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Another night, another slew of games. For those worrying about the NBA Playoffs, nothing was decided last night. For those of us following the NBA Draft, well, some teams have seemed to just plain give up by now. Read on to find out who!
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What Happened Last Night?
- Denver (12) beat Golden State (1), 114-103
- Dallas (6) beat the LA Clippers (5), 129-99
- Oklahoma City (9) beat Minnesota (15), 113-99
- Atlanta (E) beat Phoenix (10), 96-87
- Sacramento (13) lost to Philly, 114-107
Dallas moves up over San Antonio with that win, and everything else pretty much remains the same.
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Western Conference Standings:
| Team | W | L | % | GB | GL | Last Night | Tonight | |||||||||
| 1 | Warriors | 51 | - | 13 | 79.69% | 0.0 | 18 | @ | DEN | L | vs | NYK | ||||
| 2 | Grizzlies | 45 | - | 20 | 69.23% | 6.5 | 17 | vs | MIL | |||||||
| 3 | Trail Blazers | 43 | 20 | 68.25% | 7.5 | 19 | vs | DET | W | |||||||
| 4 | Rockets | 43 | - | 22 | 66.15% | 8.5 | 17 | |||||||||
| 5 | Clippers | 42 | - | 24 | 63.64% | 10.0 | 16 | @ | DAL | L | ||||||
| 6 | Mavericks | 42 | - | 25 | 62.69% | - | 10.5 | 15 | vs | LAC | W | |||||
| 7 | Spurs | 40 | - | 24 | 62.50% | 11.0 | 18 | |||||||||
| 8 | Pelicans | 36 | - | 29 | 55.38% | 15.5 | 17 | |||||||||
| 9 | Thunder | 36 | - | 29 | 55.38% | 15.5 | 17 | vs | MIN | W | ||||||
| 10 | Suns | 34 | - | 33 | 50.75% | 18.5 | 15 | vs | ATL | L | ||||||
| 11 | Jazz | 28 | - | 36 | 43.75% | 23.0 | 18 | vs | DET | |||||||
| 12 | Nuggets | 25 | - | 41 | 37.88% | 27.0 | 16 | vs | GSW | W | ||||||
| 13 | Kings | 22 | - | 42 | 34.38% | 29.0 | 18 | @ | PHI | L | @ | WIZ | ||||
| 14 | Lakers | 17 | - | 47 | 26.56% | 34.0 | 18 | |||||||||
| 15 | Timberwolves | 14 | - | 50 | 21.88% | 37.0 | 18 | @ | OKC | L | ||||||
The good news is that I no longer expect to be able to predict what does and does not happen in life. The Warriors lost to the Nuggets. Okay. That's fine. I will just re-build all of my schemas. Anyway, no one is catching Golden State. The fight for homecourt in the first round is heating up; there is only 4.5 games that separate the #2 seed in the West from the #7 seed. Crazy. Like always.
The big race seems to be OKC and NOP. Beyond that it's straight up lottosville.
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The Race to the Bottom:
Don't look now, but Denver, Utah, Boston, Indiana, and New Orleans are all going streaking! We also see that there are a bunch of teams that just don't care anymore, or have at least stopped pretending to care anymore. Minnesota, Orlando, and Brooklyn seem to be those teams. Minny is now 1.0 game back from having the most lotto balls. Crazy. It must kill Kevin Garnett. Anyway, the Jazz and Celtics continue to flip flop. I think that's going to be how it goes all season long. Which is only 18 more games. Yikes.
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What Games are happening tonight?
- Celtics @ Pacers -- Can Larry Bird out shoot Chuck Person?
- Kings @ Wizards -- DeMarcus Cousins vs. Marcin Gortat? Hilarious.
- Nets @ 76ers -- Deron Williams should be the best PG tonight
- Bucks @ Grizzlies -- Possible NBA Finals match-up in TV Exec's hell
- Pistons @ Jazz -- Detroit is tired and haggard, should not have much left in the tank
- Knicks @ Warriors -- Dubs lost last night, will be motivated. Expect threes.
Aside from the Jazz game there really aren't any games worth getting excited about.
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I'd just like to point out that if the Jazz win tonight they'll be 4.0 games from catching the Phoenix Suns. Because that means so much . . . to me, and only me.