2019 NBA Playoff Picture: Full Scenarios Revealed for Eastern, Western Brackets
All but one of the 16 NBA playoff spots are clinched heading into the final two days of the regular season on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there is plenty still at stake when it comes to seeding.
The league released a lengthy list of scenarios that will determine the seeds, which Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports shared Monday:
The Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat are fighting for the final spot in the Eastern Conference, while every seed but the No. 1 (Golden State Warriors) is hanging in the balance in the Western Conference.
One of the primary questions in the Eastern Conference is whether Dwyane Wade will even make the playoffs in his presumed last season. His Heat and the Hornets are both one game behind the Pistons in the race for the No. 8 seed.
Detroit finishes with Memphis and New York, who are a combined 48-112 on the season, and figures to have the inside track. It can even play its way into the No. 7 seed in some scenarios that would leave the Orlando Magic as the No. 8 and facing the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.
In the West, the battle to avoid the two-time defending champion Warriors takes center stage with nobody fighting for their playoff lives.
The Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs are tied and a half-game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder in the tight race for the Nos. 6 through 8 seeds. The team that finishes eighth will have the unfortunate task of dealing with Stephen Curry and Co. in the first round.
There is also plenty of drama in the race for the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds, especially after the second-seeded Denver Nuggets sat Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Paul Millsap and benched Will Barton, Gary Harris and Monte Morris during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle noted there was an "apparent determination to drop the Rockets to the fourth seed, even if it meant taking a loss on Sunday in Portland and risking a fall from the second seed themselves" from the Nuggets.
The indication is Denver would rather play the Trail Blazers in the second round than Houston, but the Rockets are still 1.5 games ahead of Portland in the race for the No. 3 seed, though the latter holds the tiebreaker.
"Everybody does their thing," Rockets forward PJ Tucker said of the situation, per Feigen. "If that's what they want to do, that's fine. We don't care. We want to win every time we step out on the court."
