Tuesday NBA Roundup: Playoff Scenarios Heading into Last Day of 2015-16 Season
The finale of the 2015-16 NBA season will be one for the history books.
While the Golden State Warriors battle the Memphis Grizzlies for win No. 73—which would edge the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' single-season record of 72-10—the basketball world will bid farewell to Kobe Bryant as the Los Angeles Lakers host the Utah Jazz.
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
Both of the late marquee games will have immediate consequences across the league.
The Grizzlies squandered an opportunity to stick in fifth place out West with a 110-84 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday. Instead, they'll head to Oakland on Wednesday hoping not to finish as low as seventh.
Zach Randolph (14 points, four rebounds) was the only Memphis starter to finish in double figures. Lance Stephenson (11 points, three assists) and rookies Jarell Martin (12 points) and Xavier Munford (11 points, four assists) joined him off the Grizzlies bench.
Memphis managed just 40.7 percent shooting against L.A.'s top-10 defense. The Clippers converted 54.7 percent of their looks and put six of their own players in double figures, despite Jamal Crawford's night off and J.J. Redick (11 points) sitting out the second half with an ankle injury.
In his fifth game back from a quad issue, Blake Griffin chipped in 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals in 23 minutes. Chris Paul (12 points, 13 assists) notched his 38th double-double of the season. But it was Austin Rivers, with 14 points off the bench, who paced L.A. in scoring.
By crushing the Grizzlies, the Clippers narrowed their list of potential first-round foes to the Portland Trail Blazers and Dallas Mavericks. If the Blazers take care of the Denver Nuggets in Portland on Wednesday, they'll start their playoff push in L.A.
Memphis will have to sweat out a first-round matchup with either the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder. If the Grizzlies somehow win at Golden State and the Mavericks lose to the Spurs on Wednesday, Memphis will start the playoffs in Oklahoma City. Should the two Southwest Division foes both win or Memphis lose, Dallas would secure the No. 6 seed.
The Thunder took the season series from the Grizzlies, 2-1, beating them by an average of 27.5 points across their last two meetings. Those were before Marc Gasol and Mike Conley Jr. fell to season-ending injuries and the team traded away Courtney Lee and Jeff Green.
Memphis didn't fare much better against San Antonio. The Spurs swept their series with the Grizzlies by an average of 12.5 points per game. If late-season records are any indication however, San Antonio could be the more vulnerable of Memphis' potential first-round opponents.
The Spurs narrowly escaped what would've been their fourth straight loss with a 102-98 overtime win against the Thunder. San Antonio trailed by as many as 18 points against OKC's "B" team, which hit its first 20 free throws in a row. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka all spent the night resting, clearing the way for Dion Waiters, Steven Adams, Enes Kanter and rookie Cameron Payne to score 17 points apiece.
San Antonio finished off its comeback without LaMarcus Aldridge. The All-Star forward scored eight points on 2-of-5 shooting before leaving in the third quarter to tend to his sore finger, per Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News.
The Spurs, though, are no one-man team. Kawhi Leonard (26 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals, two blocks) and Tony Parker (20 points, three assists, three steals) combined to score all of San Antonio's points in the team's first extra period all season.
Their effort gave the Spurs their 40th home victory of the campaign, tying the record the Boston Celtics set in 1985-86.
That'll put this San Antonio team into the annals of NBA lore, but it won't do anything to change the West's playoff picture in the here and now. The only games that will do so come on Wednesday, and one in particular could solidify that side of the Association's bracket before the Jazz have their say at Staples Center.
Utah will need the Sacramento Kings to spoil things for the Houston Rockets earlier in the evening for the right to face the Warriors' steamroller in Round 1 of the playoffs. The Jazz and Rockets split their season series, but if they finish with identical records, Houston will get the nod by virtue of a stronger conference mark.
In the Jazz's case, pulling for the Kings to win on the road, where they've compiled a 15-25 record this season, would be tough enough even with George Karl's squad at full strength. Sacramento has already ruled out four of its top six players—DeMarcus Cousins, Rajon Rondo, Omri Casspi and Marco Belinelli—for the trip to Space City.
The Rockets, meanwhile, will be playing for their postseason lives, if not their jobs. According to ESPN's Calvin Watkins and Marc Stein, interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff and general manager Daryl Morey could get the ax from team owner Leslie Alexander if Houston follows up last year's trip to the Western Conference Finals with a spot in the draft lottery.
A win over the depleted Kings would seal the Rockets' fourth straight playoff appearance. Without some success against Golden State in the first round, though, Houston could be in for some serious upheaval this summer anyway.
Miami Making Moves in East's Middle Class
As wacky as Wednesday could be out West, the biggest seed-centric drama will be reserved for the East. Three different teams will be jockeying for two spots in the conference's top four, with the Charlotte Hornets hoping to climb as high as fifth.
The Miami Heat moved one step closer to snagging the No. 3 spot behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors with a 99-93 win over the Detroit Pistons. Joe Johnson scored 15 of his game-high 25 points during a 6-of-6 fourth quarter, including back-to-back threes to put the Heat up by seven in the middle of the period and another long ball to all but seal the victory for Miami in the final minute.
Johnson's big finish helped the Heat overcome Dwyane Wade's slow start and rookie Justise Winslow's absence. (Winslow's nursing a sprained ankle.) Wade didn't score until the 4:14 mark of the first half after missing his initial four shots. According to STATS, per the Associated Press (via ESPN), Wade hadn't waited that long to score in a game since March 17, 2006.
"Dwyane has that ability to move on from rough segments in a game," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, per the Associated Press.
The Pistons, meanwhile, suffered from some droughts of their own, while Reggie Jackson sat with an abdominal strain. Andre Drummond (nine points on 4-of-11 shooting, 18 rebounds) fell just shy of his 67th double-double of the season. With Steve Blake (10 points, seven assists) starting at point guard Tuesday, the Pistons hit just 40.5 percent of their attempts from the floor.
The Heat now control their own destiny heading into a showdown with the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. If they win, they'll be Southeast Division champs and the No. 3 seed in the East, ahead of the Atlanta Hawks in fourth. If they lose and the Hawks beat the Washington Wizards in D.C., the division title and No. 3 spot will go to Atlanta.
In that case, the C's would sneak into the No. 4 seed, Miami would drop to fifth and Charlotte would finish sixth, win or lose against the Orlando Magic. The only way the Hornets can move up is with a win over Orlando and a Boston loss.
East's Other Matchups Set
Fortunately, the Eastern Conference confusion ends there. The combination of the Pistons' loss to the Heat and the Indiana Pacers' 102-90 victory opposite the New York Knicks cemented Detroit as top seed Cleveland's first-round opponent and locked Indy into the seventh spot.
Indy rode a 17-2 run in the third quarter to pull away from the Knicks, who were without Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis and Jose Calderon while bringing Arron Afflalo off the bench in their season finale. Derrick Williams led all scorers with 21 points. Rookie Jerian Grant finished with 18 points and six assists, but he turned the ball over five times.
The Pacers pounded the Knicks inside, outscoring them 46-26 in the paint. Paul George and George Hill tied for the team lead at 19 points, with the former adding six assists.
"Love it," Raptors wing DeMarre Carroll said of the matchup, per TSN's Josh Lewenberg. "Paul George is one of the best in the league, but it's not my first rodeo against him. It's gonna be great"
Carroll and company can feel confident about their chances of advancing after consecutive first-round ousters. Toronto's 122-98 annihilation of the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday was the team's 55th win of the season, extending a franchise record.
Sixers forward Robert Covington was the game's high scorer, with 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting (6-of-10 from three). If highlights meant more in the box score, Nik Stauskas would've been the star of the night.
But Philly's 10-win "traveshamockery-of-a-team" was no match for Toronto's seven double-figure scorers, led by rookie Norman Powell's 18 points.
Powell's development during Carroll's 42-game absence gives the Raptors another potent two-way weapon to wield against the Pacers and, if they take four of seven from Indy, whoever awaits in Round 2. But Carroll, a defensive menace on the wing, could be the key to Toronto's hopes of making noise in the East, with star swingmen like George and LeBron James in their path.
But those concerns are still several days—if not several weeks—away. Before then, the NBA will brace itself for one more hectic, historic night, before the really important business begins.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@JoshMartinNBA), Instagram and Facebook.
