With seeds 3-8 all within 2 games, the final week and final standings are all wildly unpredictable. Let's start with a visual depiction of the current situation. My notes: the #2 seeded Rockets have games against 3 of these 6 teams, so their willingness to play hard or not will be significant and impactful. The Grizz have two games against other competing teams, so they arguably have more control over their destiny than any of the others. Grizz also, inexplicably, had 1 fewer Western conference game in their schedule, having played Brooklyn 3 times this year. Wolves have the easiest remaining schedule, facing two tankers, and one playoff team under an interim coach Nuggets fired their coach just ahead of a 3 game season-ending road trip, all against playoff or play-in teams My prediction for the final 3 games for each team and final standings Lakers go 2-1, finish 50-32 (3-1 vs Warriors) Warriors win out finish 50-32 (1-3 vs Lakers) Wolves win out, finish 49-33 Grizzlies go 1-2, finish 48-34 (conf 27-24) Clippers go 1-2, finish 48-34 (conf 27-25) Nuggets go 1-2, finish 48-34 (conf 30-22)
Do I post my opinion HERE, in the Around the NBA or in the Race to the Bottom thread. I have no issue copy and pasting either.
This thread and the "race to the bottom" thread are completely unrelated. If you would like to comment/predict in this thread, that's perfectly reasonable.
Rockets making it clear they're not trying in these final 3 games, so the Clippers will clearly get the W tonight, and you can probably pencil in losses to the Lakers on Friday and the Nuggets on Sunday. Lakers handled business tonight, and it seems the Nuggets will as well, while the Spurs are hanging surprisingly tough vs the Warriors. Things could get really interesting if the W's lose that game.
pretty certain Lebron and Doncic won't play against Portland. Probably not Reaves either Blazers need to have a 7 man rotation of Murray, Walker, Minaya, Reath, Rupert, McGowens, and Cissoko. Banton is too big a threat to have a great game
What happened to the days of “well we didn’t make it but let’s play spoiler”? We used to want to win these last two games.
Well, clearly I miscalculated on few things, but as I said, this final week will be wildly unpredictable. That loss to the Spurs dropped the Warriors from having a shot at the 3-seed to play-in positioning. Every game matters!! However, it also looks like the Blazers have in fact transitioned into tank mode, so that will help Curry & co tomorrow. Updated predictons: I still think the Wolves handle the Grizz tonight, making a 3-way tie for the 6 seed going into the final weekend I expect all the teams above to win Friday, except Memphis who likely drops another on the second-half of a home-road back to back. Sunday's Clippers-Warriors game will be prime viewing, with the loser likely being in the play-in, and the winner claiming 5 (Clippers) or 6 (Warriors). Bet the league would cream themselves over a Lakers/Warriors first-round matchup. If things shake out the way I'd guess, we're looking at OKC-MEM; HOU-LAC; LAL-GSW; DEN-MIN.
it's kind of exciting that all 30 teams are playing today, and all 30 teams will be playing season finals on Sunday. Seems like there are usually games on Saturday
