Good morning, it’s the end of the NBA season
The playoffs are just over the horizon.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
PRESSURE’S ON: The Clippers beat the Nuggets to keep dreams of No. 2 in the West alive. This involved Chris Paul putting some inordinately nasty moves on Evan Fournier.
PRESSURE’S ON THE SEQUEL: The Nets could have clinched No. 5 in the East by beating the Knicks on Tuesday. NOPE. Iman Shumpert’s out here going off the backboard. The Wizards can still land the No. 5 seed.
EVERYTHING AT STAKE: Here’s everything at stake on Wednesday as quickly and simply as possible.
East: Raptors claim No. 3 seed with a win or a Bulls loss. Bulls can get No. 3 with a win and a Raptors loss. Otherwise, they are No. 4. The Nets can claim No. 5 with a win or a Wizards loss. If the Nets lose and Wizards win, Washington is No. 5 and the Nets are No. 6. If Washington loses and the Bobcats win, Charlotte is No. 6 and Washington is No. 7.
West: A Thunder win or Clippers loss puts OKC in the No. 2 spot and L.A. in No. 3. A Thunder loss and Clippers win puts L.A. in No. 2 and OKC in No. 3. The winner of Memphis-Dallas is No. 7, the other is No. 8.
Lottery: A Magic loss or Jazz win guarantees Orlando sole possession of the third-worst record in the league. A Jazz loss or Celtics win guarantees Utah no worse than sole possession of the fourth-worst record in the league. A Celtics loss or Lakers win guarantees Boston no worse than sole possession of the fifth-worst record in the league. The Kings and Cavaliers also stand to avoid potential coin flips by losing.
THE SUNS ARE DEAD: Long live the Suns.
NAILED IT: A Barclays Center usher got a chance to sing the anthem before Nets-Knicks. It was awesome.
NO AWARDS FOR TRYING: Eric Freeman with a thoughtful piece on the Bucks and cosmic reward for not explicitly trying to lose.
TRUE LOATHING RATING: The brilliant netw3rk puts science to quantifiable teammate hatred in the NBA. Kyrie-Dion is approaching Kobe-Shaq.
WITHOUT BOGUT: Tim Kawakami on what the Warriors will do without Andrew Bogut. Hint: lots of Stephen Curry.
AN ATROCIOUS RULE: I don’t usually agree with Mike DeCourcy on draft matters. But he absolutely nailed it on the NCAA’s arbitrary deadline for college players to commit to returning to school.
CREATION THEORY: Some 96 percent of corner threes are assisted. John Wall creates those more than anyone.
THE BULLS WE KNOW: Strong piece by Howard Beck on the Bulls no one wants to face.
WELCOME PARTY: Via Zach Harper, the Suns had an absolutely fantastic military dad reunion this week.
CAGE’S LAW: Every five years, Nicolas Cage makes a good movie accepted by societal norms as being “good.”
FROM THE LAND OF OOO: A brilliant, beautiful longform on Adventure Time by the undisputedly excellent Maria Bustillos. Adventure Time is really great.
SPEAKING OF BEAUTIFUL LONGFORMS: The latest SB Nation longform is on surfing the deadliest waves in the Banzai pipeline.
Happy Final Day Of The Regular Season. See you next time.
