NBA Standings and Draft Lottery review for the Utah Jazz: March 9th, 2015

For whatever reason we continue to track both the NBA Playoffs and the NBA Draft, and how the Utah Jazz stack up in both cases. Utah is very unlikely to make the playoffs, but it's our natural predisposition to see where they are in the West. Old habits die hard. The new habit of tracking ping pong balls is one we want to break away from, going to the lotto year after year. Anyway . . . on to what happened while you were sleeping last night!

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What Happened last night?

There were only seven games last night, and not all of them mattered:

1. GSW (1) beat LAC (5): 106-98
2. DAL (6) beat LAL (14): 100-93
3. SAS (7) beat CHI (E): 116-105
4. OKC (8) beat TOR (E): 108-104
5. UTA (11) beat BKN (E): 95-88

So there were no surprises, and the #6, #7, and #8 teams in the West all won on the same night.

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Western Conference Standings:

I guess this is the time where we actually make a goal -- can the team catch the Phoenix Suns?

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The Race to the Bottom:

Utah is breaking free! They are now in the #11 to #15 range, which just shows you how close all of these teams are to one another, once you get out of the Bottom (in this table, the top) 5. In fact, it's a four team race to the bottom between NYK, PHI, MIN, and LAL; only 3.5 games separate all of those squads.

Toronto, who used to lead the East, is in free fall right now. That's neither here, nor there; but I wanted to point that out.

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What Big Games are happening tonight?

There are eight games on tonight total, and not all of them are important to our goals of a) winning against the West, and b) somehow not forgetting lotto balls.

• Kings @ Hawks -- go Paul Millsap and company! Also, the Kings are trying to get into the Top 5 in the bottom of the NBA, but it's not likely to happen even if they have lost three in a row.
• Celtics @ Heat -- The Cs are 0.5 games ahead of Utah in the lotto race, and the Heat are 2.0 games behind Utah. The Jazz, in the middle, could make up ground on both of them if the Celtics lose, thus tie the Jazz, and Utah gets half a game closer to Miami. It only works when you are tracking two opposite outcomes.
• Pelicans @ Bucks -- I don't know if the Jazz can catch the Pelicans, but this is a match-up of a 33 win team and a 34 win teams. If Boston is at "our level" then the Bucks are at the Pelicans' level.
• Knicks @ Nuggets -- This is their Brooklyn / Utah game
• Warriors @ Suns -- I am going to expect a Warriors win here. And the Jazz are 6.0 games behind the Suns. Can we make up some ground?

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Overall, I think our team is going to continue to surge as the rest of the rabble settle down and accept their fate.