NBA Playoff Picture Update: What’s at stake in Friday’s big matchups?
With just a few weeks remaining until the NBA postseason, every night can impact the standings. NBA Playoff Picture keeps you up to date on all the most important news for all 16 berths and seeds.
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Thursday’s lone game was a notable one for the playoff picture, with the Milwaukee Bucks beating the Indiana Pacers 111-107 to maintain their hold on sixth place and send the losers into a virtual three-way tie for ninth place in the East. Nevertheless, a single result is not going to change the postseason landscape too much. With that in mind, we’ve decided to eschew an in-depth breakdown on the Bucks win and turn our attention to a heavy 13-game Friday with several games of note. Read on for a look at the biggest matchups and how they could impact the standings.
Golden State Warriors at Memphis Grizzlies, 8 p.m. ET: A matchup between the top two teams in the league’s best conference would be notable no matter the playoff implications, but this one should also have a tangible impact. The Warriors can move to within a single win of clinching homecourt advantage throughout the Western Conference Playoffs, and they hold the inside track on holding it for a potential NBA Finals appearance, too. It also could be nice for the league’s best team to grab a road win against a squad they have typically struggled to handle, although it’s hard to say that Golden State, winner of seven in a row, needs an infusion of confidence right now.
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Memphis isn’t exactly reeling, but a blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday did not provide the greatest argument for their championship aspirations. With the third-place Houston Rockets likely to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves at home, the Grizzlies should need a win to avoid dropping to a mere half-game ahead of their rivals for the No. 2 seed. Sticking around the Grindhouse for as long as possible would be a big benefit to the Grizzlies.
These teams also meet on April 13, one of the season’s final days, but that matchup figures to involve several resting players and a firm desire not to reveal too much in advance of a potential playoff series. If you want to see two top contenders at their peak, this is the game to watch on Friday.
Charlotte Hornets at Washington Wizards, 7:00 p.m. ET: Despite recent struggles, the 40-32 Wizards are likely locked into the No. 5 seed in the East. However, they can still gain homecourt advantage in the first round if they finish with a better record than the near-certain Atlantic Division champion Toronto Raptors, currently just two games in front at 42-30. Washington has lost its last four games and appears extremely unlikely to catch Toronto via merit, but the Raptors have looked like a shell of their first-half selves and could very well give it up just by virtue of their own failures. Bradley Beal is iffy for this one after spraining his ankle in Wednesday’s loss to the Pacers, so his status could play a big role in the result.
The 30-40 Hornets are currently in a three-way virtual tie for ninth place with the Pacers and Brooklyn Nets, which means they’re theoretically a win away from tying the Boston Celtics (who play the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Friday) for the East’s final berth. The meaning of such a result would obviously depend on what happens with the roughly 47 teams vying for this spot, but the Hornets hold the first two tiebreakers with the Celtics (at least until they play each other next Monday) and could gain an upper hand. Of course, this is all liable to change over the weekend no matter what happens on Friday, so maybe we should just admit that every game counts from here on out and try not to freak out about any single win or loss. The regular season is still a marathon, even if the last few weeks look more like a sprint.
Dallas Mavericks at San Antonio Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET: These teams just played on Tuesday, with Monta Ellis scoring 38 points to silence many doubters and lift the Mavs to a big win. This game is equally if not more important — the Spurs hold a half-game lead in the race for the sixth spot in the West, so whichever squad wins this one will hold that spot for at least one day. If Dallas wins, they will also grab the tiebreaker advantage over San Antonio with a 3-1 record in the season series.
Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns, 10:00 p.m. ET: The Blazers are involved in one of the weirdest stories in the standings. At 45-25, they hold a four-game lead in the Northwest Division and are therefore in line for a top-four seed. However, they have the fifth-best record in the conference and could easily fall behind both the Spurs and Mavericks. This makes their games important to both their own fortunes and the race for fifth place, because the team that finishes in that spot could end up with an ideal matchup against a group with the record of a much lower seed.
The Suns look unlikely to pose a serious challenge for a playoff berth, but they can put more pressure on the idle Oklahoma City Thunder with a win. OKC is three games up with 10 to play and visits Phoenix on Sunday. It’s hard to imagine that game meaning much if the Suns can’t shrink the gap beforehand.
Miami Heat at Atlanta Hawks, 7:30 p.m. ET: Now two games up on the Celtics for seventh place, the Heat look very likely to face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round, thereby pleasing every league and television executive. With the Hawks all but having mathematically clinched the top seed, this game only really means something to the participants’ confidence levels as they head into the final weeks of the season. Miami may be without the hobbled Dwyane Wade and Hassan Whiteside, but the Hawks could use a nice win against a playoff participant, something they haven’t had since topping the Cavs on March 7.
Cleveland Cavaliers at Brooklyn Nets, 7:30 p.m. ET: The Nets are in the same situation as the Hornets — at 30-40, a win would either allow them to keep pace with or pass the Celtics. To do that, though, they’ll have to beat the hottest team in the conference by far. With the Nets in a race alongside several other squads that look very unlikely to go on any winning streaks, this game is probably most interesting as an opportunity to see if the Cavs will slow down at any point before they start resting key players for the postseason. It’s probably a good idea not to bet against them.
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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!
