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There were 12 games on the NBA schedule last night. Surely tonight we'd see some changes in either the NBA Playoff standings, or the NBA Draft Lottery order, right? Right? Well . . .
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What happened last night?
| Winner | Loser | Commentary | ||||||||||
| 1 | CHA | East | 11 | 102 | - | DET | East | 12 | 78 | Anthony Tolliver revenge game didn't happen | ||
| 2 | SAS | West | 6 | 103 | - | ORL | East | 13 | 91 | Victor Oladipo still gets stats on a bad team | ||
| 3 | WAS | East | 5 | 106 | - | PHI | East | 14 | 93 | Big game for Marcin Gortat, 23 / 14 | ||
| 4 | BOS | East | 9 | 100 | - | IND | East | 10 | 87 | Shorthanded Pacers can't keep up | ||
| 5 | BKN | East | 8 | 100 | - | NYK | East | 15 | 98 | Everyone leaves happy! | ||
| 6 | TOR | East | 4 | 113 | - | MIN | West | 15 | 99 | Andrew Wiggins vs DeMar DeRozan was fun to watch | ||
| 7 | MIL | East | 6 | 95 | - | CHI | East | 3 | 91 | Upset of the night? | ||
| 8 | DAL | West | 7 | 135 | - | OKC | West | 8 | 131 | Enes Kanter with career night, 30/16, and -7 in +/- | ||
| 9 | HOU | West | 3 | 115 | - | SAC | West | 13 | 111 | DeMarcus Cousins busts out for 24 / 21 / 10 / 6 / 3 | ||
| 10 | UTA | West | 11 | 98 | - | DEN | West | 12 | 84 | Career nights for Rudy Gobert and Dante Exum | ||
| 11 | LAC | West | 5 | 126 | - | POR | West | 4 |
122 | Chris Paul flops his way to 41 points, 17 assists | ||
| 12 | NOP | West | 9 | 113 | - | LAL | West | 14 | 92 | Jordan Clarkson with 18, 10, 7 in loss | ||
For the most part every higher seeded team won last night, the only exceptions were LAC over POR (5 over 4), and MIL over CHI (6 over 3). In both cases they are playoff teams beating other playoff teams in the same conference. So no big deal.
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NBA Draft Lottery standings:
So you see here that EVERY TEAM at the 9 seed or higher lost. And then every team better than that won, save for OKC and CHI. The only change was that Charlotte and Indiana flipped. Big whoop.
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Western Conference standings:
| Team | W | L | % | GB | GL | Streak | Last Night | Tonight | |||||||||||
| 1 | Warriors | z | 61 | - | 13 | 82.43% | 0.0 | 8 | 10 | vs | PHX | ||||||||
| 2 | Grizzlies | x | 51 | - | 24 | 68.00% | 10.5 | 7 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Rockets | x | 51 | 24 | 68.00% | 10.5 | 7 | 1 | vs | SAC | W | @ | DAL | ||||||
| 4 | Trail Blazers | x | 48 | - | 26 | 64.86% | 13.0 | 8 | -1 | vs | LAC | L | |||||||
| 5 | Clippers | x | 50 | - | 26 | 65.79% | 12.0 | 6 | 1 | @ | POR | W | |||||||
| 6 | Spurs | x | 49 | - | 26 | 65.33% | 12.5 | 7 | 5 | @ | ORL | W | |||||||
| 7 | Mavericks | 46 | - | 29 | 61.33% | 15.5 | 7 | 1 | @ | OKC | W | vs | HOU | ||||||
| 8 | Thunder | 42 | - | 33 | 56.00% | 19.5 | 7 | -1 | vs | DAL | L | ||||||||
| 9 | Pelicans | 40 | - | 34 | 54.05% | 21.0 | 8 | 3 | @ | LAL | W | ||||||||
| 10 | Suns | 38 | - | 37 | 50.67% | 23.5 | 7 | -4 | @ | GSW | |||||||||
| 11 | Jazz | 34 | - | 41 | 45.33% | 27.5 | 7 | 3 | vs | DEN | W | ||||||||
| 12 | Nuggets | 28 | - | 47 | 37.33% | 33.5 | 7 | -2 | @ | UTA | L | ||||||||
| 13 | Kings | 26 | - | 48 | 35.14% | 35.0 | 8 | -3 | @ | HOU | L | ||||||||
| 14 | Lakers | 20 | - | 54 | 27.03% | 41.0 | 8 | -1 | vs | NOP | L | ||||||||
| 15 | Timberwolves | 16 | - | 59 | 21.33% | 45.5 | 7 | -5 | vs | TOR | L | ||||||||
| z - Clinched Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| y - Clinched Division | |||||||||||||||||||
| x - Clinched Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||
Anything interesting happen out West? Well, the Clipps beat the Blazers, and LAC has a higher standing -- but Portland will win the division, and thus have a higher seed. As Jazz fans we should be used to this quirk by now. The Spurs also clinched a playoff spot. With 7.3 games on average remaining the difference between the #2 and #7 seed is only 5.0 games. Teams can make moves if they go for it. As for the Jazz, we're now only 4.0 games behind the Suns. All those poopy losses at home may end up being the difference.
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Tonight's games:
| Road | Home | Commentary | ||||||
| 1 | MIA | East | 7 | @ | CLE | East | 2 | LeBron James against his old club |
| 2 | HOU | West | 3 | @ | DAL | West | 7 | The Battle for non Spurs parts of Texas |
| 3 | PHX | West | 10 | @ | GSW | West | 1 | Let's go Warriors! |
For us Jazz fans it's really about seeing the teams directly ahead of us fail . . . or at least that's the case with me. Go Dubs. (I feel so dirty saying that)
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Good job spreading the games out, 12 last night, 3 tonight . . . sheesh . . .