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WE HAVE NEWS! THERE IS A NEW KING IN TOWN! For reals, something happened in the NBA Draft lottery standings, as for the NBA Playoffs -- the West is still a mess. These teams will be fighting until the last night of the season. So let's find out what happened while you were sleeping!
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What happened last night?
| Winner | Loser | Commentary | ||||||||||
| 1 | HOU | West | 6 | 100 | - | CHA | East | 11 | 90 | Remember when some Jazz fans were saying "See! See what the Jazz gave up!" about the Hornets? | ||
| 2 | MIL | East | 6 | 107 | - | PHI | East | 14 | 97 | Michael Carter-Williams throws down 30/5/5/3/1 in revenge game | ||
| 3 | CLE | East | 2 | 109 | - | DET | East | 12 | 97 | J.R. Smith does the dinosaur over Detroit, makes 8 threes, scores 28 | ||
| 4 | MIA | East | 10 | 100 | - | ORL | East | 13 | 93 | Hassan Whiteside with 24/13/5 against Nikola Vucevic | ||
| 5 | CHI | East | 4 | 113 | - | BKN | East | 8 | 86 | Big blow for the Nets, Bulls finally win a game. | ||
| 6 | NYK | East | 15 | 112 | - | ATL | East | 1 | 108 | Langston Galloway doesn't understand how to tank. | ||
| 7 | OKC | West | 9 | 101 | - | POR | West | 4 | 90 | Meyers Leonard scores 24, so you know that means OKC won. | ||
| 8 | NOP | West | 8 | 100 | - | MIN | West | 15 | 88 | Pellies win, as did OKC. So whomever wins next game is in. | ||
| 9 | UTA | West | 11 | 109 | - | DAL | West | 7 | 92 | Bryce Cotton!!! Er, sorry. I mean "BRYCCEEEE COOOOTTTTOOONNNNN!!!!1!!" | ||
| 10 | SAC | West | 13 | 102 | - | LAL | West | 14 | 92 | SadTrombone.wav | ||
| 11 | LAC | West | 3 | 110 | - | DEN | West | 12 | 103 | How the heck were J.J. Redick such a low pick in the draft? | ||
| 12 | GSW | West | 1 | 111 | - | MEM | West | 5 | 107 | Bad news for the Grizz, probably will lose division in last week of the season. | ||
Man, where to begin? Okay, Houston is still in the fight, Charlotte is not. Milwaukee is rounding into playoff form. Cleveland is too deep for non-playoff teams to handle. Brooklyn is in trouble, now 0.5 games out of the playoffs. The Knicks have won two in a row, which isn't what they need to be doing. OKC won a game they really needed to win. Minny has now lost 11 in a row, showing NYK what they need to do. Utah beats Dallas, Sacramento beats LA, LA beats Denver . . . and Memphis has the #2 seed slip through the fingers of their paws.
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NBA Draft Lottery standings:
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The Knicks and Timberwolves flipped. This is the wrong time of the year to do this, New York! There were no changes from seeds #3 all the way down to #10, despite teams randomly winning or losing. One slip up on the East bubble is crazy. Brooklyn went from being a playoff team to being the #11 seed for lotto balls. Indy jumped up to the #8 spot. The Jazz won, and lost a spot, from #11 to #12.
Around the end of this list there were some moves too, Chicago went up two, Toronto and Dallas went up one. But that doesn't mean anything for ping pong balls.
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Western Conference standings:
| Team | W | L | % | GB | GL | Streak | Last Night | Tonight | |||||||||||
| 1 | Warriors | z | 66 | - | 15 | 81.48% | 0.0 | 1 | 3 | vs | MEM | W | |||||||
| 2 | Spurs | x | 55 | - | 26 | 67.90% | 11.0 | 1 | 11 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Clippers | x | 55 | - | 26 | 67.90% | 11.0 | 1 | 6 | vs | DEN | W | @ | PHX | |||||
| 4 | Trail Blazers | y | 51 | - | 30 | 62.96% | 15.0 | 1 | -3 | @ | OKC | L | |||||||
| 5 | Rockets | x | 55 | - | 26 | 67.90% | 11.0 | 1 | 2 | @ | CHA | W | |||||||
| 6 | Grizzlies | x | 54 | - | 27 | 66.67% | 12.0 | 1 | -2 | @ | GSW | L | |||||||
| 7 | Mavericks | x | 49 | - | 32 | 60.49% | 17.0 | 1 | -1 | @ | UTA | L | |||||||
| 8 | Pelicans | 44 | - | 37 | 54.32% | 22.0 | 1 | 1 | @ | MIN | W | ||||||||
| 9 | Thunder | 44 | - | 37 | 54.32% | 22.0 | 1 | 1 | vs | POR | W | ||||||||
| 10 | Suns | 39 | - | 42 | 48.15% | 27.0 | 1 | -4 | vs | LAC | |||||||||
| 11 | Jazz | 38 | - | 43 | 46.91% | 28.0 | 1 | 2 | vs | DAL | W | ||||||||
| 12 | Nuggets | 30 | - | 51 | 37.04% | 36.0 | 1 | -1 | @ | LAC | L | ||||||||
| 13 | Kings | 28 | - | 53 | 34.57% | 38.0 | 1 | 1 | vs | LAL | W | ||||||||
| 14 | Lakers | 21 | - | 60 | 25.93% | 45.0 | 1 | -2 | @ | SAC | L | ||||||||
| 15 | Timberwolves | 16 | - | 65 | 19.75% | 50.0 | 1 | -11 | vs | NOP | L | ||||||||
| z - Clinched Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| y - Clinched Division | |||||||||||||||||||
| x - Clinched Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||
Only one game remains for all the teams in the West. Three times are "tied" by record for the #2 spot, the Spurs, Clippers, and Rockets. The Grizzlies are 1.0 games behind. This is hilarious.
Golden State, Portland, and Dallas all stand alone at the #1, #4 and #7 seeds respectively.
OKC and NOP are in a winner takes all game for the #8 spot. They are tied and each have one game left. The Pellies draw the Spurs, who are in the thick of things, as stated above. The Thunder draw the Wolves, who have lost 11 in a row.
There was no movement anywhere else, but Phoenix is tanking having lost 4 straight. The Jazz, having won 2 straight, have saddled up to them, only 1.0 games separates the two teams. Man, that Rodney Hood foul is biting me in the butt now.
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Tonight's games:
| Road | Home | Commentary | ||||||
| 1 | TOR | East | 4 | @ | BOS | East | 7 | Celtics clinched last night, so good for them. |
| 2 | WAS | East | 5 | @ | IND | East | 8 | Probably a rest game for Wizards |
| 3 | LAC | West | 3 | @ | PHX | West | 10 | Likely that the Suns lose |
Two all-East playoff match-ups, it will be interesting to see which teams want it more. LAC @ PHX is big for me, because you know, I have some crazy desire to catch the Suns.
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GO BASKETBALL!