Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On this week’s show (March 8, 2018), Neil, Chris and Kyle explore the surprisingly stacked playoff race in the Western Conference. First, they take a look at the Portland Trail Blazers’ hot streak, which on Tuesday hit eight straight wins. Next, they turn to the rest of the conference, where only four games separate the No. 3 seed from the No. 10. Plus, a significant digit on Gary Harris of the Denver Nuggets.

Here are links to what was discussed this week: