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NBA Playoffs and/or Lottery seeding roundup -- While you were sleeping February 23rd, 2014

All of the good, bad, and meh things that happened in the races we care about.

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

So now that we're tracking both the playoffs (the usual) and the lotto (the new) we have an expanded "While you were sleeping" schedule to track. Here was all the action from last night:

Record Games Lottery Situation Recent Events
Team W L % Ahead Left Conf. Seed Lotto? Owns Pick? Last night Tonight
1 Milwaukee Bucks 10 45 18.2% 0.0 27 East 15 Yes Yes @ PHI
2 Philadelphia 76ers 15 41 26.8% 4.5 26 East 14 Yes Yes vs MIL
3 Orlando Magic 17 41 29.3% 5.5 24 East 13 Yes Yes @ TOR L
4 Boston Celtics 19 38 33.3% 8.0 25 East 12 Yes Yes @ UTA
5 Los Angeles Lakers 19 37 33.9% 8.5 26 West 15 Yes Yes vs BKN L
6 Utah Jazz 19 36 34.5% 9.0 27 West 14 Yes Yes vs BOS
7 Sacramento Kings 20 36 35.7% 9.5 26 West 13 Yes Yes @ DEN W
8 New York Knicks 21 35 37.5% 10.5 26 East 11 Yes DEN ** vs DAL
9 Cleveland Cavaliers 22 36 37.9% 10.5 24 East 10 Yes Yes vs WAS L
10 Detroit Pistons 23 33 41.1% 12.5 26 East 9 Yes Yes
11 New Orleans Pelicans 25 29 46.3% 15.5 28 West 12 Yes Yes vs LAC
12 Denver Nuggets 23 33 41.1% 12.5 26 West 11 Yes Yes vs SAC L
13 Atlanta Hawks 26 29 47.3% 16.0 27 East 8 Yes
14 Charlotte Bobcats 27 30 47.4% 16.0 25 East 7 Yes
15 Brooklyn Nets 26 28 48.1% 16.5 28 East 6 ATL * @ LAL W
16 Minnesota Timberwolves 27 29 48.2% 16.5 26 West 10 Yes Yes @ POR L
17 Memphis Grizzlies 31 24 56.4% 21.0 27 West 9 Yes Yes
18 Dallas Mavericks 34 23 59.6% 23.0 25 West 8 Yes @ NYK
19 Phoenix Suns 33 22 60.0% 23.0 27 West 7 Yes vs HOU L
20 Golden State Warriors 34 22 60.7% 23.5 26 West 6 UTA *** @ DET
* - ATL has right to swap picks with BKN
** - DEN owns NYK pick
*** -- UTA owns GSW pick

The Good:

  • Sacramento beat Denver, jumping from worst in the West to third worst in one night.

The Bad:

  • Brooklyn beat Los Angeles, which is bad because we want the Lakers to win, win, win!
  • Phoenix lost to Houston, which is bad because we want Phoenix to stay ahead of Golden State in the playoff order.

The Meh:

  • Orlando lost to Toronto, we're not catching them so it doesn't matter.
  • Cleveland lost to Washington, they are behind us in the race for ping pong balls, but if they keep losing they'll get too close for comfort to us. (Right now only 1.5 game margin)
  • Minnesota lost to Portland, but they are in no-man's land, so it doesn't matter.

Tonight's action:

  • Huge game between Milwaukee and Philly, in Milwaukee. If you have to cover one of those two teams I worry for your happiness tonight.
  • Utah hosts Boston tonight too, so that's four of the worst six playing each other on one night. I expect our guys to win, because in Utah you don't negotiate with terrorists, you let them decide rotations and Xs and Os.
  • Dallas visits New York City tonight, and that should be a solid win for Dirks team against a floundering 'Bocker franchise.
  • New Orleans is in Los Angeles against Ba-lake and crew, and it's easy to predict how that will go.
  • And lastly, Golden State is in Detroit. Hope for the best there would be a Detroit win.