Every day that passes seems to shake the middle class of the West Conference. On Monday, the five teams planted between number 4 and number 8 were tied in the loss column. As such, each game for these teams has drastic implications in the classification.
Two of those teams, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies, faced Thursday, and thanks to a outbreak of 44 points from Anthony Edwards, Minnesota was victorious, 141-125. That victory was huge for Minnesota, of course, but has important ramifications throughout the classification.
The biggest beneficiary of Minnesota’s victory was not really the Timberwolves. No, it was the Golden State Warriors. On Wednesday, The warriors lost a stunner to the San Antonio Spurs in a bell of Harrison Barnes. That shot hit the Warriors in the game tournament, but Minnesota’s victory pushed them back to No. 6. Now the Warriors control their own destination. If they beat the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday and the Los Angeles clippers on Sunday, they are guaranteed a seed among the top ten.
The exact seed they would have not yet determined, and there are still two critical games in the calendar that affect this whole group of teams. On Friday, the Grizzlies must withdraw from the mats after this loss of Minnesota and face the Denver Nuggets. That confrontation has thematic connections, as well as practices. Both the Grizzlies and Nuggets Surprisingly he fired his chief coaches at the end of the season. Now, both are fighting to avoid the game tournament.
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On Sunday, we have that Warriors-Clippers game. It could be easily argued that these are the two most dangerous teams at the West Conference, apart from the best Oklahoma City Thunder at this time. The Warriors have 22-7 since the deadline for exchange, which gives them the second best record in the West in that period. The clippers are not very far with 20-9, and their net qualification +8.9 since then it is at the scream of the +9.5 brand of Golden State. These are two teams that, in normal circumstances, could meet at the western conference finals. Depending on how the next few days work, they could also meet in the first round. Or miss the playoffs completely through the game tournament.
There are too many tiebreaker and possible results to deal with anything as especially probable at this time. The Timberwolves are the only team in this group that has finished its slate face to face each other. They close the season with Gimmes against Nets and Jazz. But everyone else is still struggling for their Playoffs lives, so with two complete boards of 15 remaining games at the schedule (Friday and Sunday), almost anything is still possible.
