I kinda want OKC and Utah to be the 4-5 matchup. Then either OKC loses which is always satisfying or the very tough Jazz lose and there is one less good team in the field. Plus the winner of that series would get Houston.
I think things are really settling down now. Looks like Nuggets and Clips won't make it. OKC Jazz 4 & 5, Spurs 6, Pels 7, 8 Wolves I don't think this will come down to the last night
How do you figure? Jazz have the exact same record as the Spurs & Pels. OKC is in the drivers seat, but there's not much separation between 4-8.
Logic apparently escapes you. Theres more to it than just their trend. OKC has the hardest remaining schedule & twolves have the easiest in the entire league. Right now most of the projections have OKC with 48 wins in 4th. Jazz, Spurs, & Twolves are all projected to have 47 wins. Pelicans are projected to have 46 wins. One slip up or unexpected win will significantly change the standings... it will absolutely go to the last night of the season (although Denver/LAC will probably be eliminated a few days before that).
"Race for the 2 seed": 6 games ago before GSW: "we're 12.5 back with 18 to play. And we'll probably be 13.5 back with 17 to play after tonight. No way we'll come close." Today: "After going 6-0 while they go 2-4, we're 8.5 back with 12 to play." (So we have to win out and hope they go 3-8. But we'd have tiebreakers) I think it's going to be a too-little-too-late situation, but this has been interesting and fun to watch.
You can come out of the nerd closet, bro. We all love you. You don't need to hide who you really are.
Revisiting Looking at the schedules, there's a decent chance that the Jazz get to within a game of the Blazers by the time the visit Portland 4/11. 3 seed may well be on the line when we host them for the final game of the season. If the Blazers want to "secure" the 3 seed, they need to sweep their upcoming 3-in-4 trip.
The Jazz are playing at a ridiculous level right now and have been for a while. Not the toughest of schedules but they are taking care of business on almost a nightly basis. That defense is suffocating and I'm guessing they will be a difficult out (if healthy) in the first round even if they don't get HCA.
Looking at the schedules I think Nuggets are done already. 33 losses and they won't fininsh better than 46-36 which will not be enough. Lack of defence will cost them any chance. Teams will still be fighting for seedings until the end but it's not really certain that 7th is better than 8th or that 5th is better than 6th for the playoffs. It largely depends on what top 4 looks like which funnily might also be unknown until final day aside from 1st and 2nd.