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After doing this every night for a while now I've figured out that people following the NBA Playoffs or NBA Draft lottery have a lot of waiting to do still -- including myself. Anyway, let's review the changes from last night to today.
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What happened last night?
| Winner | Loser | Commentary | |||||||||||||
| 1 | DET | East | 12 | 107 | - | CHI | East | 4 | 91 | Yeah, I know nothing about basketball | |||||
| 2 | BKN | East | 11 | 123 | - | IND | East | 9 | 111 | Brook Lopez been on fire of late | |||||
| 3 | PHX | West | 10 | 117 | - | HOU | West | 3 | 102 | I did not see this coming, either. | |||||
| 4 | MEM | West | 2 | 97 | - | POR | West | 4 | 86 | Blazers drop four in a row. | |||||
| 5 | GSW | West | 1 | 106 | - | UTA | West | 11 | 91 | Derrick Favors can't do it all by himself | |||||
So the Suns won and the Jazz lost. That sucks for me. But for the most part, aside from Detroit and Phoenix, there were no "real" upsets last night. Pretty normal night.
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Western Conference Standings:
| Team | W | L | % | GB | GL | Last Night | Tonight | |||||||||
| 1 | Warriors - x | 56 | - | 13 | 81.16% | 0.0 | 13 | vs | UTA | W | ||||||
| 2 | Grizzlies | 49 | - | 21 | 70.00% | 7.5 | 12 | vs | POR | W | ||||||
| 3 | Rockets | 46 | 23 | 66.67% | 10.0 | 13 | vs | PHX | L | |||||||
| 4 | Trail Blazers | 44 | - | 24 | 64.71% | 11.5 | 14 | @ | MEM | L | ||||||
| 5 | Clippers | 45 | - | 25 | 64.29% | 11.5 | 12 | vs | NOP | |||||||
| 6 | Spurs | 43 | - | 25 | 63.24% | 12.5 | 14 | @ | ATL | |||||||
| 7 | Mavericks | 44 | - | 26 | 62.86% | 12.5 | 12 | @ | PHX | |||||||
| 8 | Thunder | 39 | - | 30 | 56.52% | 17.0 | 13 | vs | MIA | |||||||
| 9 | Pelicans | 37 | - | 32 | 53.62% | 19.0 | 13 | @ | LAC | |||||||
| 10 | Suns | 37 | - | 33 | 52.86% | 19.5 | 12 | @ | HOU | W | vs | DAL | ||||
| 11 | Jazz | 31 | - | 38 | 44.93% | 25.0 | 13 | @ | GSW | L | ||||||
| 12 | Nuggets | 26 | - | 44 | 37.14% | 30.5 | 12 | @ | ORL | |||||||
| 13 | Kings | 23 | - | 45 | 33.82% | 32.5 | 14 | vs | WIZ | |||||||
| 14 | Lakers | 17 | - | 50 | 25.37% | 38.0 | 15 | vs | PHI | |||||||
| 15 | Timberwolves | 15 | - | 53 | 22.06% | 40.5 | 14 | vs | CHA | |||||||
| x - Clinched Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||
Even though two of the top four lost, there were absolutely ZERO changes in the standings out West. The margin between the #2 seed and the #7 seed is now 5.0 games. And the difference between Utah and Phoenix is now 5.5 games. I don't think we'll catch the setting Suns this season, folks.
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NBA Draft Lottery standings:
Annnnnd the only change in the standings here was Chicago jumping back down to #20, while Toronto goes up one, and is no longer on this chart (for at least one night). This is a surprisingly robust daily exercise for me that tracks no actual changes. It's voluntary busy work. In the case that actual changes were happening nightly I'd be all over it. At least I know I have the system in place to track all of that. (Karma dictates that tonight a billion things will happen, or nothing, once again.)
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Tonight's games:
| Road | Home | Commentary | |||||||||
| 1 | CLE | East | 2 | @ | MIL | East | 6 | Length and youth vs. a potential NBA Finals team | |||
| 2 | MIA | East | 7 | @ | OKC | West | 8 | Wasn't this an NBA Finals match-up a few years ago? | |||
| 3 | SAS | West | 6 | @ | ATL | East | 1 | Slow and steady against slow and steady | |||
| 4 | NOP | West | 9 | @ | LAC | West | 5 | Brow Back? | |||
| 5 | NYK | East | 15 | @ | TOR | East | 3 | The Big Apple visits the Big Maple | |||
| 6 | DET | East | 12 | @ | BOS | East | 8 | Anyone remember when Isiah Thomas talked about Larry Bird? | |||
| 7 | WIZ | East | 5 | @ | SAC | West | 13 | Wizards and Kings, roll for initiative | |||
| 8 | DEN | West | 12 | @ | ORL | East | 13 | Elfrid Payton to go for another triple double? | |||
| 9 | CHA | East | 10 | @ | MIN | West | 15 | Loser gets Big Al Jefferson | |||
| 10 | DAL | West | 7 | @ | PHX | West | 10 | Two former Steve Nash led teams face off | |||
| 11 | PHI | East | 14 | @ | LAL | West | 14 | Not even Dr. J and Magic could get me to watch this. | |||
Tonight 22 teams are playing. But I think I'm not even going to watch any of these games. Too much basketball, my eyes need rest.
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The good news is that if these standings hold for the East and the West we will have some very good 1st round match-ups. The bad news is that the draft lotto does not look like it will go in favor of the Jazz.