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There were only two games last night, and one of them was the NCAA Championship. So I guess equal parts useful for NBA Draft lotto watchers and NBA Playoffs enthusiasts.
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What happened last night?
| Winner | Loser | Commentary | ||||||||||
| 1 | BKN | East | 7 | 106 | - | POR | West | 4 | 96 | Deron Williams 24 / 10 / 6? WHATYEARISIT.GIF | ||
| 2 | DUKE | 1 | 68 | - | WISC. | 1 | 63 | So I guess this means Frank Kaminsky will be a Jazzman? | ||||
Two playoff teams enter, and somehow the lower seed from the East wins. Crazy.
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NBA Draft Lottery standings:
The Nets won last night and that was the only game, and they just put some distance between them and any prospective Eastern conference 8th seed hopefuls.
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Western Conference standings:
| Team | W | L | % | GB | GL | Streak | Last Night | Tonight | |||||||||||
| 1 | Warriors | z | 63 | - | 14 | 81.82% | 0.0 | 5 | -1 | @ | NOP | ||||||||
| 2 | Rockets | x | 53 | - | 24 | 68.83% | 10.0 | 5 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Grizzlies | x | 52 | - | 25 | 67.53% | 11.0 | 5 | -1 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Trail Blazers | y | 50 | - | 27 | 64.94% | 13.0 | 5 | 2 | @ | BKN | L | |||||||
| 5 | Clippers | x | 52 | - | 26 | 66.67% | 11.5 | 4 | 3 | vs | LAL | ||||||||
| 6 | Spurs | x | 51 | - | 26 | 66.23% | 12.0 | 5 | 7 | @ | OKC | ||||||||
| 7 | Mavericks | 46 | - | 31 | 59.74% | 17.0 | 5 | -2 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Thunder | 42 | - | 35 | 54.55% | 21.0 | 5 | -3 | vs | SAS | |||||||||
| 9 | Pelicans | 41 | - | 35 | 53.95% | 21.5 | 6 | -1 | vs | GSW | |||||||||
| 10 | Suns | 39 | - | 38 | 50.65% | 24.0 | 5 | 1 | @ | ATL | |||||||||
| 11 | Jazz | 35 | - | 42 | 45.45% | 28.0 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Nuggets | 28 | - | 49 | 36.36% | 35.0 | 5 | -4 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Kings | 26 | - | 50 | 34.21% | 36.5 | 6 | -5 | vs | MIN | |||||||||
| 14 | Lakers | 20 | - | 56 | 26.32% | 42.5 | 6 | -3 | @ | LAC | |||||||||
| 15 | Timberwolves | 16 | - | 60 | 21.05% | 46.5 | 6 | -6 | @ | SAC | |||||||||
| z - Clinched Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| y - Clinched Division | |||||||||||||||||||
| x - Clinched Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||
A point of order here, the only think keeping the Blazers up so high is that they won the North West division. By record they would be lower than the Spurs. So hooray for division! Anyway, there are 5.2 games remaining (on average) for each of the 15 teams in the Western conference. What's left to figure out?
- HOU, MEM, LAC, and SAS are separated by 2.0 games total. So that's one huge seeding thing that needs to figure itself out.
- The race for #8 is still a huge deal with only 0.5 games between OKC and NOP.
- You can argue that GSW (#1) and DAL (#7) are both isolated enough that they can't fall or go up at all.
- The lotto posts in the West seem to all be bracketed off as well, PHX can't catch OKC/NOP, UTA can't catch PHX, DEN can't catch UTA, and so on.
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Tonight's games:
| Road | Home | Commentary | ||||||
| 1 | CHA | East | 11 | @ | MIA | East | 10 | This is a must-win for the Miami HEAT |
| 2 | PHX | West | 10 | @ | ATL | East | 1 | A few weeks ago this game would have had meaning for me |
| 3 | SAS | West | 6 | @ | OKC | West | 8 | The Enes Kanter / Tiago Splitter match-up we've all been asking for |
| 4 | GSW | West | 1 | @ | NOP | West | 9 | Good news for Thunder is that Pelicans will prob also lose tonight |
| 5 | MIN | West | 15 | @ | SAC | West | 13 | I've never seen a George Karl team defend as poorly as Sac does |
| 6 | LAL | West | 14 | @ | LAC | West | 5 | LOL part 2 |
If OKC and NOP both lose then nothing changes in the West. Of course, I don't think that OKC wll catch WAS, so really there's no way UTA can win this year -- unless they win the lotto. Things are still happening out East, and the CHA @ MIA game is a big deal for two teams that made the playoffs last season, and are currently looking like they're going to miss it this year.
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Now that the NCAA tournament is over it's gonna get really draft-y in here.