The Race For The Playoffs: Monday, April 16.
This is going to (hopefully) turn into a daily thing as I recap all of the action from the previous night’s games. You will love this spot, unless you’re a fan of a team that isn’t in the playoff chase, or playing a team in the playoff chase.
Don’t worry, I love all of your teams equally, but there just isn’t enough time in the day for me to write like 20 words about the Grizzlies and then donate other words to the Nets or Warriors. I promise you, it’s nothing personal.
Clippers: 92, Thunder: 77.
If you’re reading this blog, then you’re more than likely a Memphis Grizzlies fan, or a close, personal friend of mine who’s trying to drive up my hit count. Either way, thank you. If you are a Grizzlies fan, I’m going to talk about the games that affect Memphis the most, first. Last night, that game featured the Clippers and Thunder.
The Grizzlies found themselves two games behind the Clippers after their loss at New Orleans on Sunday night. That deficit was actually more like 2.5 games when you consider that the Grizzlies lost the tiebreaker to the Clippers as well.
Needless to say, everyone in Grizz Nation was keeping an eye on Staples Center as two of the top four teams in the West did battle.
The Thunder led by 9 at halftime and looked to be on their way to an important win against a potential second round opponent. Instead, the Clippers tightened the screws up defensively and held the usually high-scoring Thunder to an astounding 25 second-half points.
Blake Griffin had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds and the newly acquired Nick Young posted 19 points off the bench. Kevin Durant had 24 points for Oklahoma City, but just five in the second half.
Needless to say, I’ll be having a word with my editor, Andrew Kennedy, about his team blatantly throwing the Clippers game.
This game affected the Grizzlies because they are in direct competition with the Clips for the 4 seed, and home court advantage in the first round of the western conference playoffs. The Grizzlies and Clippers seem destined to match up in the opening round, but home court could be crucial, considering that the home team has won all three games between the teams this season. Now the Clips are up 2.5 games, with the tiebreak, which means that Memphis should be more concerned about finishing fifth than dropping to 6th and staring at a series against the Lakers in round one.
Nuggets: 105, Rockets: 102.
Denver won a huge game against Houston Monday night, as the teams entered the game in a tie with each other for the 7 seed in the West. When the dust finally cleared, the Nuggets not only took a one game lead over the Rockets, but also clinched the tie-breaker over Houston as well.
Coupled with Phoenix’s win over Portland, Houston went from the 7 seed to being out on the outside of the playoff picture completely at the start of action on Tuesday.
Houston actually won the first game in the season series against Denver, but lost the last three, including both parts of a home-and-away back-to-back. Just another strange scheduling quirk of this shortened NBA season.
This one could have an effect on the Grizzlies down the stretch, as they actually won the tiebreaker against Denver this season, but split head-to-head against Houston.
Suns: 125, Trail Blazers: 107.
Phoenix remained hot as they blistered Portland on Monday night. With the win, Phoenix elevated itself to a flat-footed tie with Houston for the 8th and final playoff spot in the west. Coupled with the fact that they clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker over Houston last week, if the season ended today, the Suns would actually be in the playoff field, an idea that seemed crazy in late February when Phoenix got to seven games below .500.