I doubt the Jazz will be 8th seed, it will be either the Mavs or the Hornets. The Jazz have tie breakers over these 2 teams and they will go 2-1 or better in their last 3 games.
Not so sure about that. Remaining games: Utah: GS, LAC, @LAL Dallas: @NO, MIN, HOU New Orleans: DAL, @HOU, @SA Utah wins all tie-breakers against both Dallas and New Orleans and they will finish the season either 2-1 or 3-0 (unlikely). Meanwhile, the Hornets and Mavs play each other once at New Orleans. The loser must win both remaining games to avoid #8. I think the Mavs will beat both Minny and the Rockets at home, but the Hornets will not win both in Houston and San Antonio. Conclusion: Cheer hard for the Hornets to beat the Mavs this Sunday on ABC.
wow kobe gave this game away, he shouldn't have taken that wildly contested 3 and then he threw it away on the drive. i don't understand why they didn't even try to run gasol a play, or something like that.
well this sucks, we wanted Lakers to take this so they can play hard against Utah for their last game. Now their are just going that game away, great. Jazz now can go 3-0 in their last 3, and probably get the 6th seed. Not good news if we are the 3rd seed.
Good win for Portland. You can put a couple of qualifiers on it (no PJ, a back-to-back) but they took care of business. Props to them.
Unfortunately I can see the game at Dallas being for division title with a win and the #5 seed with a loss.
are people suggesting even the Lakers are trying to avoid the Jazz? Because I see no other reason to give the Jazz that last game on the road in Staples Center against LA
Yeah. Unless Cleveland drops one of the next 2, they'll have clinched the best record in the league and HCA through the playoffs and the finals by the time the Lakers play the Jazz. The Lakers will be unable to catch them which probably sends them into "rest" mode vs. the Jazz. Hopefully Boston can beat them in Cleveland. If that happened (not likely), then the Lakers would still have a glimmer of hope when they play Utah. Utah is likely going 3-0. Dallas and New Orleans need 3 wins each for both to stay ahead but that can't happen because they play each other. So Utah is assured of at least the #7 seed if they win out. Whichever team wins the DAL-NO game on Sunday can get to 3 wins and finish 6th, but that means they'd have to beat Houston. If the Rockets and Jazz both win out, then the Jazz finish in 6th. And if Denver wins out as well, that mean another HOU-UTA first round matchup. If the Rockets win out and the Jazz go 2-1, the the winner of the DAL-NO game has to win their other remaining game to finish ahead of Utah. For the Jazz to go 2-1 (I don't see them doing worse than that) and finish 8th, the Rockets are going to have to lose to at least the loser of the DAL-NO game. Both teams would still have to pick up an additional win.
Not good news for us. Even if the lakers have no chance to get homecourt throughout, they would still want to lose against Utah in order to avoid a matchup with them in the 1st round. So there would be no reason for LA to win and they would probably rest Kobe and gasol.
