NBA Playoffs 2013: Western Conference Standings 4 / 15 / 2013 -- While you were sleeping

It's pretty much now or never for our guys . . .

And here we go...

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The Good:

• The Denver Nuggets defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, making it all the more likely that the Memphis Grizzlies have less to play for (you know, aside from homecourt in the first round of the playoffs) when they play us on the last night of the season.
• The Dallas Mavericks defeated the New Orleans Hornets, which brought them to a 40-40 mark for the season, or .500 -- they had vowed not to shave their beards (team unity) until they rose to that record. It took 121 days, but they got to shave last night. All the videos online of Dirk Nowitzki shaving are fun to see.
  
• The Houston Rockets defeated the Sacramento Kings, which is what we want because we want Houston to finish with a better record than the Golden State Warriors this year as we own the Warriors 1st round draft pick. Houston is now tied with GSW with 2 games left -- and Houston owns the head to head tie-breaker.

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The Bad:

• The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the San Antonio Spurs last night, which is bad. It makes it harder for the Spurs to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in their race (and we're only going for SAS there because OKC would wreck us in the first round). Also, more obviously, the Lakers won again which now puts them 1.5 games ahead of the Jazz. They only have one game left, which they will play AFTER we've played our remaining two games.
  

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The 'Meh':

• There were no other Western Conference games last night.
  

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Tonight:

Tonight is another heavy night for our conference, with 11 of 15 teams going at it. The Thunder take on the Kings and try to secure the number one seed in the West and homecourt in the playoffs until the Finals. The Spurs will fight back and take on the Warriors. Gotta be pulling for a Spurs win here, but likely that they just rest their dudes. The Denver Nuggets will take on the Milwaukee Bucks on the road -- schedule didn't give them any help, but they are likely to finish #3 in the West this year. (Just like the old gypsy woman said!)

The Grizzlies will host the Mavericks; a must win there for MEM so they can have the higher seed* than the Clippers. The Rockets will play against the Phoenix Suns who are in super tank mode right now.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh, no. Wait! Yes, yes I am. The Jazz will play the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight in a must win game.

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The Races:

• Race for #1: OKC (2 games left) has a 1.0 game lead on SAS (2), slowly the Thunder have moved into first and they intend to hold it.
  
• Race for #3: DEN (2), LAC (2), and MEM (2) are all right there. DEN is ahead by 1.0 games and MEM AND LAC are tied for the 4th/5th spots. It looks like Memphis (esp if they win tonight @ Dal) will still have something to fight for in their last game of the season..
  
• Race for #6: GSW (2) and HOU (2) are separated tied right now, Golden State has the better conference record, but Houston own the H2H. If they remain tied Houston will be the higher seed. They both play tonight, GSW at SAS, and HOU at PHX. Go Houston!
  
• Race for #8: LAL (1) is ahead of Utah (2) by 1.5 games, after beating the Spurs without shooting guard Kobe Bryant. The Jazz need to win our last two games, and have LA lose against the Rockets on the last game for us to make it in. Exciting!