The final day of the 2014-15 NBA regular season is upon us. And with only one playoff matchup (East No. 2 seed Cavaliers vs. East No. 7 seed Celtics) set in stone, there are so many things on the line.
It's a dream day for the NBA die-hards out there. But it's confusing for ... pretty much everyone. Sporting News is here, though, to help you sort out everything that's at stake.
Twenty-eight teams play their season finales today. Here's the full list, with the games you really need to pay attention to for playoff purposes in bold (with all times Eastern):
Even with seven games impacting seeding and playoff bids, we already know a lot about what this playoff bracket will look like.
In the Eastern Conference:
In the Western Conference:
Let's break this down by each of the maddening spots we need to discuss.
The Bulls are 49-32 to the Raptors' 48-33, but Toronto gets the tiebreaker. So the Raptors need a win and a Bulls loss to claim the higher seed.
The Pacers are 38-43 to the Nets' 37-44, but Brooklyn gets the tiebreaker. So the Nets need a win and a Raptors loss to make the playoffs.
The Pelicans and Thunder both are 44-37. The Pelicans have the tiebreaker. It's pretty straight-forward: New Orleans gets the last West playoff spot with a victory or Oklahoma City loss.
Oh, boy. Save the best for last, they say ...
The Clippers have finished their season at 56-36, which means the 54-37 Grizzlies cannot pass them. But both the 55-36 Spurs and 55-36 Rockets could. Here's what you need to know about this:
Basically, the scenario looks best for the Clippers because they are locked in and done and get to watch from their couches like the rest of us.
The NBA Draft Lottery doesn’t deal in traditional tiebreakers, instead opting to split the odds of the two positions that are tied.
For instance, if the Timberwolves and Knicks tie for the same record (meaning a Minnesota victory and a New York loss), the No. 1 and No. 2 lottery odds would be combined and divided in half. So the Timberwolves would get 224 out of 1,000 ping-pong balls, and the Knicks would get 224 ping-pong balls, and a coin flip would determine which team got a 225th ball.
With that said, here are the three subplots you need to know for the lottery:
New York is on a two-game winning streak that has . The Knicks are 17-64, one game better than the 16-65 Timberwolves and one game worse than the 18-63 Sixers. That means the chances for a tie near the top of the lottery-odds chain is likely, if either the Knicks or Timberwolves win.
The Heat were eliminated from the playoffs by a Pacers victory Tuesday. But now they have huge stakes in the draft. The 76ers own the Heat's draft pick if it falls out of the top 10, but the Heat have the 10th-worst record in the league right now. Still, they could end up with the same record as the Nets (whose pick is owned by the Hawks), if they win and the Nets lose. So the Sixers and Heat both need to lose this game as they battle over the same draft pick. .
The difference between the seventh-worst record and eighth-worst record is one of the most substantial in terms of the lottery. The Nuggets are in seventh right now at 30-51, but the Pistons are 31-50 and would love to split those 71 combined ping-pong balls.
A great tool for the lottery-inclined is , which even has a fun lottery simulator.
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