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NBA Playoffs and/or Lottery seeding roundup -- While you were sleeping March 26th, 2014

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

By AllThatAmar
Brad Mills-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:

Wyws_-_favors_good

  • MEM @ UTA -- Utah play well, our bigs match up against their All-Star bigs, and have a big lead -- and we still lose down the stretch. UTA is 3.0 games behind Orlando, and Memphis is 1.0 games behind Golden State now.
  • CLE @ DET -- Cleveland beat Detroit, which is good. Why? If Detroit won they would bring Cleveland down to their level, which would perhaps influence them to lose more down the stretch.
  • LAC @ NOP -- New Orleans beat Los Angeles here, which is awesome because they look like they are in it to win games still. Why is that good? It is because we play them twice more this season still.
  • PHX @ WAS -- How the heck is this young team beating playoff teams on the road, during long road trips? Jeff Hornacek is Gandalf, at this stage, I presume. Gandalf the Horny. (So, I guess Elminster then?)

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Wyws_-_favors_bad

  • The "nothing bad happened" streak ends at two nights in a row.
  • TOR @ BOS -- Boston lost, but we expected that. They remain 0.5 games behind Utah.
  • NYK @ SAC -- New York won, which is good I guess because we want them to be winning when they play us on the 5th game of their seven night road trip -- but Sacramento loses here. And they are 2.5 games behind us. Anything can happen though. So more margin the better.

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Wyws_-_favors_meh

  • ATL @ MIN -- Atlanta loses here, thanks for finally showing up Minnesota. Where was this type of play back in January and February? Back when you were of some use to us?
  • DEN @ SAS -- The Spurs are just rolling along right now. Stay out of their way.
  • BKN @ CHA -- Who you care about more depends on if you are supporting Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko, or supporting Al Jefferson. Big Al had another big night, and closed the game between these two teams to 3.0 games. They play each other again soon. But that time it will be in Brooklyn.

Movers and Shakers:

  1. Dallas and Phoenix are tied again for the last playoff spot / the last lotto spot. They are 1.5 games behind the Dubs now.
  2. Brooklyn has the easiest schedule remaining, they play 12 more games, and 10 of them are against the other teams listed on the table below. Three of those 12 against teams in the bottom 5 (MIL, PHI, ORL, UTA, BOS). So a quarter of their games are just absolute wins.
  3. Of the group we are primarily concerned about (ORL, UTA, BOS, LAL, SAC), only Utah, Sacramento, and Orlando have 0 games left against the bottom five. BOS and LAL both have 2 each.
  4. Boston has four of their remaining 11 games against teams in the bottom 10 -- so these are games they can win.
  5. Dallas hosts LAC the night after they lost in New Orleans. This is a must win game for these guys.
  6. Yes, Golden State really has all these nights off when their are nursing injuries. Good timing.

Tankapalooza:

Record Last 10 Games vs Standings Game Result
Team W L % GB W L % Tot B5 B10 B20 Seed Lotto Last Next
1 Milwaukee Bucks 13 58 18% 0.0 1 9 10% 11 0 2 4 East 15 1 vs LAL
2 Philadelphia 76ers 15 56 21% 2.0 0 10 0% 11 2 3 8 East 14 2 @ HOU
3 Orlando Magic *4 20 52 28% 6.5 1 9 10% 10 0 1 6 East 13 3
4 Utah Jazz *2 23 49 32% 9.5 2 8 20% 10 0 2 8 West 14 4 vs MEM L
5 Boston Celtics 23 48 32% 10.0 3 7 30% 11 2 4 6 East 12 5 vs TOR L
6 Los Angeles Lakers 24 46 34% 11.5 3 7 30% 12 2 3 8 West 15 6 @ MIL
7 Sacramento Kings 25 46 35% 12.0 3 7 30% 11 0 1 7 West 13 7 vs NYK L
8 Detroit Pistons 26 45 37% 13.0 2 8 20% 11 3 4 6 East 11 8 vs CLE L
9 Cleveland Cavaliers 29 44 40% 15.0 5 5 50% 9 3 4 8 East 10 9 @ DET W
10 New York Knicks *3 30 42 42% 16.5 8 2 80% 10 1 1 5 East 9 11 @ SAC W
11 New Orleans Pelicans 31 40 44% 18.0 7 3 70% 11 2 3 5 West 12 10 vs LAC W
12 Atlanta Hawks *1 31 39 44% 18.5 5 5 50% 12 3 5 7 East 8 @ MIN L vs POR
13 Denver Nuggets *3,4 32 40 44% 18.5 5 5 50% 10 1 1 6 West 11 12 @ SAS L
14 Charlotte Bobcats 35 37 49% 21.5 6 4 60% 10 5 6 7 East 7 vs BKN W
15 Minnesota Timberwolves 35 35 50% 22.5 5 5 50% 12 2 4 7 West 10 13 vs ATL W
16 Brooklyn Nets *1 37 33 53% 24.5 7 3 70% 12 3 8 10 East 6 @ CHA L
17 Phoenix Suns 43 29 60% 29.5 6 4 60% 10 0 3 6 West 9 14 @ WAS W
18 Dallas Mavericks 43 29 60% 29.5 7 3 70% 10 1 4 7 West 9 14 vs LAC
19 Memphis Grizzlies 43 28 61% 30.0 8 2 80% 11 1 2 8 West 7 @ UTA W
20 Golden State Warriors *2 44 27 62% 31.0 7 3 70% 11 1 4 9 West 6
1* - ATL has right to swap picks with BKN
2* - UTA owns GSW pick
3* - DEN owns NYK pick
4* - DEN owes ORL their lower of their two 1st rnd picks


Tonight's Action:

Nothing much to watch tonight....

  • LAL @ MIL -- If there's a game tonight, this is it.
  • PHI @ HOU -- this isn't going to be fun.
  • POR @ ATL -- Paul Millsap against his former team
  • LAC @ DAL -- Go Mavs!

I am sorry these are coming later and later in the day. I only wish my real life job was writing basketball articles for you lovely guys and gals.

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