NBA playoff standings: Jazz are in. Thunder, Pelicans, and Spurs could soon join them

The Utah Jazz beat the L.A. Lakers on Sunday, clinching a playoff berth in the wild, wild West. Utah is just the fourth team to claim a postseason nod in the West with just three days remaining in the regular season. It’s a mammoth achievement for a team that looked dead in the water midway through the season. The Jazz were 17-24 through their first 41 games. They’ve gone 30-9 since. What a season!

What seed will the Jazz be? That remains up in the air. Utah faces the Warriors at home on Tuesday, while the Portland Trail Blazers are in Denver to face the cardiac Nuggets on Monday. If Portland wins, Utah needs to beat the Warriors to set up a Wednesday showdown with the Blazers for the No. 3 seed. If Portland loses Monday, the Jazz could in theory lose to Golden State and still claim No. 3 with a Wednesday win. It’s complicated! Utah could actually fall all the way to No. 7 with a pair of losses and the wrong breaks.

For now, they are No. 4. Here’s what the Western bracket looks like with three days left. Asterisks indicate a seed is set.

Rockets (1)* vs. Timberwolves (8)
Jazz (4) vs. Pelicans (5)
Blazers (3) vs. Spurs (6)
Warriors (2)* vs. Thunder (7)
Still alive: Nuggets

In the East, both the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers won on Sunday. (The Sixers won 50 games this season, and counting!) The Sixers’ win guarantees no lower than No. 4 for Philly -- they will have home court in the first round. But they still need some combination of two wins or Cavaliers losses to claim No. 3 for sure. Philly faces the Hawks on Tuesday and Bucks on Wednesday. The Cavs have a Monday-Wednesday home-and-home with the Knicks.

The Pacers have been ruled out of the No. 3 seed now, and will almost certainly be the No. 5 seed, squaring off against either Philadelphia or Cleveland in Round 1. The only path to claiming No. 4 now is to beat Charlotte on Tuesday and have Cleveland lose both of its games to the 28-52 Knicks. Good luck.

Here’s the current East playoff bracket with asterisks indicating the settled seeds.

Raptors (1)* vs. Wizards (8)
Cavaliers (4) vs. Pacers (5)
Sixers (3) vs. Heat (6)
Celtics (2)* vs. Bucks (7)

There are nine games on Monday. Seven of them have playoff implications. In the East, the Cavaliers, Heat, and Bucks are all in action. In the West, the Blazers, Pelicans, Thunder, Timberwolves, and Nuggets all have games with something at stake. In fact, New Orleans , San Antonio, and Oklahoma City can clinch playoff spots with wins! The biggest games: Thunder-Heat (7:30 p.m. ET, League Pass), Kings-Spurs (8:30 ET, League Pass), Blazers-Nuggets (9 ET, League Pass) and Pelicans-Clippers (10:30 ET, ESPN).

Get ready to watch those scoreboards.