As of late September, the National Basketball Association has officially kicked off their preseason. The first game of the season started with the most recent NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors, facing off against the Washington Wizards. The Warriors started off by winning both games in the series that they played against the Wizards. 

Even though the Warriors won their first two games, their division is surprisingly dominated by the Sacramento Kings. As of yet, they haven’t lost a single game whereas the Warriors lost in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Kings also have the largest win differential in the NBA with a combined 31-point win differential between two games. The Kings, the Rockets, and the Thunder are the three teams that are at the top of their respective divisions in the Western Conference. 

In the Eastern Conference, the three top ranking teams in each division are the New York Nicks, the Chicago Bulls, and the Atlanta Hawks.  

Other promising teams such as the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks have been lagging. The Milwaukee Bucks, for example, won the NBA title only two years ago and had a promising playoff run last season. However, this year they are sitting second to last in their division with a record of zero wins and four losses. 

The Lakers on the other hand have been expected to have breakout seasons ever since LeBron James recruited a team of all-stars in Los Angeles. However, they have disappointed fans year after year. Fans have even taken to calling their starter point guard, Russel Westbrook, “ Westbrick” because of his continued sub-par performance. Last year, the team did not even make the playoffs since they only managed to place 11th in the conference with a record of 33-49. They are following the same trend this year as their record is 1-3 in the preseason; the worst in their division and second worst in their conference.  

Judging from the games played so far, the league is going to be run by new “super teams” like the Los Angeles Clippers who have just put together a stacked roster containing all stars like John Wall, Paul George and Kawai Leonard, and have been speculated to do better in the start of the regular season despite their poor preseason record of 1-3. A promising performance has also been made by the Philadelphia 76rs, the Miami Heat, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans. Each of them has three wins in the preseason and are at the top of their divisions. By the looks of things, these teams are going to continue leading the league as well as their conferences.