NBA Playoff Picture: Grizzlies hold strong to keep Bulls on edge
With just over a week left in the NBA’s regular season, several games per night make a big difference in the fights for playoff berths and seeding. This post catches you up on everything that matters to these races.
GAMES THAT MATTERED A LOT
Finally, we know what kind of market it is: The Chicago Bulls entered Tuesday having won three of four to keep their flickering hopes of taking the East’s final playoff spot alive. The Memphis Grizzlies came in having lost six straight amid a ruinous plague of injuries, and looking to be in real danger of going the rest of the season without scoring another win.
So, naturally, the bears beat the brakes off the Bulls.
Zach Randolph put the shorthanded Grizzlies on his back, scoring a game-high 27 points with 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals to lead Memphis to its first win in more than two weeks, a 108-92 stomping of the visiting and listless Bulls. The Grizzlies worked inside out and busted up Chicago on the interior, outscoring the Bulls in the paint 44-30 and going 23-for-26 at the free-throw line to Chicago’s 13-for-19. Vince Carter (17 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals) and Matt Barnes (16 points, seven rebounds, two assists) each offered punch on the wing for Memphis, who improved to 42-36.
Dave Joerger’s club remains in fifth place in the West, a half-game up on the Portland Trail Blazers, 2 1/2 games in front of the seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks, three games clear of the eighth-seeded Utah Jazz, and 3 1/2 ahead of the ninth-place Houston Rockets. Their magic number for securing a playoff berth is just two, but they’re likely to need some help, because Memphis’ M*A*S*H unit will finish the season at Dallas, home for the Golden State Warriors, at the Los Angeles Clippers and at Oracle to close against the Dubs; scratching out even one win against that brutal year-end slate might be too much to ask.
That’s why you’ve got to get the ones you can, which is why Tuesday night mattered so much … and which is why it was such a disappointment for the Bulls, who scarcely showed signs of life until the fourth quarter, trailing by as many as 22 and seeming utterly ill-equipped to handle even the modest amount of firepower this version of the Grizzlies has to offer.
All-Star Jimmy Butler managing just five points on eight shots in 35 1/2 lackluster minutes for Chicago, who committed 20 turnovers leading to 38 Grizzlies points and approached the proceedings with a lack of intensity that Derrick Rose said stunned even the Bulls themselves: “I think everyone was surprised. Still can’t believe it. It’s going to be a long night, for sure.”
The Bulls drop to 39-39, staying two games behind the Detroit Pistons for the eighth and final playoff spot out East with just four games to play.
Scorch trials: Coming off a big Saturday win over the Bulls and having won seven of their last nine, the Pistons continued a three-game road trip hoping to keep the good times rolling and test themselves against an opponent with designs on making a deep run in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They, um, didn’t pass.
Detroit’s last lead was 4-2, at the 10:36 mark of the opening quarter. Stan Van Gundy’s team hung around until midway through the second, but then the Heat hit the gas and left them in the dust, cruising by double-digits for the final 30 minutes of the game before finishing off a 107-89 beatdown that improved Miami to 45-32 on the season.
Seven Heat players scored at least nine points, led by the backcourt of Goran Dragic (22 points, eight assists, five rebounds) and Dwyane Wade (16 points on 5-for-10 shooting) and emerging stud rookie Josh Richardson (16 points in 35 1/2 minutes off the bench, including a 4-for-5 mark from 3-point land). The win kept the Heat level on record with the Boston Celtics, a half-game behind the third-seeded Atlanta Hawks, who also won on Tuesday. Boston holds the No. 4 spot ahead of Miami by virtue of winning the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Heat will have to finish one game better than the Celtics to move into position for a top-four seed and home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs; the two teams will meet in Boston on the final night of the season.
Detroit managed just 36 points on 34.9 percent shooting in the opening half, with Pistons not named Tobias Harris and Andre Drummond combining to make just five of their 31 field-goal attempts before intermission and putting themselves too far behind the 8-ball to make anything more than token attempts at a comeback. Detroit drops into eighth place in the East at 41-37, a half-game behind the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers. Thanks to the Grizzlies’ demolition of the Bulls, though, the Pistons remain two games up on Chicago for the final Eastern playoff spot with just four games left on the schedule.
“They owed us,” said Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson (21 points on 6-for-18 shooting) after the game, in reference to the Grizzlies’ ludicrous half-court game-winner to beat Detroit earlier this season. “I might hit up Matt Barnes this summer and tell him I appreciate it.”
We can’t ever recommend hitting up Matt Barnes — or hitting down Matt Barnes, or contacting Matt Barnes in any way, really — but yeah, the general spirit of the thing is sound. Appreciate the Grizz, Detroit. They just helped you get one step closer to the playoffs on a night you really didn’t deserve any help.
GAMES THAT MATTERED PLENTY
Deep 6’ed: The good news for the Charlotte Hornets is that the left knee sprain that Nicolas Batum suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers isn’t considered “serious enough to keep [him] out long term.” The bad news is that it was still serious enough to keep the French swingman out on Tuesday night, and the Hornets really struggled to both generate quality looks and get stops against a damn good Toronto Raptors team without him.
The All-Star backcourt of DeMar DeRozan (26 points, seven rebounds, six assists) and Kyle Lowry (21 points, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter, plus six assists, four rebounds) shined in their return to the starting lineup after a night off against the San Antonio Spurs, propelling the Raptors past Charlotte, 96-90, at Air Canada Centre. Toronto’s defense held the Hornets to just 36.4 percent shooting and led by as many as 19 in the third quarter en route to their 52nd win of the season. They remain 3 1/2 games out of the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 spot behind the Cleveland Cavaliers, who hammered the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday to improve to 56-22.
Starting in Batum’s place, Jeremy Lin led Charlotte with 21 points, seven assists and four rebounds. But rough shooting nights from multiple key contributors — headlined by starting point guard Kemba Walker, who needed 16 shots to score 11 points — helped put the Hornets in a hole out of which they couldn’t climb, despite a spirited 13-3 run that cut the deficit to four with 22 seconds remaining, as Walker missed an and-one free throw and a long 3 before Raptors reserve Cory Joseph knocked down a pair of freebies to end it. Charlotte drops to sixth place in the East at 44-33, 1 1/2 games behind the third-place Atlanta Hawks.
Goddarn the Spurs: Pity the Utah Jazz, who came back from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie this one in the final seconds. A Rudy Gobert block with seconds on the shot clock in the Spurs’ last possession looked likely to give them a chance to win or force overtime at worst.
Naturally, the Spurs ran the world’s most basic inbound play for Kawhi Leonard, who buried a jumper in the face of Gordon Hayward to finish off an 88-86 win:
It was a tough finish for Utah, which got 23 points from breakout star Rodney Hood and put forth the kind of effort you hope to see from a team fighting to hold onto playoff spot. Unfortunately for the 39-39 Jazz, they’re now a half-game back of the Dallas Mavericks for seventh and a game in front of the Houston Rockets for No. 8. That’s not terrible news considering those two play each other on Thursday, but a Rockets win would still put the Jazz out of the playoffs with four challenging games left to go.
San Antonio will probably have to win out to have any chance of catching the Warriors, their next opponent, for the top seed. That’s unlikely given that Gregg Popovich will rest players in at least a few of their remaining five games. Tim Duncan probably deserves some — he became the third player in NBA history to win 1,000 regular season games when Leonard made that winner.
Hawks fly together: Atlanta will thank the scheduling computer for Tuesday visit from the Phoenix Suns, who wasted Devin Booker’s 34 points en route to a 104-90 Hawks win. Atlanta actually trailed by three entering the fourth quarter, which doesn’t actually build confidence that they can hold onto their half-game lead ahead of the Heat and Celtics for the East’s No. 3 seed.
This was an ugly, ugly game — the Suns shot 37 percent from the field and committed 24 turnovers and weren’t out of it in the fourth. The Hawks will hope to do better on Thursday when they host the Raptors, a team that could still be going all-out in a last-ditch attempt to catch the Cavs for first place.
See C.J.’s J: We all know the Blazers’ formula at this point — scoring from C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard and contributions from everyone else. McCollum was the star in Tuesday’s 115-107 win over the Kings, scoring 30 on 5-of-10 shooting from deep to help make up for Lillard’s relatively inefficient 22 on 19 shots. Moe Harkless was the officially mandated third star in this one, adding 20 points and 16 rebounds in a parody of the activity these role players have become known for.
Portland has just three games left — all at home and all against teams without anything tangible to play for. That puts them in very good position to hold onto their two-game lead over the Mavericks for sixth and likely catch the Grizzlies for the No. 5 seed. That half-game margin looks very small right now, especially with the Blazers holding a narrow lead in the tiebreaker for in-conference record.
GAMES THAT MATTERED TO MATH
70 waits for another day: The Warriors’ stunning overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves means a whole lot more to the chase for 73 wins than it does to playoff seeding, so read our recap if you want full analysis of that story. For the purposes of the postseason, Golden State remains in very good shape to lock down the West’s No. 1 seed some time this week. The Spurs’ win keeps the Warriors’ magic number at two, but they can end that discussion on Thursday night when they play at Oracle Arena. Tony Parker has said he expects Gregg Popovich to rest all key players for the teams’ two remaining matchups, so we’ll see if the Spurs give their rivals an assist.
Cavs keep cool: A tumultuous regular season for the Cleveland Cavaliers at least looks likely to end with a relative lack of drama. The Cavs traveled to Milwaukee Tuesday and thumped the Bucks 109-80, building a 67-43 lead by the half to ensure that no player would have to log more than LeBron James’s 28 minutes. Six players scored in double figures, including J.R. Smith with a team-high 21 on 7-of-11 from beyond the arc.
The Raptors’ win means that the Cavs’ magic number stands at two, but that should be manageable despite all four remaining games coming against teams fighting for playoff berths or seeding. Tyronn Lue has said that the team will focus on rest over the No. 1 seed, but Cleveland has no remaining back-to-back games after Wednesday’s visit to the Indiana Pacers and should keep enough guys active to lock up the top spot.
OKC for 3: Russell Westbrook brooked no challenge from the Denver Nuggets, logging his 17th triple-double of the season in a comfortable 124-102 win for the Thunder. That puts him one behind Magic Johnson’s 18 in 1980-81 for the most in a single season in the past 40 years. He’s a safe bet to reach that number if Billy Donovan lets him play in any of OKC’s final four games, which may not happen given that they’re now locked into the No. 3 seed. The No. 4 Clippers can finish with no more than the Thunder’s 54 current wins and would not hold the tiebreaker after dropping three of four in the season series.
Blake needs to bake: The Thunder’s win rendered the Clippers’ 103-81 blowout of the Lakers irrelevant. The good L.A. team will enter the playoffs with the No. 4 seed, but it’s not clear that resting every major player until then would be in their best interest. Blake Griffin looked very rusty once again in his second game back, putting up four points (1-of-5 FG), three rebounds, and three assists in 17 minutes. He needs time to get into series-dominating shape.
WEDNESDAY’S BIGGEST GAMES
Houston Rockets at Dallas Mavericks, 9:30 p.m. ET: Not just the biggest game of the night, but one of the most important games remaining on the NBA schedule. The Rockets’ last four opponents all rank among the worst five teams in the West, which means that they’ll be in excellent position to pass the Mavs, Jazz, or Grizzlies with a win at the American Airlines Center. Meanwhile, Dallas can open up a one-game lead over the Jazz for No. 7 and give themselves some leeway heading into a season-closing run against four playoff-quality teams.
Cleveland Cavaliers at Indiana Pacers, 7 p.m. ET: Expect the Cavs to rest some notable players on the second game of a back-to-back, which would give the Pacers a leg up in their attempt to lock down a playoff spot after a one-year absence. A win would also give Indiana a one-game advantage on the Pistons for No. 7, a meaningful difference that would allow them to avoid the Cavs in the first round.
Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic, 7 p.m. ET: It’s a one-sided game on paper even though the Magic have wins over the Pistons and Grizzlies in the last week. A win would put Detroit 2 1/2 up on Chicago with three of their own to play, which would effectively end that race. This is the kind of game a team should win if it considers itself playoff-worthy.
– – – – – – –
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!
Yahoo’s Eric Freeman also contributed to this article. Follow him on Twitter @freemaneric.
Stay connected with Ball Don’t Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, “Like” BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
