We looked at the jumbled-up Eastern Conference earlier this week, so here's a rundown of what's going on in the messy West Western Conference -- below the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, there are eight teams fighting for playoff position, with no clear favorite for the No. 3 spot. 

Minnesota Timberwolves (38-26)

The Jimmy Butler injury is such a bummer. So many times this season, he kept the Wolves in games and delivered them wins by sheer force of will. They are third in offensive rating and sixth in net rating largely because of Butler -- they have been outscored by 7.2 points per 100 possessions with him on the bench -- and he is tied with Stephen Curry for third in the league in real plus-minus. It is hard to overstate how much he means to Minnesota; it wouldn't be totally shocking if the team fell out of the playoffs altogether. 

 The Wolves have been fortunate to face the Bulls and the Kings since Butler went down. In those games, they went with an eight-man rotation, using only Gorgui Dieng, Jamal Crawford and Tyus Jones off the bench. There are always questions about whether or not Tom Thibodeau's team will tire itself out by the end of the season, and now they are more relevant than ever. If Karl-Anthony Towns has to play 38 minutes in an 18-point win in Sacramento, should we expect him to play 40-plus against the Blazers on Thursday and Jazz on Friday?

Speaking of Towns, there is now pressure on him to put up Anthony Davis-type numbers and put the team on his back. He is talented enough to do this on offense, but Minnesota is 24th on defense right now and just lost its best defender. If you're the optimistic type, you can look at this as an opportunity for Towns to assert himself and Andrew Wiggins to try to do a Butler impression. If you're not, then you're probably worried about how quickly Minnesota will rush Butler back in order to salvage the season. Yahoo Sports' Shams Charania reported he could be on the court in four-to-six weeks. There are six weeks left in the regular season. 

Not-so-fun fact: The Wolves are 13-19 on the road and had lost seven straight road games before the win against the Kings. They have nine road games and nine home games remaining. 

San Antonio Spurs (36-26)

What a strange time for the Spurs. They lost six of seven games before beating the Cavaliers on national television on Sunday and losing to the Pelicans on Wednesday. Coach Gregg Popovich said he'd be surprised if Kawhi Leonard played again this season, and then ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Michael C. Wright reported that Leonard hopes to return before the end of March. Their record is outstanding considering that Leonard has only played in nine games, but they're not championship contenders if he remains on the shelf or is a shell of himself. 

San Antonio's team defense has slipped in recent weeks, but it is still second in defensive rating on the season. It has missed Leonard's playmaking, and Popovich has experimented with different lineups -- Patty Mills is now starting next to Dejounte Murray in the starting lineup, with Danny Green coming off the bench -- to try to find some sort of offensive spark. The reality is that LaMarcus Aldridge has had to carry a huge load, and while he has done this with great efficiency, there are limitations to this attack.

When attempting to forecast the rest of the season, the bad news is that 15 of the Spurs' final 20 games are against teams with winning records. The good news is that 12 of their final 20 games are at home, where they have a 22-7 record. With Leonard's status unclear, it is very possible -- perhaps even likely -- that they wind up starting the postseason on the road.

One X-factor: Rudy Gay returned to the lineup last Friday after missing 23 games with a heel injury. If he finds a rhythm quickly, San Antonio could get the extra scoring punch it desperately needs. His 19-point performance against New Orleans was encouraging.

New Orleans Pelicans (35-26)

I have no idea if this is sustainable, but the Pelicans keep winning by the skin of their teeth. Everybody expected them to take a nosedive after they lost DeMarcus Cousins for the season; instead, after losing five of six without him, they have won seven games in a row. They have the league's attention now, and it is nice that Anthony Davis is getting some recognition for his absolutely absurd numbers. (If you somehow haven't heard, Davis averaged 35 points, 13 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 2.2 blocks in February.) 

In addition to Davis' MVP-caliber play, let's take a second to appreciate the work of Jrue Holiday. Over the course of this winning streak, Holiday has averaged 25.3 points, 7.6 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 steals with a 60.2 percent true shooting percentage. His defense has remained fantastic in a new role, and the backcourt tandem of Holiday and Rajon Rondo has been much more effective than I thought it would be.

Cousins' absence has been felt on offense, but there is one silver lining: New Orleans' lineups featuring Cousins without Davis were consistently getting destroyed on defense. Nobody talks about defense when discussing the Ewing Theory, but this is the rare case where it applies -- the Pelicans have been 11th in the league in defensive rating since Cousins got hurt.

Fun fact: Lineups featuring Emeka Okafor, who returned to the NBA after a four-year hiatus, have been so good that it is hilarious. New Orleans have averaged 114.2 points per 100 possessions and allowed 102.5 points per 100 possessions with Okafor on the court. 

Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Davis
Karl-Anthony Towns has a tough job now that Jimmy Butler is out of the lineup. USATSI

Portland Trail Blazers (35-26)

The Blazers confuse me. Last season, they underachieved but they at least made sense: Their offense was as effective as you'd expect, but they struggled on defense. This season it completely flipped for a few months, but since the beginning of January they are back to that profile, sixth in offensive rating and 16th in defensive rating. 

Overall, the Blazers have a worse net rating than the Spurs, Wolves, Thunder, Jazz and Clippers. It is easy to be excited about them right now, though, as Damian Lillard has been on a tear. Lillard scored 50 points in 29 minutes against the Sacramento Kings three weeks ago. He scored 44 points in a win over the Warriors just before the All-Star break. He had 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a win over the Suns on Saturday. He is averaging 31.4 points, 6.7 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals with a 62.5 percent true shooting percentage in February. 

Tuesday's win against the Kings was the first of a three-game homestand, after which Portland will visit the Lakers and then return home for a five-game homestand. The Blazers have won 11 of their last 12 games at the Moda Center, and victories against the Wolves and Thunder on Thursday and Saturday would be huge.

One player to watch down the stretch: Jusuf Nurkic. The big man bullied Golden State a couple of weeks ago, and everybody remembers how he energized Portland late last season. The Blazers need him to be aggressive around the basket, eat up rebounds and move his feet on defense. He is capable of being a game-changer. 

Oklahoma City Thunder (36-27)

Honestly, what is this team? Before the Andre Roberson injury, the Thunder had an identity: They were a phenomenal defensive team, with the potential to be great on offense when they were clicking. Roberson is a unique defensive talent, and they simply have not been the same without him, even though their starting lineup with Josh Huestis in his place has been excellent. 

Oklahoma City squeaked by the Mavericks on Wednesday, winning 111-110 in overtime. This followed a victory over the Magic that was closer than it should have been. The Thunder only had two authoritative victories in February, one of which was a win over the Warriors on Feb. 6 that seems much less significant after Golden State ran all over them on Saturday. 

Since Roberson went out, OKC is 18th on offense, 18th on defense and 21st in net rating. This does not inspire much confidence in its ability to rise up the West's ranks, even though Russell Westbrook is almost averaging a triple-double, Paul George has fit in swimmingly and Steven Adams is a delight. I love the way Corey Brewer competes, but if the Thunder do indeed sign him, their problems will not magically disappear. 

Carmelo Anthony's numbers in February: 13.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game, 36.5 percent shooting. Ugh. 

Denver Nuggets (33-28)

The Nuggets are coming off a rough loss to the Clippers that coach Mike Malone described as embarrassing, infuriating and disappointing. This was unfortunate not only because of the situation in the standings, but because a win could have really solidified some solid momentum for the Nuggets. Before that game, they were 7-2 in February, with both losses coming at the hands of the Rockets. 

Denver is 24th on defense on the season, which was definitely not the plan. There is hope, though, that the team can be more balanced now that Paul Millsap is back in the lineup. He returned against Los Angeles after three months spent on the sideline with a wrist injury. It is doubtful he can make the Nuggets good defensively, but maybe they can be not terrible. 

Nikola Jokic's numbers in February: 21.8 points, 11.3 rebounds, 9.0 assists, 1.1 steals, 68.4 percent true shooting percentage. Unbelievable. 

Los Angeles Clippers (32-28)

The Clippers started a six-game homestand with a loss to the Rockets on Wednesday, and they can't afford to slip up in upcoming games against the Knicks, Nets and Magic. The Pelicans and Cavaliers will also visit Los Angeles soon, and I will personally be tuning in to those games hoping to see center Boban Marjanovic bewilder and frustrate the opponent the way he did in Denver on Tuesday. The enormous Marjanovic is pretty much unguardable in the paint, but he (naturally) struggles to defend pick-and-rolls and stay with stretch bigs. 

Since the Blake Griffin trade, the Clippers have essentially remained the same type of team they've been all season: quite good on offense and average on defense. Lou Williams isn't dropping 30 points seemingly every night like he did in January, but he is still an offense unto himself when running high pick-and-rolls. Often it is Montrezl Harrell setting those screens, and the reserve center has been fantastic as a rim runner. Harrell had 22 points on 9-for-14 shooting against his former team Wednesday, and that type of production has not been unusual from him. 

I feel safe in saying that these Clippers are playoff-caliber, but I could say that about every team on this list. Two of them are going to miss out.  

(Why won't the Basketball Gods be kinder to Danilo Gallinari?)

Utah Jazz (31-30)

I wavered on whether or not to include the Jazz here, as they are 5.5 games back of the third seed. Realistically, they are just trying to make the playoffs, and it wouldn't be a total catastrophe if they missed out. Given how great they've been over the past month, though, it felt wrong to exclude them. The Jazz had the league's best defense and fourth-best net rating in February, and it wasn't just the Donovan Mitchell show. Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles and Ricky Rubio deserve tons of credit for Utah being back in the playoff picture. 

The question now is how worried we should be about the Jazz's post-All-Star offense. They have been ice cold in the three games since the break, and this could either be a meaningless blip or the start of a nasty regression to the mean.

As crazy as this conference is, I still expect Utah to make the playoffs. Its schedule is much easier than any other team on this list, and I trust its defense. There isn't any uncertainty here about how the Jazz need to play in order to win, and they are (finally) fully healthy.