March Madness it is not, but the last three weeks of the NBA season still holds much significance in the basketball world.
At stake between now and April 15th (the final day of the regular season): the MVP trophy, best record in the NBA (and the home-court advantage throughout the playoffs that comes with it); free agents-to-be playing hard for the first time all season in order to cash in this offseason, and young players on bad teams trying to solidify a spot in the rotation for next season.
And, of course, playoff seeding.
We dedicate today's Starting Five to the Eastern Conference playoff race as we take a look at five of the most important things to watch for over the next three weeks as we prepare for what could be a grueling dogfight to see who will represent the East in the NBA Finals.
Starting Five
1. We know who's No. 1...
What once was a three-team race for the top spot in the East is now just a question of whether or not the Cavs can hold off the Lakers for the best record in the NBA. Cleveland enters the week with a .814 winning percentage and a game up on the Lakers (.791 winning percentage) in the loss column.
With the Lakers having to play their next six games on the road, the window for the Cavs to swoop in and steal the best record in the NBA seems wide-open.
Remember this, though, the Lakers swept the season series with the Cavs this season, meaning they would have the tiebreaker if the two teams finish with the same record. Essentially, the Cavs would have to finish the season at least a game up on the Lakers if they want home-court advantage in the NBA Finals.
With 12 games to play, the Cavs find themselves in that very position. With eight of their remaining 12 games left at the Q, where they are a remarkable 32-1 by the way, the Cavs seems to be in the driver seat for the all important home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
2. But who's No. 2?
We may very well know the answer to this after Wednesday night, as the Boston Celtics visit the Orlando Magic for what could very possibly be the game that determines who finishes with the second best record in the East.
As it stands right now, the Celtics are just percentage points ahead of the Magic, but both teams currently sit at 18 losses. Boston leads the season series 2-1, so a win would give them, in essence, a three-game lead over the Magic if you account for the tiebreaker.
An Orlando win, however, would put the Magic a game up on the C's in the loss column and in position for home-court advantage should both teams advance to play each other in the second round of the playoffs.
To say that Wednesday's game in Orlando is going to be important is an understatement, and expect Amway Arena to be rocking and the announcers to use the phrase "playoff intensity" no fewer than 10 times.
3. Is the two-seed even all it's cracked up to be?
That depends on who you ask. Surely, both Orlando and Boston want home-court advantage in a head-to-head matchup, but the two-seed comes at a much greater cost for the Magic.
If the playoffs were to start today, the Detroit Pistons would be the seven-seed in the East. Their home loss to the Heat on Sunday afternoon didn't help the Pistons' chances of climbing out of that spot any time soon. That's good news for Boston if they finish second; they have completely dominated the Pistons this year.
For Orlando, the possibility of playing the Pistons isn't so appealing. How bad of a matchup is it for the Magic? Since the 2006-07 season, the Pistons are 17-3 against the Magic including playoff games and swept all three games this season. The Pistons have eliminated the Magic from the playoffs each of the past two seasons, with Orlando winning just one game in the two series combined.
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy called playing the Pistons "groundhog day" after their March 9th loss at the Palace, and Rip Hamilton said this week, "I don't think they want to see us."
Even the Pistons fans are hoping for an Orlando/Detroit first round matchup. As the Pistons were putting the finishing touches on the aforementioned March 9th win, I sent out a text to all of my Piston fan friends and asked, "Would you rather somehow sneak into the four-seed and host a playoff series or finish a seven and play the Magic?"
Everyone answered "play the Magic" without having to think about it.
So while finishing in the two-seed and having home court against Boston in round two is probably more important in the overall scheme of things to the Orlando Magic, finishing third and playing the Sixers in round one is a much more manageable consolation prize.
4. Can the winner of the 4-5 matchup threaten the Cavs?
It doesn't seem likely. As of right now, the Hawks would host the Heat in round one of the playoffs, with the winner to move on and play Cleveland in round two.
The Cavs are 3-1 against both of those teams this year, and although all eight games have been close (only one has been decided by double-digits), neither has had an answer for King James and company in the fourth quarter.
To make matters worse, neither team is very good away from home. The Hawks are 14-22 on the road, and the Heat are just 13-21. Being eight games below .500 on the road isn't exactly a recipe for success when you face the possibility of playing four road games against a team that has lost just once at home all year.
Still, the Hawks showed last season that they can compete with anyone in a playoff series, and the Heat still have Dwyane Wade, so it's unfair to just pencil the Cavs into the conference finals, but the outlook for either of these teams advancing past the second round is bleak.
5. Who will get the eighth and final playoff spot?
Who cares? If you were a fan of Chicago, Charlotte, Milwaukee, New Jersey, Indiana, or New York, wouldn't you rather finish out of the playoffs and take your chances in the lottery than finish eighth and get swept by the best team in the league?
I'm not saying that finishing eighth and getting in the playoffs isn't an achievement, but let's face it, if my team finishes the season eight games under .500 I'm looking forward to next season, I'm not looking forward to being embarrassed in the first round of the playoffs.
In the Rotation: Charlotte Bobcats
Even though I just said I wouldn't necessarily want my favorite team to finish in the eighth seed, I'd make an exception if I were a Bobcats fan. This team has never made the postseason since joining the league back in 2004, but they find themselves just a game back of the Bulls for the eighth seed.
While they could certainly use a high draft pick, the chance of winning the lottery is so slim for them that they'd be the one team that would benefit the most out of a playoff series against Cleveland.
They remind me a lot of the Hawks from last season; they have a young core, they've gotten better as the season went along, and they made a midseason trade (in this case a series of midseason trades) that has eventually paid off.
Advancing to the playoffs would be great for the fans (they'd get their first taste of postseason basketball since the Hornets left town), great for the players, and great validation for the front office as proof that bringing in Larry Brown was the right move.
Having some postseason experience, plus a full training camp under Brown with their new core, plus the addition of the 16th pick, would be a big step in the right direction for this franchise heading into next season.
Out of the Rotation: All six teams fighting for the eighth seed
It's bad enough that a team with less than 40 wins is going to get in the playoffs, but what's even worse is that none of the teams seems able to dig deep and finish strong to seal up the final spot.
The six teams (Bulls, Bobcats, Bucks, Nets, Pacers, and Knicks) are separated by just 3.5 games, and all six teams played one game over the weekend. Only the Pacers won, and they played the Bobcats, so someone had to win. Each of the other five teams lost by an average of 10 points.
It doesn't matter how bad your record is at this point of the season, if you are within reach of making the playoffs, you have to bring it every night. None of these six teams seem hungry enough to grab the final playoff spot, and we could be on the verge of redefining the meaning of "backing into the playoffs" if someone doesn't decide to step it up over the last 10 games.
Inactive List: New York Knicks
Last week, I talked about the possibility of the Sacramento Kings setting a record for futility by being the first team in NBA history to go 0-30 against the opposing conference, and the New York Knicks went ahead and spoiled it by losing to the Kings by 27 at home on Friday night. It was the last game of a four-game East coast trip for the Kings, and the Knicks still have something to play for.
How on earth can you let a team that hasn't beaten a single Eastern Conference opponent all season come into your building and win by 27 points? That's just an amazing accomplishment of ineptitude, and for a showing like that, there's no place for the Knicks anywhere near the rotation, so they have to settle for the shame of a spending a week on the Inactive List.
Be sure to check back at Sports Central every Monday to see who cracks Scott Shepherd's Rotation as he breaks down what is going on around the NBA.
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