The final day of the NBA regular season awaits, with a whole lot left to be decided
Sunday is the final day of the NBA regular season, and here’s a full listing of all the playoff and postseason matchups that have been decided.
— None.
There are 10 teams that are locked into specific seeds in the Eastern and Western Conferences, there are 10 other teams that know their seasons will end on Sunday and 10 more still have some level of uncertainty going into the final day of the six-month grind that precedes the NBA postseason.
By the end of Sunday, four first-round series matchups — those starting next weekend — will be known, as will the first four play-in tournament matchups that will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’re just excited to be in this situation,” said Atlanta coach Quin Snyder, whose Hawks are playoff-bound — but don’t know if they’ll be the No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the East, so they obviously don’t know their first-round matchup either.
“Whoever we play is going to be really good,” Snyder said. “It’s hard to even try to figure that out. It’s possible that certain teams want to play us. … We don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s hard to predict all these games that are going on. Wherever it falls is how it falls.”
No team needs to win on Sunday to extend its season. There are 10 teams eliminated from postseason contention who all know Game 82 is the end of the road. But for the other 20 teams, there will be an 83rd game, either in the play-in this coming week or in the playoffs that start next weekend.
That doesn’t mean those 20 teams all have nothing to play for Sunday. There are seeds to grab, and in some cases, a team could essentially manipulate how their side of the bracket sorts itself out. If San Antonio beats Denver, for example, the Spurs would assure themselves of not having to face Oklahoma City or the Nuggets until the Western Conference finals.
A Nuggets loss would mean LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers — provided they beat Utah on Sunday — would finish as the West’s No. 3 seed.
“I’m sure everybody wants to play us,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said. “Let’s get that out there — everybody wants to play us. There are probably teams that are in a position where they can start looking forward to potential second-round matchups as well.”
The breakdown
— Seeds clinched: Detroit (East 1), Oklahoma City (West 1), Boston (East 2), San Antonio (West 2), New York (East 3), Cleveland (East 4), Houston (West 5), Minnesota (West 6), Phoenix (West 7 for play-in), Golden State (West 10 for play-in).
— Playoff-bound, seed still TBA: Denver (3 or 4 in West), Los Angeles Lakers (3 or 4 in West), Atlanta (5 or 6 in East).
— Playoff or play-in bound: Toronto, Orlando, Philadelphia.
— Play-in bound, seed still TBA: Los Angeles Clippers, Portland, Charlotte, Miami.
— Season ends Sunday: Milwaukee, Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, Sacramento, Utah, Brooklyn, Indiana, Washington.
Stat races
All the major statistical titles have been decided, barring the most mathematically improbable events of all-time happening on Sunday.
— Scoring: Luka Doncic of the Lakers (33.5 per game) will win, unless something happens like Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 194 points on Sunday.
— Rebounding: Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets (12.9 per game) will win, unless something happens like New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns grabbing at least 95 rebounds on Sunday.
— Assists: Jokic (10.9 per game) will win. unless something happens like Detroit’s Cade Cunningham getting at least 77 assists on Sunday.
— Blocked shots: Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs (3.1 per game) will win, unless something happens like Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren blocking at least 85 shots on Sunday.
(So, yes, it’s safe to assume those races have been decided.)
Doncic won’t play Sunday for the Lakers, meaning he’ll fall short of the 65-game rule for award eligibility, and Jokic needs to play Sunday to hit that number. That means it’s actually possible the NBA scoring, rebound and assist champions will all be ineligible to appear on the ballots that will decide the All-NBA teams, MVP and other major awards.
Draft odds update
The teams with the three worst records are set: Washington will be worst, with Indiana and Brooklyn second- and third-worst in some order. That means those three teams will have the best odds — 14% each — of winning the No. 1 pick in next month’s draft lottery.
And Washington can’t finish lower than fifth in the lottery.
Utah and Sacramento would both see draft-lottery benefits from losses on Sunday — especially the Jazz, who could assure themselves of keeping a pick that would be guaranteed to be in the top eight.
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