NBA Playoff Picture: Wild Final Day In West Will Determine Lakers, Mavericks Series

The NBA playoff picture is still incomplete, as teams in the Western Conference are still jockeying for position. The Spurs have locked up the top seed in the West, and we know that the Lakers, Mavericks, and Thunder are behind them, but the sequence is still yet to be determined. Here are all of the possible scenarios.

Lakers win, Mavericks lose: This would give the Lakers the 2-seed, the Thunder the three-seed, and the Mavericks the 4-seed.

Unfortunately for them, they won’t know who is in the No. 2 spot when they tip off in L.A. unless the Mavericks lose. Hornets-Mavs tips off at 8 p.m. ET; the result should be in by the time Grizzlies-Clippers tips off at 10:30. If Dallas wins, Memphis still won’t know who the No. 2 seed will be; the Lakers tip off in Sacramento at 10:30, as well, and would then need a win to claim No. 2.

The fault lies in the second rationale, and to me, screams as to why Rivers needed to go nose-to-the-knife to make sure the first rationale was challenged.

Here’s why it matters: now, Boston is definitely on the road for a Game 7 if a Heat-Celtics matchup comes to fruition and if the series gets that far. Since the formation of the Big Three (which became the Big Four), Boston is 27-7 at home in the playoffs. Away from the TD Garden, the Celtics in the playoffs since 2008 are ... 11-19.

If both teams win on Wednesday in the final day of regular season action, a random draw would determine home court advantage in a prospective NBA Finals matchup between the teams. If only one wins, that team would have home court should the teams meet in the Finals.

The NBA and NHL playoffs near. Fans of “decent-to-good” teams will sometimes tell you that simply appearing in the playoffs is an unexpected treat, like a lottery ticket folded inside of a birthday card.

Inevitably, though, a team or two will get jobbed out of a playoff spot. It sports a superior record to a team that is making the playoffs, but will miss out because it’s in the wrong league or division. This team, more often than not, is a hanger-on, but there are still few things more disheartening, especially if your team is the sort of team that doesn’t see the playoffs very often.

The playoffs begin Saturday. The full NBA playoffs schedule will be released Thursday, once the regular season has ended.

Two months ago, the Lakers and Celtics were on a collision course for a rubber match in the NBA Finals, and all was going according to plan. But a week away from the NBA Playoffs, the Celtics have gotten blown out by the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls, and the Lakers have lost five straight.

In L.A., Phil Jackson spoke after L.A.‘s loss to the Thunder and talked about urgency. “The reason is lack of urgency,” Jackson said. “Because it’s a lack of urgency, there’s not a whole lot of crispness and execution in what we’re doing.” You’d assume that changes in the playoffs.

L.A.‘s final game of the reason is at Sacramento. With relocation rumors hounding the Kings, that game is already sold out, as it could be the final NBA game in Sacramento.

If the Bulls and Spurs end up tied with 61 or 62 wins, the first tiebreaker is the team’s records against the opposite conference. But Chicago and S.A. happen to be tied there, so it’d come down to a random draw.

But thanks to PlayoffStatus.com, we have an idea of the most likely outcomes. Let’s take a look at those.

Here are the likely matchups in the East:

Regardless of the outcome, after the awful season Memphis had after Gasol was traded, a postseason bid is respite in and of itself. For more on the Grizzlies’ win, visit Straight Outta Vancouver.

For more on the Bulls’ honor, check out Blog-a-Bull and SB Nation Chicago.

↵↵

We still have over a week to go until the beginning of the 2011 NBA Playoffs, but barring a miracle, we already know which teams will make the postseason. We also know which teams will be favored and which teams will be the underdogs. The only thing left to determine are the actual playoff matchups.

It’s often said that the NBA Playoffs are all about “matchups.” This is true, in a most basic sense. Every team has certain strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited more easily against certain opponents. But at the end of the day, the best team almost always win a seven-game series in this league. Give two teams the chance to scout each other exclusively and days off to make in-series adjustments, and the better team, top to bottom, players to coaches, tends to come out on top.

If New Orleans beats Houston on Wednesday, the Hornets are in and the Rockets are left praying the Grizzlies lose four of their final five games.

Randolph has played in six of the games against the Lakers in the last two seasons, and Memphis is 3-3 in those. He’s scored 20 or more in four of the six games and has averaged 3.5 offensive rebounds per game. Marc has also been trouble on the offensive glass over his career against the Lakers. In 11 career games against L.A., Marc has averaged three offensive rebounds per game.

The Grizzlies need four, but can mix things up with another win over the Hornets on April 10. The Hornets currently have a 2-1 season series lead on Memphis. New Orleans will finish with a better division record, so if the Hornets and Grizzlies finish the season tied, N.O. will get the better seed. But the Rockets are counting on the Hornets to lose enough to fall out, because relying on Memphis to lose lately has been a bad bet.