Western Conference Insider: Northwest race will be dogfight

Of the six five-team divisions, only three have three teams or more with better than .500 records as of Dec. 8.

Out of those three divisions -- the Southeast, the Northwest and the Southwest -- the two more competitive races appear to be in the Western Conference. The Southeast's top three teams -- Orlando, Atlanta and Miami -- are led by Dwight Howard and the Magic by four games. Meanwhile, only two games separate three teams in the Northwest and 1.5 games separate the top four teams in the Southwest.

I spoke to an anonymous Western Conference executive on Monday about the divisional races.

He said that the Northwest should be the toughest divisional race in the league this year and likes Utah to take home the banner for the third consecutive season, despite the fact that the Jazz trail the Trail Blazers by two games.

"I think it's going to be based on injuries," the executive said. "If Utah can get back healthy, I think that they'll be one of the top teams in all of the West. If Denver can stay healthy -- they've had problems staying healthy whether it be Nenê or Kenyon Martin or whomever, they've had problems staying healthy -- if they can stay healthy I think they'll keep themselves right there. Same thing with Portland, if Greg [Oden] and [Brandon] Roy can stay healthy (and [Martell] Webster's already been out). So, those three teams are all very good teams, but they're all also teams that have had to battle injuries."

The Jazz have been decimated by injuries to their top players through the first 22 games of the season, but have still managed to start off 13-9. Carlos Boozer has missed 10 games with a strained left quad, Deron Williams has been out of the lineup for 13 games with a bum ankle and Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur and Matt Harpring have all missed a handful of games for a variety of reasons.

As for Portland, whose 15-7 record is the second-best record in all of the West, I asked if it's too soon to anoint the Blazers as a top-four team in the West.

"Yes."

He said that the Nuggets are thin inside already, so the health of their big guys is imperative, but noted that the Allen Iverson trade worked in their favor.

"I think that Billups gave them two things that they really needed: They needed a point guard and they needed shooting and they got that all in one trip which is magical for them to get that in one guy."

Making the Northwest even tougher, the executive said, are the Timberwolves and the Thunder despite those teams' combined 6-34 record to start the season.

"After the All-Star break I think it's going to really heat up in the division because teams like Minnesota and Oklahoma City are young teams with new coaches," he said. "Those guys are going to be playing I think with a better energy level so they won't be easy outs."

In the Southwest, he said San Antonio is the favorite because, "for the Spurs to stay afloat with those guys injured was incredible."

Houston's fate, with the 15.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game that Ron Artest adds to the lineup, is still decided by the status of the inside-outside tandem of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, he said. Just as the Rockets welcomed Shane Battier back from a foot injury, McGrady's knee caused him to shut it down for the next 2-3 weeks.

Rounding out the Southwest contenders, the executive said that New Orleans at 11-6 is "where they should be" and that, "They caught lightning in a bottle last year. I think they're a good team, but I don't think they're a No. 2 team in the West. I think they're more of a middle-of-the-road type of team."

The Mavericks are 9-1 over their last 10 games after starting the season 2-7, but don't expect either extreme to continue for them. "No [I don't think Dallas is a dominant team], but I didn't think they would play that bad earlier in the year," he said. "It kind of evens itself out. You got Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki on a team with Josh Howard. That's three All-Stars. You know sooner or later that that team would balance itself out."

Lakers' Jackson Wants Defense, Just Not a Steals Competition

The Lakers' renewed focus on the defensive end after last June's loss to the Celtics in The Finals has powered L.A. to a 17-2 start. But Phil Jackson wants to put a stop to one area of production on the defensive end.

Kobe Bryant, Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom and Jordan Farmar have a friendly competition amongst each other this season for top billing as the team's leading kleptomaniac.

Jackson doesn't mind the steals of course, but seeing his players gambling in the passing lanes trying to force a turnover to boost their own standing in the steals pool concerns the Zen Master. He wants the focus to be on getting stops, not getting steals.

"That stuff goes on forever in every sport," Jackson said. "That's personnel stuff that goes on. But, most of the time, what we say is somebody playing defense helps another guy get a steal. There's occasionally guys that can outright take the ball from people, but usually those gambles cost teams opportunities or defensive position, fouls, etc. We're trying to make sure there are legitimate things going on there and just to bring the emphasis to them. Not to take away our aggressiveness, because aggressiveness is important."

L.A. is No. 1 in the NBA with 10.0 steals per game.

Zebo Threes a Pleasant Surprise

You've probably all seen the YouTube video where Stephon Marbury's infamous, "We got Zach Randolph y'all!" proclamation is interspliced with a clip of the 6-9, 260-pound Randolph overdribbling and launching an airball from three-point range, perfectly summing up the New York Knicks' dismal 2007-08 campaign.

The Randolph era in Los Angeles started with Clippers assistant coach Kim Hughes at the helm as Mike Dunleavy attended a family funeral. Before the game, Hughes told the media that he implored Randolph, with his .274 career shooting percentage from long range, to use his size inside because in Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Al Thornton and Steve Novak, the Clippers already had guys accustomed to letting it fly from the outside.

I left the pregame talk and not five minutes later caught my first glimpse of Randolph on the STAPLES Center court in a Clippers uniform ... launching a 3-pointer during pregame warmups.

In six games with the Clippers, Randolph is 3-for-7 from deep (.429) and hit the biggest shot of the night from downtown late in the game against Miami last week to give L.A. a four-point lead and the momentum it would ride to a 97-96 win. To Randolph's credit, he has cut down on his three-point attempts from 2.2 per game in 11 contests with the Knicks this season to just 1.2 per game since joining the Clippers.