The race for NBA playoff seeding and appearances can be super-tight, so one game can make or break a team right now. That means all those lucky bounces and improbable game-winning threes are adding up. These are just a few of the wild sequences that are now deciding playoff seeding.
7 crazy moments that could decide the NBA Playoff bracket
Playoff seedings are coming down to the final games, which means all those miraculous sequences through the season are starting to add up.
This unbelievable shot on Feb. 7 gave the Pelicans a 3-1 head-to-head series lead over the Thunder, so if both teams have the same record, New Orleans gets in as the West’s No. 8 seed. If Anthony Davis missed this shot, the season series would be tied at two.
The next tiebreaker is conference record, which New Orleans owns as well. That said, perhaps the Thunder, spurred by a victory in this game, go on a run and flip that in their favor.
This scramble and game-winning three from Khris Middleton may knock the Heat out of the playoffs. Miami is currently one and a half games back from both the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics, but owns the tiebreaker over each team. If the Heat finish one game back of the No. 8 seed, this shot will be the difference between a playoff berth and (possibly) handing over the No. 11 or 12 pick to the 76ers.
The Memphis Grizzlies hold on to a half-game lead as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, and this triple-overtime victory over the San Antonio Spurs is why.
If this shot rims out, the Spurs would be in first place in the Southwest Division and would thus be the No. 2 seed in the West. Memphis would be all the way down at No. 6, with both Houston and the Clippers also in front of them. Instead, Memphis is in second. For the moment.
This shot also locked up critical tiebreakers for Memphis. Memphis split the season series with the Spurs and has a 9-7 record in the division. The best San Antonio and Rockets can do is to tie them at 9-7, but Memphis also has the better conference record than both. Had the shot not gone in, San Antonio would have won the season series with Memphis and thus possessed the tiebreaker, while Houston would have a chance to also leapfrog the Grizzlies in the division record race.
Marcus Smart was in the right place at the right time, which is very much how the Celtics' season has played out. Boston now has a one-game lead over the Indiana Pacers, but might be out of the playoffs without Smart's putback. The two teams would be tied if Smart missed and both would be just a half-game ahead of the Heat. The Celtics have the tiebreaker over Indiana, but not Miami.
A different result also would have helped Toronto lock up the No. 3 seed. The Raptors are half a game behind Chicago there and have the tiebreaker due to being a division winner.
Not only is there an Alan Anderson four-point play, but Jarrett Jack splashed the game-winner over the top of DeAndre Jordan to help Brooklyn earn an improbable win. Brooklyn is currently one game ahead of Indiana and 1.5 ahead of Miami for the No. 8 seed. The Nets have the tiebreaker over Indiana, but not Miami. If the comeback doesn't happen, the Nets would technically still be in eighth, but in a virtual tie with the Pacers and just barely ahead of the Heat.
That dagger from Jack was also eerily familiar to this one he hit to beat the Golden State Warriors later in the season.
6. The Phoenix Suns keep getting their backs broken
This is technically 12 moments that we’re counting as one. The Phoenix Suns lost 12 games by either one possession or in overtime this season. That’s 12 backbreaking, misery-inducing Ls that ultimately saw Phoenix’s playoff hopes fizzle out. The Suns are 39-40 right now. If they had just gone 6-6 in these games, they’d be 45-34 and two and a half games ahead of both New Orleans and Oklahoma City for the No. 8 seed.
It's hard to pick a single game and moment that pushed the Suns out to sea, but this leaning buzzer-beating game-winner from Middleton induced a reaction that succinctly sums up the Suns' season of heartbreak. The 45-point outburst and shooter's bounce from Blake Griffin above was most astonishing. (That Clippers win is also helping keep L.A. alive in the race for the No. 2 seed).
Now, the Suns are mathematically eliminated from making the playoffs.
7. Alexey was Shved up of the Spurs
Not owning control of the season series over the Grizzlies makes losing to Alexey Shved and the hapless New York Knicks even more painful for the Spurs. A victory would have put San Antonio a half-game ahead of the competition for the No. 2 seed. Now, the Spurs must make up an extra game to get home-court advantage.
The Spurs have lost a single game since this blunder, though, and are currently on a nine-game winning streak. Maybe the ultimate outcome of the Knicks stunning San Antonio was awakening the wrath of the Popovichian Spurs.
We’ll know soon enough.
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