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NBA Standings and Draft Lottery review for the Utah Jazz: March 4th, 2015

Catching up with the standings for both the West Playoffs and the NBA Lotto

By AllThatAmar
Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

What a crazy night, huh? The Utah Jazz beat the Memphis Grizzlies and a whole bunch of other stuff happened. Anyway, let's look at the West . . .

Western Conference Standings:

Team W L % GB Last Night Tonight
1 Warriors 46 - 12 79.31% 0.0 vs MIL
2 Grizzlies 42 - 17 71.19% 4.5 vs UTA L @ HOU
3 Rockets 41 - 19 68.33% 6.0 @ ATL L vs MEM
4 Trail Blazers 39 - 19 67.24% 7.0 @ LAC
5 Clippers 40 - 21 65.57% 7.5 vs POR
6 Mavericks 40 - 22 64.52% 8.0
7 Spurs 36 - 23 61.02% 10.5 @ SAC
8 Thunder 33 - 27 55.00% 14.0 vs PHI
9 Pelicans 32 - 28 53.33% 15.0 vs DET
10 Suns 31 - 30 50.82% 16.5 @ ORL
11 Jazz 24 - 35 40.68% 22.5 @ MEM W @ BOS
12 Kings 21 - 37 36.21% 25.0 @ NYK W vs SAS
13 Nuggets 21 - 39 35.00% 26.0 vs MIL W @ MIN
14 Lakers 16 - 43 27.12% 30.5 @ CHA L @ MIA
15 Timberwolves 13 - 46 22.03% 33.5 vs DEN

What happened last night?

  • The Grizzlies lost to the Jazz, 93-82
  • The Rockets lost to the Hawks, 104-96
  • The Kings beat up on the Knicks 124-86
  • The Nuggets beat the Bucks, 106-95
  • The Lakers lost by only 1 to the Hornets, 104-103

Of course, last night wasn't THAT crazy. Tonight should be as 14 of 15 West teams are playing, and you get some good match-ups like:

  • MEM (2) @ HOU (3);
  • POR (4) @ LAC (5);
  • SAC (12) @ SAS (7);
  • and  DEN (13) @ MIN (15)

Well, maybe the last two aren't that hot. But it will be a big night for the West for sure.

Lottery Standings:

Team W L % GB Conf Streak Last 10 Top 3
1 Knicks 12 - 47 20.34% 0.0 East 15 L 1 2 - 8 64.3%
2 76ers 13 - 47 21.67% 0.5 East 14 L 2 2 - 8 55.8%
3 Timberwolves 13 - 46 22.03% 1.0 West 15 L 3 4 - 6 46.9%
4 Lakers 16 - 43 27.12% 4.0 West 14 L 2 3 - 7 37.8%
5 Magic 19 - 42 31.15% 6.0 East 13 L 3 4 - 6 29.2%
6 Nuggets 21 - 39 35.00% 8.5 West 13 W 1 2 - 8 21.5%
7 Kings 21 - 37 36.21% 9.5 West 12 W 1 4 - 6 15.0%
8 Pistons 23 - 36 38.98% 11.0 East 12 L 3 4 - 6 10.0%
9 Celtics 23 - 35 39.66% 11.5 East 11 L 2 5 - 5 6.1%
10 Jazz 24 - 35 40.68% 12.0 West 11 W 3 7 - 3 4.0%
11 Pacers 25 - 34 42.37% 13.0 East 10 W 2 8 - 2 2.9%
12 Hornets 25 - 33 43.10% 13.5 East 9 W 2 4 - 6 2.5%
13 Nets 25 - 33 43.10% 13.5 East 8 W 2 5 - 5 --
14 Heat 26 - 33 44.07% 14.0 East 7 W 1 5 - 5 --
15 Suns 31 - 30 50.82% 18.0 West 10 L 2 3 - 7 2.2%
16 Pelicans 32 - 28 53.33% 19.5 West 9 L 1 5 - 5 1.8%
17 Bucks 32 - 28 53.33% 19.5 East 6 L 3 5 - 5 --
18 Thunder 33 - 27 55.00% 20.5 West 8 L 1 8 - 2 --
19 Wizards 34 - 27 55.74% 21.0 East 5 L 1 3 - 7 --
20 Spurs 36 - 23 61.02% 24.0 West 7 W 2 5 - 5 --

What are we looking at?

  • The Top 5 seems to be locked in, unless the Nuggets decide to start losing a lot of games. That doesn't seem likely as they just win their first game without Brian Shaw. You never know though, before last night they had lost 19 of their last 22 games. The Kings are hard to figure out, but I suspect they will throttle down in about two weeks and stop winning games. Utah continues to win, so I don't think our guys will make it into the Top 5 this season. And frankly, we should be happy about that.
  • The East is still much worse than the west, but the Cavaliers finally won enough to move out of the Bottom 20 in the NBA. The Spurs are now here, which is funny for a different reason.
  • I have a sneaking suspicion that the Pacers will be picking either #2 or #3 this year -- you know, because the NBA works like that
  • If you are looking to "game" the situation you have to look at the intervals between the Top 3 % chances. One spot can make as much as 9.1% difference in your chances. For the Jazz, sitting at #10, they'd only be losing 1.1% if they end up at #11. But if they were to jump up to #9 they'd be gaining 2.1% more of a chance. IF the #9 team went up to #8, it would be gaining a 3.9% chance. If the #8 team went up to #7 they'd be getting a +5.0% chance. The difference between the #10 and the #8 post is 6%, which itself is 1.5 times greater a chance than the Jazz even have right now. Maths. Am I right, blokes?
  • At the end of the day I think the Jazz are going to be a lotto team, but our record will prevent gaming this situation at all. This team is on a roll and going to get wins as much as possible right now. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Jazz close some of the distance between PHX and NOP by seasons' end.

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