The Western playoff race has calmed a bit over the past week or so as stratification set in. Welp, Friday changed that around. We break down how Friday’s action affected the playoff races below the jump.
NBA Playoff Picture: West Reverts To Its Wild Self As Spurs Catch Thunder
The Lakers, the West's No. 3, lost, but sit 1.5 games ahead of the idle Clippers. The Clippers' lead over the Grizzlies shrunk to 1.5 games as Memphis upset Miami. Dallas, entering Friday tied with Memphis, dropped a game to Portland to fall a game behind the Grizzlies. Due to Houston's win over the Lakers, the Mavericks have just a half-game cushion over the Rockets and Nuggets (who also won on Friday). Confused yet? Utah beat the Warriors to stay 1.5 games out of the No. 8 seed, and the Suns lost to Denver to fall two games back.
Here’s what the West bracket would look like if the season ended suddenly.
Spurs (1) vs. Nuggets (8)
Thunder (2) vs. Rockets (7)
Lakers (3) vs. Mavericks (6)
Clippers (4) vs. Grizzlies (5)
(Strangely, this is identical to a scenario that existed earlier in the week ... only with some of the numbers switched around.)
Over in the East, the Heat fell to three games behind the Bulls for the No. 1 seed. That race is pretty much over. Indiana's big win gave it 1.5 games of clearance for the No. 3 seed, a nice relief given that Atlanta (the closest chaser and No. 5 seed) also won. Orlando was inactive and sits a half-game behind the Hawks. All three teams in the Atlantic race were idle, but Milwaukee won to shrink its gap behind the Knicks to one game.
Here’s what the East bracket looks like.
* Hawks would have home court advantage due to a better record.
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