It’s the last day of the NBA’s regular season, and there’s still way too much left to be decided when it comes to the upcoming playoffs. Seven out of the eight first-round matchups, in fact. At the beginning of the season, we could only hope that there would be meaningful games being played until the very end of the season. The Basketball Gods have, perhaps, over-delivered.
What we do or don’t know: the East
They weren’t supposed to do this, not this Boston Celtics team. It was presumed that the Celtics were still in the demolition stage of the rebuilding process. It was clear they were looking ahead to the lottery when they traded away Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green for players, draft picks and spare parts. Then they went and traded away some of the players they’d only just received (Austin Rivers, Tayshaun Prince, Brandan Wright).
At the trade deadline, however, they made an unexpected move by acquiring guard Isaiah Thomas from the Phoenix Suns. While Thomas is young and relatively inexpensive, it was an odd move for a team that many assumed would be looking ahead to the lottery like the Philadelphia 76ers or the New York Knicks.
In the broadcast, Ainge tells Mike&Tommy basically that the deal to get Thomas was so good, it outweighed the risk of falling out of lottery
— John Karalis (@RedsArmy_John) April 15, 2015
Had general manager Danny Ainge and the rest of the Celtics organization known the signing would spark a run that would eventually secure them a spot in the playoffs, perhaps they might have not made the deal. Who could have predicted that a few months ago, though?
The Celtics clinched that unlikely playoff appearance by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers twice in a row, a feat which would have been way more impressive if the Cavaliers had had anything to play for and hadn’t sat nearly their entire starting lineup in the back end. Boston secured the No7 seed last night when Jae Crowder hit a ridiculous game-winning shot to beat the Toronto Raptors.
Of course, the Celtics might have preferred the No8 seed if you asked them. Their reward for securing the seventh slot is a seven-game series against the second-seeded Cavaliers rather than the Atlanta Hawks, the No1 seed who right now look like the less formidable team despite their superior record over 82 games. Unfortunately for Boston, it doesn’t seem all too likely that LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and company will be sitting out this time around.
The Hawks instead will face whichever team wins the No8 seed, which won’t be the Miami Heat. The Indiana Pacers’ thoroughly unwatchable double-overtime win over the Washington Wizards officially eliminated Miami, whose playoff hopes dimmed the moment they lost Chris Bosh for the season. The Pacers’ win also put the Brooklyn Nets on life support. The only way the Nets enter the postseason is if they win their game against the Orlando Magic tonight and the Memphis Grizzlies defeat the Pacers.
Meanwhile, the No5 seed Washington Wizards and the sixth-seeded Milwaukee Bucks know where they are in the standings, they just don’t know who they are playing. The Raptors’ chances of clinching the No3 seed and drawing the ‘just happy to be here’ Bucks took a hit with Tuesday’s loss to Boston. They would have to beat the Charlotte Hornets while hoping that the Bulls lose to the Heat. Any other scenario, the Bulls take the No3 seed and the Raptors would face a more formidable opponent in the Wizards.
What we do or don’t know: the West
Here’s what we know for certain in the Western Conference: The Golden State Warriors clinched the best record in the Western Conference eons ago, and the best overall record in the NBA shortly after. The Dallas Mavericks are locked in as the No7 seed.
The Portland Trail Blazers will be the No4 seed, because they won their division, but will not have home-court advantage in the first round because whoever emerges as the No5 seed will be will have a better record than them. (Can someone remind me why we need divisions again?)
And that’s it.
Just like in the Eastern Conference, there are still two teams battling it out for the No8 seed in the Western Conference. Currently the New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder both have 44-37 records, with the Pelicans holding the tiebreaker. That means that if the Thunder want to advance, they will not only need a win of their own, but a Pelicans loss as well.
That seems like a tall order for the Thunder, but the schedule might be on their side. The Thunder will be facing the Minnesota Timberwolves while the Pelicans have to defeat the San Antonio Spurs. This Spurs team has been the most dangerous team in basketball over the last few weeks, and they will be very motivated as they would clinch the No2 seed with a win.
A Spurs’ loss, on the other hand, could drop them down as low as the No6 seed, which feels like a state of affairs that shouldn’t be possible with just one game remaining on the schedule.
That’s how much things have been in flux in the Western Conference this season. With the exception of the Warriors, the contending teams in the conference have all been very close to each other in the standings. While that has made for one of the most meaningful regular seasons in recent NBA memory, it has also created a confusing, tangled mess of a playoff picture with the No2, No3, No5 and No6 seeds all potentially in play with less than 24 hours left to figure things out.
Luckily for us, CBS Sports’ Matt Moore has managed to make sense of all the possible scenarios:
The Grizzlies are eliminated from division-title contention, and cannot gain the No. 2 seed. It’s a pretty stunning collapse from a team that looked certain to finish in a top-three spot only two weeks ago. But their late schedule, injuries and the Spurs have conspired against Memphis.
The Clippers cannot finish sixth, the best they can finish is second. They clinched no-worse-than-third with their win over the Suns Tuesday.
The only way the Grizzlies can move up is if the Rockets lose their last game and Memphis beats Indiana at home. The only way the Spurs don’t finish with the two seed is if they lose and the Clippers or Rockets win. But if the Spurs lose and the Clippers, Rockets, and Grizzlies win, San Antonio falls to the sixth seed.
Got all that? Moore also came up with this handy chart as a workable reference guide. Or maybe we should could just forget about this playoff math and just let the games play out tonight.
Thabo Sefolosha seeks legal action against the NYPD
While the Atlanta Hawks get ready to face either the Indiana Pacers or the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs, one of their players is preparing to wage a different type of battle against a much larger opponent: the New York Police Department.
At first it was just a footnote. When news came about that the Indiana Pacers’ Chris Copeland was stabbed at a night club, the reports mentioned that the Atlanta Hawks’ Thabo Sefolosha and Pero Antic were also arrested in the aftermath. Shortly after that came the news that Sefolosha had a broken right fibula and ligament damage and would miss the rest of the season.
While initial reports claimed that Sefolosha suffered the injury while “resisting arrest,” footage of the incident soon emerged that told a different story. In the video, it appears that a police officer uses his baton on an already subdued Sefolosha.
Yesterday, Sefolosha directly blamed the NYPD for his injury and announced plans to launch legal action against them:
On advice of my counsel, I hope that you can appreciate that I cannot discuss the facts of the case. These questions will be answered by my lawyer in a court of law. I will simply say that I am in great pain, that I have suffered significant injury and those were caused by the police.
The National Basketball Players Association also plans to investigate the incident.
Given the current climate, and the increased scrutiny on the use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies against African-Americans, it’s unlikely that this particular story will be disappearing any time soon.
Let’s make this official: Steph Curry is the MVP
Throughout this season, writers and experts and broadcasters kept telling us that we couldn’t decide who the MVP was until the NBA season played out. There were so many worthy candidates, with the Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry and the Houston Rockets’ James Harden at the forefront, that it wouldn’t be fair to them.
While this was true enough, it was also a handy excuse to put off making a decision for as long as possible. Now that we’ve reached the last day of games before the postseason begins, and it bears repeating that the MVP is strictly a regular-season award, that excuse will no longer work. Steph Curry should be the consensus favorite for MVP. Not even a Kobe-esque 81 point performance from James Harden tonight would be enough to make a difference.
Other candidates have had worthy campaigns. The Rockets would be struggling to even make the playoffs rather than fighting for a potential No2 seed without Harden’s offensive contributions. By the end of tonight’s games, either Russell Westbrook or Anthony Davis will have basically single-handedly carried their team into the postseason. LeBron James recovered from a tepid start to help turn the Cleveland Cavaliers from a complete mess to the best team in the Eastern Conference in a matter of months.
None of that matters though, this has been Curry’s season. He has been so unreal that we no longer even blink when he does things like make 77 consecutive three-pointers in a practice. Golden State has been so dominant this year that the biggest knock on Curry’s MVP case is that he often sits out during the fourth quarter because the Warriors are already in the process of blowing out their opponents. It’s hard to show that you’re clutch when your team is rarely in much trouble late.
Maybe there’s a case to be made that a Harden, or a James or someone else, may have been a slightly better player than Curry this season. No other player fully took control of the league like Curry did this season. Nearly every night he played, Curry was the biggest and best reason to watch basketball and when we look back at the 2014-15 NBA season, he will be the first thing we remember.
That’s an MVP.
Other things we’ve learned
• In a fascinating interview with Jackie MacMullan, the Washington Wizards’ Paul Pierce spoke, well, the Truth, about the internal dysfunction within the Brooklyn Nets, his nonexistent friendship with former Boston Celtics teammate Ray Allen, and why he sleeps in a X chamber.
• In a possibly Real Genius inspired prank, Nik Stauskas’s Sacramento Kings teammates filled his house with popcorn.
• The New York Knicks can’t even tank right. A win on Monday has jeopardized the Knicks’ draft lottery fueled quest for the worst record in the NBA. The Minnesota Timberwolves are now a game behind them in the standings with, of course, just one game to go. It would be a shame if they lose out (win out?) because no team has done more to earn this dubious honor.
• In the last few days, San Antonio Spurs’ Matt Bonner met up with comedians Tim & Eric and Spuran Spuran was born. This is clearly the best example of a team doing their own playoff anthem since the golden age of the Superbowl Shuffle.
