NBA Playoff Picture Update: The Warriors won the division!
With just a few weeks remaining until the NBA postseason, every night can impact the standings. The NBA Playoff Picture Update keeps you up to date on all the most important news for all 16 berths and seeds.
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Pacific Power: All hail the Golden State Warriors, your new Pacific Division overlords. The Warriors erased a five-point halftime deficit with a 36-18 third quarter to grab an ultimately convincing 122-108 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. That win brings the Warriors to 58-13, good enough to clinch their first division title in 39 years. They seemed pretty excited about it:
Division titles don’t mean a ton in 2015 — division winners cannot finish any lower than fourth in the conference but do not get homecourt advantage against teams with superior records even if they have the higher seed. None of that matters to the Warriors, because they have an eight-game lead on the second-place Memphis Grizzlies with 11 left to play and appear destined for homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. But it’s still nice to win something new, especially when the franchise is set for just its fourth playoff appearance in the past 20 seasons. It’s fine for a team to be content with their current level of success even when they hold higher aspirations.
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Incidentally, winning the Northwest Division could end up meaning something to the Blazers, who hold the fourth seed at 44-25 despite owning a worse record than the 46-25 Los Angeles Clippers. The good news for Portland is that they maintained their half-game lead over the 44-26 San Antonio Spurs, themselves in a virtual tie with the 45-27 Dallas Mavericks (we’ll get to those two teams soon). Depending on how the rest of the regular season shakes out, it’s possible that the Blazers will finish with the seventh-best record in the conference but play the team with the fifth-best record, simply because they play in a division with only one other playoff contender, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Texas Tie: Monta Ellis’ 38-point night led the Mavericks to a 101-94 win over the in-state rival Spurs, creating a virtual tie between the two teams for the sixth spot in the West. The Spurs currently hold the advantage due to having played two fewer games, but Friday’s rematch in San Antonio could play a big role in the event of an end-of-season tiebreaker. If the Mavericks win, they will hold the advantage by virtue of taking the season series 3-1. If the Spurs win, then the tiebreaker procedure will move to in-conference records.
Buzzer-Beater Buffer: Khris Middleton’s wild winner at the buzzer lifted the Milwaukee Bucks over the Miami Heat and helped clarify the crowded bottom of the Eastern Conference. The win brought the Bucks to 35-36, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Heat for sixth place. The difference between sixth and seventh could be a big one in the East — the Cleveland Cavaliers appear headed for the No. 2 seed and loom as a nightmare matchup. On the bright side, a Heat-Cavaliers series would probably make for pretty good ratings. I hear one of the guys on the Cavs used to play in Florida.
Whoops Ontario: The Toronto Raptors fell into sole possession of fourth in the East with a disappointing 108-104 loss at the Detroit Pistons. The result might not have been quite so tough to take if not for a questionable final possession in which Lou Williams hoisted this deep contested 3-pointer down 106-104 with plenty of time left on the shot clock:
At 42-29, the Raptors sit one win behind the 43-29 Chicago Bulls. The teams play each other on ESPN on Wednesday, so we should get a better sense of that race soon.
Listen to the Thunder: The Oklahoma City Thunder continued to pull ahead of the competition for the last playoff spot in the West with a 127-117 win over the lottery-bound Los Angeles Lakers. Russell Westbrook led the way, as usual, with 27 points, 11 assists and this dunk:
The Thunder are now three games up on the Phoenix Suns with only 11 left to play. Unless they suffer another serious injury, they appear to be in very good shape to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 2009.
Wednesday’s Most Important Games
A 13-game night is bound to involve a few notable matchups, so let’s run down the top three in no particular order.
Heat at Celtics, 7:30 p.m. ET: The 32-38 Heat and 31-39 Celtics occupy the last two spots in the East, so this game would seem to play a big part in deciding who plays the Atlanta Hawks and who ends up with the Cavaliers. However, it might be more important in deciding if one ends up on the outside of the playoffs altogether. The Celtics are just a half-game up on the Charlotte Hornets, themselves involved in a big game with the quasi-contending 11th-place Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. If the Hornets win and the Celtics lose, then their places will swap for what seems like the 400th time in the past month.
Bulls at Raptors, 7 p.m. ET: As noted above, this one matches up the third and fourth seeds in the East. Both have struggled recently, albeit for different reasons, and could use a big win against a solid team.
Thunder at Spurs, 9:30 p.m. ET: While the 41-30 Thunder have spent most of this season concerned with just making the postseason, a victory in this ESPN-televised game opens up the possibility that they could catch the Spurs, currently 3 1/2 games ahead, for seventh. That seeding change would be a big deal for the Warriors, odds-on championship favorites who would nevertheless consider a first-round matchup with the Spurs to be a worst-case scenario.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
