There are four teams in the west that I think potentially could fall off the deeper they go into the playoffs because of age, injury issues, depth, or being scared of the moment (Harden). The NBA playoffs can be a war of attrition, especially starting in the 2nd round where there's only one day between games
The obvious one is the Clippers, given that Kawhi could randomly get injured at any moment, and the deeper they get into the playoffs, the more likely Harden will turn into a corncobb
Next is Golden State, given that their three best players are old and have a ton of playoff mileage on their bodies
Then there's the Nuggets, primarily due to Jamal Murray. We saw last year how their offense can struggle to keep up deep in the playoffs when he's not 100% right. And more than any other "contender", they can't afford to lose any of their top five guys or the whole thing starts to fall apart
The 4th is the Lakers with 40 year old Lebron. We've seen how he's benefited physically with Luka and to a lesser extent Reaves carrying the load on offense for the first 80% of the game, but I really struggle to see him staying fresh deep into the playoffs, and their defense really falls when he's not fully energetic on that end