While you were sleeping March 6th

The NBA Trade Deadline is over. Teams have waived and signed players. We know which teams are tanking, and we know which teams are playing for the post season. It’s March, so our feature “While you were sleeping...” returns! So let’s get to it!

The T-Wolves bumped up a spot, and the Kangs went down another one. Also, San Antone is streaking while LA LA Land is in the super tank.

AllThatAmar

Good News!

• [1] Golden State Warriors beat the Atlanta Hawks, 119-111
• [4] Utah Jazz beat the [13] New Orleans Pelicans, 88-83
• [6] Memphis Grizzlies lost to the Brooklyn Nets, 122-109
• [8] Denver Nuggets beat the [12] Sacramento Kings, 108-96

We want GSW to separate from SAS so that both of them take the last week of the season off, where they play UTA in the last two games. GSW wins here is good, though SAS also won (see below). UTA winning is paramount. MEM dropped their third game in a row and are now 4.0 games behind UTA - which is great because MEM holds the tie breaker. DEN beat SAC which is good because we want DEN to build some separation from POR so POR is in tank mode when they play UTA twice in April. DEN winning is good, though the POR game was postponed.

Meh News!

• [9] Portland Trail Blazer game against the [11] Minnesota Timberwolves was postponed

I don’t know when this game is going to be made up, but it’s not going to be easy on them if they are as tired as our team is. We were hoping for a Wolves win here to assist the Nuggets securing the 8th seed.

Bad News!

• [2] San Antonio Spurs beat the [3] Houston Rockets, 112-110
• [5] Los Angeles Clippers beat the Boston Celtics, 116-102

Getting separation between GSW and SAS is more important for UTA than the pipe-dream of catching HOU. So this is why I list this as Bad news. LAC winning keeps them close enough to UTA to cause problems. These two teams play once another twice this month, and that could be a 2.0 game swing in one or the other direction if either LAC or UTA wins both of them. Having a buffer zone is necessary either way.

Tonight’s Action:

There are only three games in the NBA Tonight. Really.

• [7] Oklahoma City Thunder vs. [9] Portland Trail Blazers
• [10] Dallas Mavericks vs. [15] Los Angeles Lakers
• [14] Phoenix Suns vs. Washington Wizards

The Mavs are charging right now, and the Lakers will lose every game they can, so I expect Dallas to win. The Suns have been hot of late, relatively, and are on a three game win streak. Washington should win, but they shouldn’t overlook them. The game that matters to us is OKC and POR. What’s more important, OKC winning or POR winning? Por winning is because Utah plays them twice in April. If Portland is still in it by then those are harder games. If Portland is 10th or lower they will not care. So getting as many Portland losses between now and April is most important in this Vacuum. So go OKC tonight, I guess.