NBA Playoff Picture 2016: Standings and Outlook as Postseason Approaches
The marathon that is the NBA regular season is about to give way to the entirely separate endurance contest that is the league's postseason.
Despite the two-month journey to the Finals that lies ahead, there's been little occasion for many playoff teams to rest their starters.
In the West, there's still one postseason berth to be handed out after the penultimate spot was claimed Monday night. And the Golden State Warriors, having already clinched the conference's top seed, will still need a win in their final game in order to break the Association's 20-year-old record for most wins in one regular season.
In the East, a neck-and-neck seeding battle has reached its zenith while teams vie to jump out of the anointed Cleveland Cavaliers' path to the conference finals.
For those reasons, several storylines around the league are available as an appetizer over the course of the next several days before the conclusion of the regular season on Wednesday and the start of the postseason on Saturday.
NBA Standings
| Seed | Eastern Conference | Western Conference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cleveland Cavaliers | Golden State Warriors |
| 2 | Toronto Raptors | San Antonio Spurs |
| 3 | Atlanta Hawks | Oklahoma City Thunder |
| 4 | Miami Heat | Los Angeles Clippers |
| 5 | Boston Celtics | Portland Trail Blazers |
| 6 | Charlotte Hornets | Memphis Grizzlies |
| 7 | Indiana Pacers | Dallas Mavericks |
| 8 | Detroit Pistons | Houston Rockets |
The Year of the Playoff Crashers
For the first time this millennium, the NBA playoff field could contain six newcomers. After missing out on the postseason a year ago, Miami, Charlotte, Indiana, Detroit and Oklahoma City have all clinched playoff berths, while the Utah Jazz battle Houston for the final spot in the West.
Factor in the playoff teams from a season ago that weren't supposed to be back in 2016—looking at you, Portland and Dallas—and you'll find this year's field is full of surprises.
That notion of parity is obscured, however, by the perceived foregone conclusion that is a rematch between the Cavaliers and Warriors in the Finals. But Cleveland has weaknesses, and Golden State has the Spurs to contend with, so there could be a greater opportunity to supplant the defending conference champions than meets the eye.
Of this year's playoff teams that missed the postseason in 2015, only one poses a real threat to disrupt the established hierarchy and prevent the Cavaliers, Warriors or Spurs from winning the title. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Thunder own the fourth-highest chance to win it all behind only those three teams.
Aside from Charlotte and Miami's 1 percent chance to take home the title, the site gives the rest of this postseason's newcomers chances of less than 1 percent.
But there are openings for some teams to make deep runs short of a championship in their return to the playoffs. And those opportunities lie mostly in the Eastern Conference. There, the No. 8 seed is just 13.5 games behind the top-seeded team. In the West, that gap is 32 games.
From the I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying department, the eighth-seeded Pistons own a 6-4 record against teams they could face on a run to the conference finals. That includes a 2-1 mark against the Cavaliers, whom they face in the first round.
Cavaliers Health Watch
The most persistent cloud over what was a spectacular set of six games in last year's NBA Finals was the elevated level of greatness the series could have delivered if Cleveland had even two of its three best players.
With Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving both succumbing to injuries during the Cavaliers' postseason run, LeBron James was left to admirably—yet unsuccessfully—battle the Warriors with a deficient supporting cast.
But entering its 2016 playoff run, Cleveland can be cautiously optimistic about its health. Love's last appearance on the injury report was due to illness, and Irving's most recent bout with injury was limited to one game on the bench early this month with a sore ankle.
The Cavaliers' most significant injury concerns are hardly even that. Mo Williams and Iman Shumpert are both listed as day-to-day. And while Williams' issues are slightly more ambiguous than his teammate's, ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin reported Shumpert should be "available for practice later in the week" after being ruled out for Cleveland's final two regular-season games.
Barring another unforeseen injury, James should have his full complement of support in pursuit of his first title as a Cavalier.
But the most critical healthy body is his. And at 31 years old, James has made five consecutive trips through the entire NBA postseason. So his health is as worthy of monitoring as anyone's.
One Spot Left
Houston staved off elimination from playoff contention with Monday's win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in which James Harden scored 34 points and nobody played defense. The Rockets overtook the Jazz for the eighth seed in the West when Utah lost to Dallas, officially sending the Mavericks to the postseason.
Neither team is in action Tuesday, so both will carry identical 40-41 records into the final day of the regular season Wednesday, when Houston hosts the Sacramento Kings and Utah travels to face the final Los Angeles Lakers team to ever feature Kobe Bryant.
If the Rockets and the Jazz pick up the same result in their respective season-ending games, win or lose, the tie goes to Houston. The teams split their head-to-head series with two wins apiece. Therefore, Houston's superior conference record would propel it to the postseason.
Who you root for Wednesday depends on whether you'd rather see Houston's established stars or Utah's plucky underdogs step in front of Golden State's buzz saw.
*All stats courtesy of NBA.com.
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