The Memphis Grizzlies have to hang on to the #2 seed

Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

With only seven games to go in the regular season, the Memphis Grizzlies find themselves hanging on to the number-two seed in the Western Conference playoffs by a thread. When I say “by a thread” I’m not exaggerating for hyperbolic effect. The Grizzlies are tied with the Houston Rockets and only are in possession of the number-two seed because they win the tiebreaker. It’s that close.

While it seems as though the Grizzlies don’t have much to play for with the Warriors smoking everybody, nothing could be further from the truth. If the Grizzlies want any shot at reaching the NBA Finals or even the Western Conference Finals, they need to secure the number-two seed.

The number one reason why the Grizzlies need to hang on to this position is that it guarantees them home court advantage until the Western Conference Finals. If the Grizzlies have home court advantage in any series, they will be tough to take out. The fans in Memphis are very supportive and create an excellent home court advantage for the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies may struggle early on in the playoffs, but if they find themselves in a Game 7, wouldn’t it be nice to know that they’ll be playing in front of their home fans?

The second reason why the Grizzlies need to hang on to this seed is that they’ll likely avoid the two most dangerous teams in the playoffs until the conference finals. As it stands, it appears as though the Spurs will be the number-five seed, which means that should they win their opening round series, they’ll likely face the Warriors in the second round. The Grizzlies should only be worried about facing the Spurs or the Warriors, which is why having them on the same half of draw is so crucial. If the worst case scenario is having to face one of those two teams, that’s way better than the daunting possibility of having to face them both.

Third, the Grizzlies need to have something to hang their hat on going into the playoffs. If they can secure the number-two seed, it’ll give them a tremendous amount of confidence going into the playoffs. No matter how bumpy the path is, finishing with the number-two seed in the Western Conference is a huge accomplishment and something that should give any team the confidence to go out and win a championship.

The bottom line is that the Grizzlies need to finish with the number-two seed in the Western Conference if they realistically want to have a chance at winning the NBA championship. This isn’t to say that if they finish third or fourth they have no chance of winning the title, but their odds will be greatly diminished. Fortunately for the Grizzlies, they control their own destiny. If they win the rest of their games, the number-two seed is theirs. If they don’t get this done, they’ll have nobody to blame but themselves.