NBA Playoffs 2015: Latest Trends in Regular Season's Final Week

The 2015 NBA playoffs are just days away, and while many answers are slowing but surely coming into focus, there are still some huge questions shrouded in uncertainty. 

Will the Oklahoma City Thunder or New Orleans Pelicans secure a playoff berth in the West? Can the Indiana Pacers hold on to seal the last spot in the East over the Brooklyn Nets? Are the streaking San Antonio Spurs set to own the No. 2 seed, or will they stumble and fall all the way to a lowly No. 6 seed? And can the Miami Heat (36-45) really sneak in as the No. 8 seed in the East?

That last one is somewhat rhetorical, as a losing record is not the kind of playoff hindrance in the anything-goes East as it is in the West.

Unless your name is Stephen Curry or Paul Millsap, chances are you’ll be holding your breath and looking over your shoulder for the next 36 hours. A lot can happen Tuesday and Wednesday nights to shake up the playoff picture for some and derail the dreams of others, so let’s look at the facts of the playoff picture and see what’s at stake.

Here’s our breakdown of the latest trends and most intriguing scenarios (i.e., worthy of a literal double take) facing your favorite NBA teams as they head into game No. 82.

There’s No Way Miami Could Still Make the Playoffs…Is There?

There's surely no truth to the claim that the Miami Heat can make the playoffs, right? They're nine games below .500, in 10th place in the East and have lost seven of their last 10, so that must be an April Fool's Day joke that's lingered a bit too long.

This may sound unbelievable, but, yes, the Heat could hypothetically make the NBA playoffs. Yes, in 2015. Yes, the Heat from Miami. OK, stop asking incredulous questions for a minute and we’ll explain.

Miami is still technically alive in the playoff hunt thanks to the Boston Celtics clinching a berth, the Indiana Pacers beating the Thunder on Sunday for their fifth straight win and the Brooklyn Nets hitting a little skid with a two-game losing streak.

When the Heat beat the Orlando Magic 100-93 on Monday, thanks to a team-best 24 points from Hassan Whiteside, they kept the door open for an extremely convoluted (but not entirely implausible) escape plan into the postseason.

Stay with us here, because this next part’s tricky.

Miami is 1.5 games behind the Pacers, and the team from Indianapolis still holds the head-to-head advantage at 3-1. However, the Heat boast a 4-0 record against the Nets, who have a 2-1 head-to-head advantage over the Pacers. 

So if Indiana falls to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday and the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday and Brooklyn loses to the Magic (also on Wednesday), then the Heat just need to beat the Philadelphia 76ers in their final game of the regular season. If all those things happen, Indiana, Brooklyn and Miami will all have 37-45 records.

In that scenario, the playoff team would be selected based on the best winning percentage among those three teams. Since the Heat are 5-3 on the season compared to Indiana’s 4-3, they would slip into the final slot in the Eastern Conference.

It’s a crazy set of circumstances, but at least there’s a glimmer of hope for Miami fans—and some late-season nail biting for Pacers fans to keep things interesting.

How the West(’s Final Seed) Was Won

The Pelicans have gone 7-3 in their last 10, while the Thunder are perfect opposites at 3-7. New Orleans is in eighth place in the West while Oklahoma City is ninth. Rumor has it that Anthony Davis' team has a playoff berth all locked up...but rumors are far from fact.

New Orleans vs. Oklahoma City is perhaps the most hyped battle of survival this year, as many neutral fans wouldn’t mind seeing Russell Westbrook or Anthony Davis in the playoffs.

On Monday night, the Pelicans beat the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Thunder beat the Portland Trail Blazers to keep their respective hopes alive. New Orleans and OKC currently have equal records of 44-37 after the penultimate game of the season, but the Pelicans hold the head-to-head advantage in the event of a tie.

On Wednesday, both teams will play their final game of the regular season. OKC will be away at Minnesota, while New Orleans will host the Spurs.

Playing away is usually a challenge, but since the Timberwolves have a depressing home record of 9-31, the Thunder will like their chances. The Pelicans, on the other hand, will have home-court advantage, but they’ll be hosting the hottest team in the NBA—the Spurs boast an 11-game win streak.

Advantage: Thunder.

Watch Out for that Last Step, San Antonio, It’s a Doozy

There's no way the experienced and flaming-hot Spurs could finish anywhere but second in the West, they say. They've been a practically unstoppable force in the postseason for years that could never fall out of the conference's elite playoff spots, they say.

Well, as it turns out, "they" may be having trouble separating fact from fiction when it comes to San Antonio's perceived security as a No. 2 seed this year.

The Spurs would be wise to listen to Ned Ryerson’s advice in the above clip from Groundhog Day. Much like a king tripping over the first step on the way to his own coronation, so too could San Antonio fall into an embarrassing predicament if it doesn’t keep that 11-game win streak alive.

If the playoffs were to begin today, the Spurs’ 55-26 record would earn them the No. 2 seed in the West. But unfortunately for Spurs fans, the team still has one more game to play—and it’s a doozy.

As we noted above, the Pelicans will be fighting for their playoff lives when they host the Spurs on Wednesday. That incentive—along with a hostile home crowd that knows well what is on the line—will be a huge hurdle that could determine whether the Spurs go into the NBA playoffs as a No. 2 seed or a No. 6 seed.

In the worst-case scenario, San Antonio could fall four spots in the West if it loses to New Orleans and the Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers all triumph in their final games.

Houston could take the No. 2 seed if it beats the Utah Jazz and the Spurs lose Wednesday. If both Houston and San Antonio lose, then the Clippers can take the second seed with a win over the Phoenix Suns.

As it stands now, however, the Spurs control their seeding destiny. It may be a tough task to extinguish the Pelicans’ playoff hopes in New Orleans, but doing so would guarantee San Antonio the No. 2 seed (and a nice, long reprieve from facing the Golden State Warriors).

No Sleep Till Brooklyn (and Maybe Not for Some Time After)

Doomsayers in Brooklyn may already be looking forward to next season and the NBA draft, having already given up on this year's playoff hopes. However, they do so at their own peril, because the fact of the matter is the Nets are still very much alive.

As noted earlier, the race for the final seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs is taking place on a winding road with many turns and potholes near the finish line. Just a week ago, Brooklyn was looking at the NBA playoffs with a hopeful eye, but now the Nets are ruing what could have been.

“It’s our fault,” said Nets point guard Deron Williams after the 113-86 loss to the Chicago Bulls, per TheBrooklynGame.com’s Devin Kharpertian (h/t Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports). “We put ourselves in this position. A week ago it was looking really good for us. Everybody was happy. Now it’s kind of the opposite. We’ve just got to be positive, as positive as we can in the situation, and just get the one on Wednesday.”

At 37-44, the Nets are no longer in a playoff spot. They find themselves 1.5 games behind the 38-42 Boston Celtics in seventh, while the 37-43 Pacers currently reside just ahead of Brooklyn in eighth place.

In order to slide into the postseason, the Nets will have to beat Orlando on Wednesday. In addition to that victory, they’ll also need Indiana to drop at least one of its last two games (the Nets hold a 2-1 head-to-head advantage over the Pacers).

Even if Brooklyn can’t muster a win against Orlando, the team still has a long-shot hope in the form of back-to-back Indiana losses.

While there’s definite excitement in the West’s shootout for top seeds, there’s arguably just as much to look forward to in the logjam for survival that is the ugly struggle for the East’s final seed.