NBA Playoff Picture Update: Pelicans, Thunder take West’s No. 8 race to season’s final day
With just two days remaining in the NBA regular season, every night impacts 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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It all comes down to this: It’ll take all 82 games to decide which team gets the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, as both the Oklahoma City Thunder and New Orleans Pelicans won on Monday night to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Minnesota showed some spark in the early going — hello, there, Mr. Wiggins — but New Orleans led for the lion’s share of Monday night, clamping down on the young Wolves in the second quarter (15 points on 6-for-20 shooting) on the way to a 100-88 win. Anthony Davis led the way with 24 points on 8-for-14 shooting, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals in 36 minutes. The All-Star power forward also added six blocks, getting a measure of revenge for his frontcourt partner Omer Asik by shutting down Wiggins:
… and later snuffing this Adreian Payne attempt with extreme prejudice:
Guards Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans chipped in 22 points apiece for the Pelicans, who bounced back from a tough loss Sunday to maintain control of their own destiny in the playoff race.
The Oklahoma City Thunder don’t have that kind of control, thanks in part to a game-winning 3-pointer by Davis back in early February. They took care of their business on Monday, though, toppling the Portland Trail Blazers, 101-90, in a game that saw the already-injury-plagued Blazers lose key wing contributors Nicolas Batum and C.J. McCollum, as well as reserve center Chris Kaman, to injuries.
Russell Westbrook made the most of the second chance granted to him by the league office, scoring a game-high 36 points on 13-for-27 shooting to go with 11 rebounds, seven assists and two steals in 38 minutes. And lest you think Russ would be tired after popping for a career-high 54 on Sunday, he still had more than enough gas in the tank to explode for this phenomenal one-handed alley-oop layup:
… and enough juice off the bounce to be willing to take and make Dirk Nowitzki-style one-legged fadeaways in the lane:
Enes Kanter added 27 points on 13-for-20 shooting and 13 rebounds against the Blazers’ depleted front line for the Thunder, who now sit at 44-37, level with New Orleans. And so it all comes down to Wednesday, when the Thunder travel to the Twin Cities to take on the Wolves and the Pelicans welcome the red-hot San Antonio Spurs to the Smoothie King Center.
Due to that head-to-head tiebreaker, if the Pelicans and Thunder finish with the same record, New Orleans will head to the postseason for the first time since 2011. The Thunder must finish one game ahead of the Pelicans to make the playoffs for the sixth straight year; they need to beat Minnesota, and they need San Antonio to beat New Orleans. So that means Westbrook will be rooting on the silver and black on Wednesday, right?
As if we’d expect anything else.
Brooklyn bounced? After spending the better part of the last month scratching and clawing their way back into playoff position in the East, the Brooklyn Nets have put themselves on the outside looking in heading into their final game of the season with a pair of dismal performances at the absolute worst juncture.
Hot on the heels of Sunday’s 23-point loss to former coach Jason Kidd and the Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn coughed up another hairball on Monday, dropping a 113-86 decision to the visiting Chicago Bulls at Barclays Center. Playing without Joakim Noah, who sat out with left hamstring tendinitis, the Bulls bigs still bullied Brooklyn, with Pau Gasol (22 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two blocks), Taj Gibson (15 points on six shots, nine rebounds, four blocks) and reserve Nikola Mirotic (a game-high 26 points in 24 1/2 minutes off the bench, 6-for-11 from 3-point land) combining to overwhelm the Nets.
When you watch Bulls games nowadays, though, you tend to focus less on the interior and more on the backcourt. Derrick Rose’s stat line didn’t look quite as shiny as it did in Saturday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers, but he did show more signs of regaining his pace, showcasing his capacity to maintain his own balance while hitting the gas while keeping the defense off theirs:
Rose finished with 13 points and seven dimes against two turnovers in 23 minutes in the win, which nudged Chicago into third place in the East at 49-32, a half-game ahead of the idle Toronto Raptors. The Bulls might not stay there — Toronto finishes up against a Boston Celtics club that’s already punched its ticket (more on that in a sec) and the Charlotte Hornets, while Chicago will face the East-leading Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday, and the Raptors hold the tiebreaker over the Bulls by virtue of winning the Atlantic Division.
Even if they don’t, though, they’ll still open the playoffs at the United Center, as Monday’s win ensured that Tom Thibodeau’s team will finish with more wins than the fifth-seeded Washington Wizards (46-34). And when they get there, for the first time since the first game of the 2012 playoffs, they’ll have No. 1 on the ball.
“Derrick playing in the playoffs is going to mean a lot to more than just him,” said a smiling Noah after the win, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
There are fewer reasons to smile in Brooklyn.
After having a fairly firm hold on the No. 7 spot just one week ago, the 37-44 Nets have now fallen out of the top eight entirely. They’ll enter Tuesday in ninth place, 1 1/2 games behind the 38-42 Celtics, who now sit seventh and, somewhat amazingly, clinched their playoff berth with Brooklyn’s loss, and the idle 37-43 Indiana Pacers, who nudged a half-game ahead of Brooklyn into eighth place.
As a result, Brooklyn no longer controls its own fate. Lionel Hollins’ team holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Pacers, beating Indiana twice in three tries this season. For that to matter, though, they’ll need some help.
If the Nets beat the Orlando Magic in their finale on Wednesday, they still need the Pacers to lose one of their last two games, either against the Wizards on Tuesday or the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, to get in. If the Nets lose to Orlando — which we can’t rule out, what with them losing their last two by a combined 50 points and all — they’ll need Indy to drop both of their remaining games to get in. Not the spot you want to be in with a playoff berth on the line in the final week of the season.
“It’s our fault,” point guard Deron Williams (nine points on 3-for-13 shooting, seven rebounds, five assists) said after the loss, according to Devin Kharpertian of The Brooklyn Game. “We put ourselves in this position. A week ago it was looking really good for us. Everybody was happy. Now it’s kind of the opposite.”
Western scramble: The Memphis Grizzlies’ 111-107 loss to the Golden State Warriors dropped them from contention for the West’s No. 2 seed. For that, they can thank Klay Thompson, who scored 26 points in the second quarter and 37 total in the first half. Thompson finished the game with 42, helping the Warriors take a 32-point lead before their reserves squandered most of it.
The Spurs can lock up the second seed by beating the Pelicans on Wednesday. The Houston Rockets can win it if they beat the Utah Jazz on Wednesday and the Spurs lose to the Pelicans. The Los Angeles Clippers will take the No. 2 seed if they win their regular-season finale against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday and the Spurs and Rockets both lose the following night.
The Spurs can still fall all the way to the six seed if they lose to the Pelicans, and the Rockets, Clippers and Grizzlies all win their final game.
Flame still flickers: With Boston clinching, Indy rising and Brooklyn waning, the Miami Heat stayed alive in the quest for the East’s final playoff berth, beating the Orlando Magic, 100-93, behind a stellar night from center Hassan Whiteside.
The 7-foot marvel came through when Erik Spoelstra needed him most, scoring a team-high 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting to go with 13 rebounds and five blocks, including this emphatic rejection of Magic rookie Aaron Gordon:
Miami (36-45) remains 1 1/2 games back of the Pacers, who beat the Heat in their head-to-head season series, three games to one. Miami swept its four-game set with the Nets, though. Factor in Brooklyn’s aforementioned 2-1 season-series win over Indy, and the Heat do have one way of coming out on top here.
If Indiana loses to Memphis on Tuesday … and Miami beats the 76ers on Wednesday … and both Brooklyn and Indy lose on Wednesday … then all three teams finish with 37-45 records. In that scenario, the relevant tiebreaker would be better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams. And there, Miami (5-3, .625 winning percentage) tops Indy (4-3, .571), earning the No. 8 spot.
It’s not a particularly likely scenario — Indy can blow it up by beating the Grizzlies on Tuesday night — but it’s still on the table, which is something, at least.
I mean, not a big one, but definitely still bigger than the chance of me catching “Dumb and Dumber To.”
Quickly: News and notes from other playoff-related games of less immediate consequence:
• The second-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Detroit Pistons, 109-97, thanks to J.R. Smith going nuts from beyond the arc (8-for-13 from deep for a game-high 28 points) and LeBron James notching his second triple-double in eight days with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, including this fantastic behind-the-back bounce pass to center Timofey Mozgov:
I think it’s safe to say LeBron’s pretty ready for the playoffs to start. Perhaps less so, though: star point guard Kyrie Irving, who left at halftime after the right hip tightness that kept him out of the past two games flared up in the first half. That seems like it might bear watching.
• The sixth-seeded Milwaukee Bucks beat the 76ers, 107-97, to clinch their first .500-or-better finish since 2010 and only their second since 2004. Michael Carter-Williams was the star of the evening, tying a season-high with 30 points on 11-for-17 shooting, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in 30 minutes against his former club.
As is so often the case, though, it was sophomore sensation Giannis Antetokounmpo who drew the most oohs and aahs with plays like this driving spin move and two-handed flush right in Jerami Grant’s mug:
You guys, we get to see Giannis in the playoffs. This is very, very exciting news.
• The Dallas Mavericks are locked into the No. 7 seed in the West, waiting for the second-seed situation to shake out, so the rest of their games don’t mean a whole heck of a lot. As a result, they rested Dirk, Monta Ellis, Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons, and lost to the Utah Jazz, 109-92.
The only reason I am telling you about this game is holy cow look at little Bryce Cotton KISS THE SKY:
That is a diminutive undrafted point guard — listed at 6-foot-1, measured at just under 6 feet in sneakers — catching a well-behind-the-3-point-arc alley-oop pass from teammate Rodney Hood with his left hand (he shoots righty) over the top of Mavericks defenders Dwight Powell and Devin Harris, and absolutely tomahawking it. These grace notes, these unexpected bits of brilliance — this is the reason to watch ’em all, gang.
Cotton finished with 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting, four assists, two rebounds and a steal in 26 minutes off the bench for the Jazz, who have the league’s fifth-best record since the All-Star break, and its best defense since Jan. 1. Very good things are happening in Utah under Quin Snyder. Here’s hoping they carry over to next season.
• The East-worst New York Knicks beat the East-best Atlanta Hawks because the Knicks can’t even tank right. Figures.
Tuesday’s Most Important Games
Raptors at Celtics, 7:30 p.m. ET: The Raptors can move back ahead of the Bulls into the No. 3 seed with a win over the Celtics, who seem poised for a Round 1 getting ready for their date with the King …
Wizards at Pacers, 8 p.m. ET: … then again, if Boston loses out and Indy wins out, the Pacers can still climb up to No. 7. An Indy win eliminates Miami and puts Brooklyn on the brink. The Wizards are locked into the fifth seed, so we’ll see what kind of lineup/minutes distribution Randy Wittman has in mind.
Clippers at Suns, 10:30 p.m. ET: As detailed above, L.A.’s got to keep winning and hope for some help to sew up the No. 2 seed. Can the deflated and degraded Suns get passionate enough to play spoiler?
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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