeAndre Ayton in the second round only slowed Jokic marginally as he still put up strong numbers in the face of a much tougher defensive team.</p>
<p>Jokic averaged 29.8 points, 11.6 rebounds and five assists in the playoffs, or 46.4 combined “PRCs” across 10 games. Despite the lack of help and the stiff competition Jokic increased his scoring and rebounding, proving to be a force that could be slowed but not stopped.</p>
<p>His defensive issues hold him back from being a top-5 player, but he is just outside in a tier of absolutely incredible players. With the Western Conference absolutely loaded with star talent, much of it young and on-the-rise, the NBA playoffs should be a magical place for years to come.</p>
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