What’s Still in Play on Last Week of Regular Season

[Marcos_Beck]

What’s Still in Play on Last Week of Regular Season

With yet another regular season wrapping up, let’s take a look at what’s still in play for all teams with exactly 7 days to be played!

East’s Lower Play Ins:
The surging Chicago Bulls just surpassed the Cavs for the 9th spot in the play in race, but the race is far from over. Windy City has three games left and can reach the same 47 wins Cleveland can as well, but the Bulls face three 50-win Eastern powerhouses while the Cavs play two against non playoff competition, including worst record in the league Indiana Pacers. The Atlanta Hawks hold firm to the 8th spot right now and need two out of four to clinch the advantage of playing twice in the play in elimination games.

West’s Lower Play Ins:
Even tighter than East’s fight for 8th-10th spots, the Rockets and Wolves are exactly tied for the last two play in spots in the West. Utah leads them both by 1.5 games for the 8th seed but have a not so easy schedule with three games remaining and need all three wins to guarantee a second play in game. OKC can still mathematically qualify with also three games left and a lighter schedule, that if the Kings elect to rest their starters at their last game while fighting for the best record in the league. Houston plays 3 playoff teams plus the Clippers with three home games, while the Wolves also face the Kings but also play three of the bottom 5 teams in the league.

West’s 5th Spot:
Moving on to an incredible battle with the league led Mavericks and Tim’s revamped Pelicans for the 5th spot in the West, New Orleans has dropped some key games against non-playoff teams and saw Dallas surpass them, even though both can still reach the same amount of wins. Dallas’ three games are against playoff teams, while New Orleans faces three playoff squads plus the Rockets who are hungry for a play in berth. Denver, currently in the play ins at 7th, cannot drop below that range but can surely hope to surpass one of them for a direct playoff berth. With a direct matchup against Dallas plus three games against West’s 8th - 13th squads, they are still very much alive.

East’s HCA:
How crazy is the fact that six Eastern powerhouses are still in play for the 2nd seed and one of them will have to face the play ins as 7th seed? Miami currently leads the race for 2nd with four games left and two direct matchups against the Bucks who are 3rd and Nets, tied for 4th. Milwaukee has one less game to play than all of the others and face the Hornets as well, plus the hungry Pelicans. The Nets face two out of those six plus Hawks and Bulls who fight for the Play Ins, while Philly has a rare more accessible game against the Pacers but still faces East’s play ins three times with two on the road. Detroit faces three strong squads plus the 21-win Raptors and needs a miracle run together with the Hornets to even think of HCA in the first round. And the Hawks, currently at 8th, will look for the impossible as they need to win it all and hope for a combination of results to jump both Detroit and Charlotte for a direct playoff berth. Absolutely crazy week for all those teams!

West’s Top Seeds and #1 Overall:
Last but not least for sure, the Kings decided to rest some starters with a few games left and dropped a back to back against play ins teams which means the race for not only #1 in the West but #1 overall is wide open. Spurs and Blazers are neck and neck for the 2nd spot as Doug tries to pull off a miracle with four games left. Billy’s San Antonio still faces off direct matchups against Portland and New York for a shot at the 2nd seed, even though they play one less game. And league’s best in Sacramento and New York goes on to likely decide who has the best record in the league and the advantage of playing the entire playoffs with HCA as the Knicks are 0.5 behind but not only has the extra game to play but also holds the tiebreaker as they won both direct matchups this season!


What are your predictions for the last week of regular season? Let us know in the comments!!

[Stockton12]

i hope we can clintch 8th in the west ..tough schedule and clippers like upsetting teams..shame New orleans lost jjj for 2 weeks

[andrei]

I think NOP made a huge leap this year and look really scary. I was sceptical of so many moves but it worked out well. Utah is a tough team also and its great to see them improving.

[Flaming Homer]

Great to see how competitive both conferences are.
The fight for the overall #1 is amazing where it seems the Kings and Knicks are on a special level. But I see Portland and Philly as almost even in their respective conference. Rhox has a bit bad luck with untimely injuries but I hope that is not a factor comes playoff time.

Also great to see all this other stories like the improving Pels, Pistons, Hornets. The close race in the playins and for home court.

[bt]

It's nuts how the Bulls and Cavs are 9th and 10th in the east with 43 and 44 wins. It's a big drop off to 11th but that's one very strong top 10. The east playoffs from the play-in to the rounds will be nuts.

Have to admit we completely stuffed up and error in judgement resting for a double sim. Not that we would have won one or both games anyway but we've pretty much invited the pressure. I guess my thinking was that if it went bad, we have the Warriors, Wolves and Thunder to finish off but we also lost to the Clippers this season so no guarantees there either.

[GreenBear]

Not sure I'd call the West top seed "Wide Open". Even with the Kings resting and dropping a double sim, they're still 2.5 games up with 3 games left, all against teams 10+ games under .500. Is it mathematically possible? Yeah. But the odds are extremely, extremely small. The 2nd seed is close though. We're 1.5 games up on the Spurs, but they play us in San Antonio later this week.

[TheTwoWallaces]

Yea it's a great fight in the East. Unfortunately we've sort of blown our window to make a play for the 2 seed. Anything in the Top 6 would be good enough for us. I dread the idea of blowing it in the play-in games and missing the playoff fun altogether!

[Andrewu91]

Kings will have the best record probably.

Would be cool if I did because that would be the first or 2nd time in csl history I ended with the best record in 15 seasons.

[rh0xxy]

Nice read and summary. I'm quite disappointed with how our 2nd half of the season went through, we were fighting for the top spot a while back and now in danger of going through the Play-ins lol

[Jestor]

We’re going to drop to 7 seed, which pisses me off. Too many bad losses and DDS fucking me with injuries at just the right time

[Marcos_Beck]

Updates from Sim 1 of 4:

- Cavs beat Philly to tie Chicago for 9th in the East and make things really complicated in the HCA battle as Detroit, Brooklyn and Charlotte also dropped their contests.
- Hawks are closer to clinching 8th while still maintaining hopes of a direct playoff berth!
- Miami firmly consolidates their lead for 2nd in the East, now a full game above Milwaukee

- Heartbreaking 4 point loss for Minny at home against Phoenix, while Houston beats the Clippers by 1 to lead race for 9th by a game with three to go. Both teams can still catch the Jazz btw.
- Denver wins, Pels lose as the Nuggets still hope for a miracle run for a direct playoff berth.

- Blazers and Knicks both win their games in hopes of topping the league! New York is virtually #1 overall as they own tiebreaker against SAC!

More to come tomorrow!!

[KW]

DDS has Houston favored over the Knicks 90% to 10% for some reason LOL. Read into that exactly as much as you want to, I don't think it means anything but I'm choosing to believe

[Flaming Homer]

DDS has Houston favored over the Knicks 90% to 10% for some reason LOL. Read into that exactly as much as you want to, I don't think it means anything but I'm choosing to believe

I'm favored 80-20 over BKN. Don't think the game knows anything but hey, hopefully that means we have at least a chance for a home win.

[drumr]

Yeah I'm favored in every single game so its meaningless or confirms I'm terrible both work lol

[mgtr81]

Nice recap, Marcos. Key game tonight against the Heat. At least Gafford will be back for the game. His injury may have cost us the 2nd seed, but other teams have also had injuries.

[Marcos_Beck]

Recap on 2nd of four sims!

- Bulls beat Philly at home to make playoffs race even more complicated but Cavs wins both on back-to-back nights to jump .5 games above Chicago for #9! Hawks also won which means they have clinched #8 but are aiming for HCA in the play ins as Detroit lost once again and is cooling off at the wrong time.

- 90 to 10 favorite Houston drops one at home, Minny drops another on the road. Jazz win their game and are one win away from clinching #8!

- The Mavs, who beat the Pistons at home, now holds a 2 game advantage on both Pelicans, who lost once again given their recent struggles with injuries, and Nuggets who won again to tie New Orleans for 6th in the West. That’s going to be an intense fight all the way to the last game for the direct playoff berth!

- In the battle for East’s 2nd place, Miami beat the Bucks who had their number 3 times this season and now holds a two game lead on them. Unless Heat loses and Bucks wins next, Miami can rest their starters against Boston as they need one favorable result to clinch #2. Bucks continue to hold on to #3 given Philly’s and Brooklyn’s losses and the Hornets also got to 50 wins making it a 3-team tie for last HCA spot.

- Portland guarantees #2 in the West and #3 overall with a win on the road against the Spurs! Both can now rest their starters as Spurs are also guaranteed 3rd place in the West and #4 overall. Both Sactown and Knicks won and reached an impressive mark of 60 wins with two games to go. Who’s going to emerge #1 overall for HCA in finals, eventually?

[Marcos_Beck]

Situation as it stands

Knicks leads the Kings on tie-breaker with both tied at 60 wins. Portland can still be #1 but needs a true miracle.

Miami can clinch #2 with one win or a Bucks loss. All other 5 teams can still finish #3-#7, with the Hawks also looking at #7 or #6 in case another miracle happens.

Dallas can clinch #5 with a positive result or losses from both Nuggets and Pels who will go neck to neck for the final playoff spot in the West.

Jazz needs a win to clinch #8, while Houston leads Minny for #9 but it’s still anyone’s game.

And Bulls and Cavs can still finish tied at 47 wins for #9, which shows how strong East is right now!

[bt]

I don't know if DDS fixed this in newer versions but being teamID 30 means we'll lose any tie in record to every team unfortunately.

We'll need the Spurs to beat the Knicks next game and we win out without some guys to get the top record. Could go either way.

[Flaming Homer]

I think the tiebreaker is fixed in 22, but not 100% sure.

Great work here Marcos and keeping this races in the spotlight!!

[GreenBear]

I think the tiebreaker is fixed in 22, but not 100% sure.

Great work here Marcos and keeping this races in the spotlight!!

If I remember correctly, it's only partly fixed. I think it's fixed for 2-way ties. But ties between 3+ teams and the game just gives up and uses Team ID. This was way too big of an ask for Gary. I got screwed by that a couple years back.