NBA Western Conference Seeding: More Ridiculous Than It Seems

With two calendar days left in the regular season, most teams only have one game remaining on the schedule. 

Nevertheless, there are a countless number of scenarios that emerge in the Western Conference playoff seeding if certain outcomes in the remaining games took place.  

To minimize confusion, I will first point out the possible ties and the winner of each tiebreaker.  

Lakers > Hornets

Hornets > Spurs, Rockets

Hornets < Jazz

Spurs > Rockets

Jazz/Suns > Spurs 

Rockets > Suns 

Nuggets > Mavericks 

The most eye-catching tiebreak is the one that shows Utah AND Phoenix would each own the tiebreaker over San Antonio.

Consider this scenario: If Utah beats San Antonio Wednesday, Utah would finish ahead of San Antonio.  If this occurs AND Phoenix beats Portland, Phoenix would finish ahead of San Antonio.  If these two outcomes occur AND New Orleans loses their 2 remaining games (to the Clippers and Mavs - I understand, them losing both is very unlikely), then Utah would finish ahead of Phoenix, New Orleans, and San Antonio.  

Thus, it is still possible for the Utah Jazz to finish 2nd.  

A more reasonable scenario would be one that doesn't include New Orleans miraculously losing their last two games.  With Utah and Phoenix victories on Wednesday, the following would occur: 

1) Lakers/Hornets

2) Lakers/Hornets

3) Utah

4) Phoenix

5) San Antonio

6)  Houston

7) Dallas/Denver

8) Dallas/Denver

To see what happens will be very interesting to say the least.  Tomorrow, we will have to see if the Lakers and Hornets take care of business.  If either one slips up, the race becomes even more interesting.