NBA’S final night to decide one berth, bounty of seeds
Minnesota, Denver play for spot; others jockey for position
A look at the NBA playoff picture, with one day remaining in the regular season and only one berth left to be decided:
SCENARIOS
All but one of the 16 playoff spots has been clinched, with the Minnesota-denver game on Wednesday deciding the final berth in the postseason. But going into Wednesday, only five of the 16 seeds have been wrapped up.
Portland and Utah face off Wednesday for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, but the Jazz could fall as far as No. 7 depending on the outcome of other games.
San Antonio, Oklahoma City and New Orleans could all be anywhere from fourth through eighth in the West. Minnesota would finish anywhere from fifth through eighth if it tops Denver, and the Nuggets — if they beat the Timberwolves — will be fifth, sixth or seventh.
Houston is No. 1 in the West, followed by Golden State at No. 2. The clinched East seeds are No. 1 Toronto, No. 2 Boston and No. 5 Indiana.
Philadelphia and Cleveland will be No. 3 and No. 4 in the East, in some order. Milwaukee, Miami and Washington all could finish sixth, seventh or eighth in the East.
WEST UPDATE
The playoffs start Wednesday. Officially, that’s not true. But the Denver at Minnesota game on Wednesday is a play-in game: Winner moves on, loser goes home.
Monday started with four spots available out West, and ended with only one still unclaimed. New Orleans, San Antonio and Oklahoma City all won to clinch their playoff berths — the Spurs doing so for the 21st consecutive year, tying Portland for the second-longest run in NBA history and moving one shy of tying Philadelphia’s league record (which started when the 76ers were the Syracuse Nationals).
The funny part about Monday’s triple-clinchings was that nothing changed in the standings. The order of the top eight remains the same going into the last day of the regular season.
It won’t stay that way. Get ready for craziness. Oklahoma City can remain No. 7 in the West, but only if it loses to Memphis (and a lot of other things happen).
All we really know is this: Wednesday night will be great fun.
EAST UPDATE
Cleveland won the Central Division and locked Indiana into the No. 5 seed with a win at New York.
Milwaukee is now up to No. 6 in the East, flip-flopping spots with now-no. 7 Miami. The Bucks beat Orlando, while the Heat could get nothing going and got routed in the fourth quarter on the way to losing to the Thunder.
The Bucks wrap up No. 6 with a win at Philadelphia on Wednesday night. But the 76ers need a win to clinch the No. 3 seed.