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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 | 11 | 45 | 19.6% | 0.0 | 26 | East | 15 | Yes | Yes | |||||||
2 | Philadelphia 76ers | 15 | 42 | 26.3% | 3.5 | 25 | East | 14 | Yes | Yes | vs ORL | ||||||
3 | Orlando Magic | 17 | 42 | 28.8% | 4.5 | 23 | East | 13 | Yes | Yes | @ WAS | L | @ PHI | ||||
4 | Boston Celtics | 19 | 39 | 32.8% | 7.0 | 24 | East | 12 | Yes | Yes | vs ATL | ||||||
5 | Los Angeles Lakers | 19 | 38 | 33.3% | 7.5 | 25 | West | 15 | Yes | Yes | @ IND | L | @ MEM | ||||
6 | Sacramento Kings | 20 | 37 | 35.1% | 8.5 | 25 | West | 14 | Yes | Yes | vs HOU | L | |||||
7 | Utah Jazz | 20 | 36 | 35.7% | 9.0 | 26 | West | 13 | Yes | Yes | vs PHX | ||||||
8 | New York Knicks | 21 | 36 | 36.8% | 9.5 | 25 | East | 11 | Yes | DEN ** | |||||||
9 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 22 | 36 | 37.9% | 10.0 | 24 | East | 10 | Yes | Yes | vs TOR | L | @ OKC | ||||
10 | Detroit Pistons | 23 | 34 | 40.4% | 11.5 | 25 | East | 9 | Yes | Yes | @ SAS | ||||||
11 | New Orleans Pelicans | 23 | 33 | 41.1% | 12.0 | 26 | West | 12 | Yes | Yes | @ DAL | ||||||
12 | Denver Nuggets | 25 | 31 | 44.6% | 14.0 | 26 | West | 11 | Yes | Yes | vs POR | L | |||||
13 | Atlanta Hawks | 26 | 30 | 46.4% | 15.0 | 26 | East | 8 | Yes | vs CHI | L | @ BOS | |||||
14 | Charlotte Bobcats | 27 | 30 | 47.4% | 15.5 | 25 | East | 7 | Yes | ||||||||
15 | Brooklyn Nets | 26 | 28 | 48.1% | 16.0 | 28 | East | 6 | ATL * | @ POR | |||||||
16 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 28 | 29 | 49.1% | 16.5 | 25 | West | 10 | Yes | Yes | @ PHX | W | |||||
17 | Memphis Grizzlies | 31 | 24 | 56.4% | 20.5 | 27 | West | 9 | Yes | Yes | vs LAL | ||||||
18 | Phoenix Suns | 33 | 23 | 58.9% | 22.0 | 26 | West | 8 | Yes | vs MIN | L | @ UTA | |||||
19 | Dallas Mavericks | 35 | 23 | 60.3% | 23.0 | 24 | West | 7 | Yes | vs NOP | |||||||
20 | Golden State Warriors | 35 | 22 | 61.4% | 23.5 | 25 | West | 6 | UTA *** | @ CHI | |||||||
* - ATL has right to swap picks with BKN | |||||||||||||||||
** - DEN owns NYK pick | |||||||||||||||||
*** -- UTA owns GSW pick |
The Good:
- Nothing good happened last night
The Bad:
- The Magic (ahead of the Jazz) lost the Wizards
- The Lakers (ahead of the Jazz) lost to the Pacers, despite being nearly tied at halftime
- The Kings (ahead of the Jazz) lost to the Rockets, Houston needed a 40+ night from James Harden
- The Cavaliers (behind the Jazz) lost to the Raptors, and are now 1.0 games from us
- The Nuggets (behind the Jazz) lost to the Trail Blazers, and are now within 5.0 games
- The Suns (trying to be ahead of the Warriors) lost to the Timberwolves, are now 1.5 games from the Dubs
The "Meh":
- The Hawks lost to the Bulls, ATL is now the 8th seed in the East after being up there for a while
- The Timberwolves winning is nice because we want to put as much pressure on the Dubs as possible, but they beat a team that used to be ahead of the Dubs. Bad form.
Tonight's Action:
- The Sixers host the Magic in a battle of tankers
- The Celtics host the Hawks
- The Lakers are at the Grizzlies
- The Jazz host the Suns -- we'd screw ourselves TWICE by winning tonight if we care about our lotto pick, and hope for a GSW lotto pick too
- The Cavs play at the Thunder, so if we win and they lose they'll be tied with us
- The Pistons play at the Spurs, so they are likely to lose too, and if we win then they'll be 2.0 off of us
- The Pelicans play at the Mavericks, yeesh, and they are knocking on our door too
- The Nets play against Portland in their gym, expect an interesting game that doesn't affect us.
- The Warriors play against the Bulls in Chicago, and Chicago played last night.
It appears as though the teams around us are going to continue losing more games while our coach, his own mortality facing him, tries to scrape as many wins as possible. "Well, you are angry when they lose, and angry when they win!" Not really. The team is "winning" by starting two guys on contract years who are likely to leave the team in Richard Jefferson and Marvin Williams. This is happening while guys in their rookie season like Ian Clark and Rudy Gobert get DNP-CDs. The problem is that we don't have a unified direction -- the teams that are behind us but end up surpassing us do.