With just over one week left in the NBA Regular Season, the playoff picture is still murky. Five and a half games separate two from eight, and the only squad with proven playoff mettle in that tight field (San Antonio) just lost its most dynamic player for the season. While movement within those seven seeds is very much possible, the remaining schedules of each team are balanced enough comparatively (Utah excluded) that we can expect the spread to look about the same one week hence.
What this means for pro basketball fans is that there will be at least three highly contested first round series. Every team under the first seeded Lakers has a nearly even chance of making it out of the first round, and that lofty LA squad may just have to break a sweat on their way to the Western Conference finals.
If the playoffs began today, we would be seeing some very intriguing matchups with Utah at Denver, New Orleans at San Antonio, and Portland and Houston slugging it out in the middle. Even the doomed Dallas Mavs would have plenty to kick and scream about when all was said and done.
But this last week looks to be decidedly unkind to the Jazz, who have guaranteed themselves a playoff spot, but played their way closer and closer to the bottom of the field. Their remaining schedule has them destined for the eighth seed. Houston has a very real chance to overtake San Antonio, but you have to believe that the Spurs will finish stronger without half a Manu Ginobili weighing them down. Portland and New Orleans are heading for a wash over their last six games, and it is doubtful that anybody will catch the Nuggets at two.
That leaves us with a similar playoff spread with the noteworthy swap between Dallas and Utah at the bottom. Although the Nuggets have appeared to dominate the Mavericks (to the tune of a four-game sweep), three of their games this season were decided by three points or less. This matchup promises to be much more competitive than watching the fading Jazz stumble against a Denver team that has spent the last three years catching and then overtaking them in the division race. Besides that, watching the Lakers play with Utah like a cat with its kill should be a good time for the LA faithful before they have to start taking games seriously again.
Assuming the Rockets play good but not great, the Blazers hold strong, and the Hornets hold off the surging Mavs, the final standings will look like this:
Lakers
63-19
Nuggets
55-27
Spurs
53-29
Rockets
52-30
Trailblazers
52-30
Hornets
51-31
Mavericks
49-33
Jazz
48-34
