Playoff positioning fights continue, and see what games matter most
New York is in. Denver has a No. 1 seed, for now. And the first playoff matchup is set, too.
The Knicks are the eighth team to clinch a playoff spot in the NBA, officially securing the berth when Miami lost at home to Dallas. New York joins Boston and Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference field, while Minnesota, Denver, Oklahoma City, Dallas and the Los Angeles Clippers have spots out of the Western Conference.
Denver took over the No. 1 spot in the West by topping Minnesota, Nikola Jokic leading the way with 41 points on 16-for-20 shooting.
Dallas locked up the Southwest Division and no worse than the No. 5 seed with that win over the Heat. The Mavericks will play the Clippers in Round 1; the Clippers lost to Phoenix, as the Suns try to escape the play-in tournament. The Clippers need only one win or one Dallas loss to secure the No. 4 seed and homecourt for Round 1.
Thursday’s five- game slate has four matchups carrying playoff significance.
• Chicago can wrap up home- court for a 9-10 play-in matchup with Atlanta by beating Detroit.
• The Knicks can move within a game of the No. 2 seed in the East if they beat Boston.
•New Orleans is at Sacramento and Golden State is at Portland. The Pelicans-kings winner takes a big step toward avoiding the play-in; the Warriors can win out and assure being no worse than No. 9 (and have home-court for one play-in elimination game) in the West standings.
Who’s in/who’s out
The only seed that has been locked up is East No. 1, which Boston wrapped up weeks ago.
Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, the Clippers and Mavericks have clinched playoff spots in the Western Conference. Boston, Milwaukee and New York have clinched spots from the Eastern Conference.
As of now, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, Sacramento, the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State also hold what would be the play-in spots.
Brooklyn, Toronto, Charlotte, Washington, Detroit, Houston, Utah, Memphis, Portland and San Antonio
have been eliminated from all contention.
Betting guide
Boston has home- court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs and is currently the heavy favorite to win the championship, according to Fanduel Sportsbook. The Celtics are listed at +165, well ahead of defending champion Denver (+300). Next up: the Clippers (+ 800), followed by Oklahoma City (+1500) and Milwaukee (+1700).
The Bucks’ odds took a big hit this week, at least in part because of the calf injury that Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered on Tuesday night.
What to know
Entering Thursday:
• Denver, Minnesota and Oklahoma City will be 1-2-3 in the West, in some order.
• Orlando and Indiana could be anywhere from No. 3 to No. 8 in the East when the season ends Sunday. Once again, other than Boston with a runaway lead atop the conference, the East is a mess.
• If Golden State wins one more game, then it would be certain that at least two — and maybe as many as four — 45-win teams wind up missing the playoffs. The last time two teams with at least 45 wins missed the playoffs was 1972.
Stat of the day
Luka Doncic (29) and
Kyrie Irving (25) combined for 54 points in Dallas’ win over Miami. It was the 41st time in 52 games together this season where the duo has combined for at least 50 points.
Quote of the day
“The process is come to work every day, get better, don’t be satisfied. Somebody asked before the game what I’m most proud about. I’m most proud of the fact that as a reigning world champion we haven’t been satisfied the whole year. You’ve got to stay hungry because we’ve got 29 teams right behind us trying to take what we have.” — Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone, after his team topped Minnesota.