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Yet another crazy night in the run up to the NBA Playoffs and NBA Draft lottery. To be fair, there were some "actually important" shifts in the NBA last night, including new standings in both the West, and a shake up in the order for ping pong balls. BEHOLD!
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What happened last night?
| Winner | Loser | Commentary | ||||||||||
| 1 | HOU | West | 3 | 99 | - | WAS | East | 5 | 91 | Houston lifts off for 50th win of the season | ||
| 2 | BKN | East | 9 | 107 | - | LAL | West | 14 | 99 | Nets in #PlayoffPush mode | ||
| 3 | NOP | West | 9 | 110 | - | MIN | West | 15 | 88 | Anthony Davis is pretty good, huh? | ||
| 4 | CLE | East | 2 | 87 | - | PHI | East | 14 | 86 | Eastern Conference basketball is "exciting" | ||
| 5 | MIA | East | 7 | 109 | - | DET | East | 12 | 102 | Dwyane Wade drops 40 on Detroit | ||
| 6 | LAC | West | 5 | 119 | - | BOS | East | 8 | 106 | J.J. Redick drops 27. | ||
| 7 | SAS | West | 6 | 103 | - | MEM | West | 2 | 89 | San Antonio is coming . . . | ||
| 8 | IND | East | 10 | 104 | - | DAL | West | 7 | 99 | C.J. Miles scores 28, leads team to victory. In 2015. | ||
| 9 | OKC | West | 8 | 109 | - | PHX | West | 10 | 97 | Oklahoma City bounce back and drop Phoenix | ||
The Indy game appears to be the only surprise, as they dropped Dallas, a team that has a Championship ring with part of this core. Teams losing to San Antonio, regardless of the Spurs record, is not. Also, unpopular opinion, happy that OKC beat Phoenix. Not happy for OKC, but happy Phoenix lost.
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NBA Draft Lottery standings:
Big changes? Brooklyn and Indiana both drop two spots, Boston and Charlotte gain one, and Utah gains two. The +/-2% change every night is totally in effect. All the other spots did not move at all.
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Western Conference standings:
| Team | W | L | % | GB | GL | Streak | Last Night | Tonight | |||||||||||
| 1 | Warriors | z | 60 | - | 13 | 82.19% | 0.0 | 9 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Rockets | x | 50 | - | 23 | 68.49% | 10.0 | 9 | -2 | @ | WAS | W | @ | TOR | |||||
| 3 | Grizzlies | x | 50 | 24 | 67.57% | 10.5 | 8 | 3 | @ | SAS | L | vs | SAC | ||||||
| 4 | Trail Blazers | 47 | - | 25 | 65.28% | 12.5 | 10 | 3 | vs | PHX | |||||||||
| 5 | Clippers | x | 49 | - | 25 | 66.22% | 11.5 | 8 | 6 | @ | BOS | W | |||||||
| 6 | Spurs | 47 | - | 26 | 64.38% | 13.0 | 9 | 2 | vs | MEM | W | ||||||||
| 7 | Mavericks | 45 | - | 29 | 60.81% | 15.5 | 8 | -1 | @ | IND | L | ||||||||
| 8 | Thunder | 42 | - | 32 | 56.76% | 18.5 | 8 | -2 | @ | PHX | W | ||||||||
| 9 | Pelicans | 39 | - | 34 | 53.42% | 21.0 | 9 | 1 | vs | MIN | W | ||||||||
| 10 | Suns | 38 | - | 36 | 51.35% | 22.5 | 8 | -2 | vs | OKC | L | @ | POR | ||||||
| 11 | Jazz | 32 | - | 41 | 43.84% | 28.0 | 9 | 1 | @ | MIN | |||||||||
| 12 | Nuggets | 28 | - | 46 | 37.84% | 32.5 | 8 | -1 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Kings | 26 | - | 46 | 36.11% | 33.5 | 10 | -1 | @ | MEM | |||||||||
| 14 | Lakers | 19 | - | 53 | 26.39% | 40.5 | 10 | -1 | @ | BKN | L | @ | PHI | ||||||
| 15 | Timberwolves | 16 | - | 57 | 21.92% | 44.0 | 9 | -2 | @ | NOP | L | vs | UTA | ||||||
| z - Clinched Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| y - Clinched Division | |||||||||||||||||||
| x - Clinched Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||
No one can catch Golden State, but seeds #2 through #7 are up for grabs, still only separated by 5.5 games, with about 8.8 on average to play still. Houston has claimed #2 for at least one night, and Memphis goes down to #3. And they did so by losing to the team they would face in a #3 / #6 match-up, the San Antonio Spurs. Life is brutal out West. Despite pooping the bed for a while there (4 losses in 5) the Jazz are still within striking distance of the Suns. It COULD HAPPEN!
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Tonight's games:
| Road | Home | Commentary | ||||||
| 1 | BOS | East | 9 | @ | CHA | East | 11 | Two teams struggling for a playoff spot out East |
| 2 | LAL | West | 14 | @ | PHI | East | 14 | Two teams struggling for ping pong balls |
| 3 | HOU | West | 2 | @ | TOR | East | 4 | On paper this should be a good game |
| 4 | MIL | East | 6 | @ | ATL | East | 1 | Milwaukee needs this game more than Atlanta does |
| 5 | SAC | West | 13 | @ | MEM | West | 3 | Memphis needs to fend off threats, secure #2 seed |
| 6 | UTA | West | 11 | @ | MIN | West | 15 | Bad things usually happen for House Stark |
| 7 | PHX | West | 10 | @ | POR | West | 4 | Can Portland lock up the North West? |
Every night is a war for ping pong balls in the East, out West you have a number of interesting games -- specifically Phoenix and Portland. One team wants home court, the other wants to make the playoffs. They both should be fighting to the death at this point.
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It would be really nice for me if Utah wins and Phoenix loses. Because that's our "playoffs" this year, to be #10 in the Western Conference after a number of people thought we'd be #15.