There are only three days left in the season but we've still basically decided nothing. The 3-5 spots and 6-8 spots are AGAIN dead-even when it comes to records. The big surprise of the day was that OKC somehow managed to lose in Oakland against Steph Curry and his fightin' D-Leaguers.
Due to the OKC loss, with just 2 games left in the season, the Suns can finish no worse than the 5 seed in the Western Conference.
Sunday April 11th Western Conference Results
Portland Trail Blazers 91 Los Angeles Lakers 88 (Recap) - The Lakers ran Kobe Bryant out onto the floor after his 2 game rest but it still didn't matter in a home loss to the Blazers. Portland and LAL traded ridiculously stupid fouls in the final few seconds before the Lakers got the "last laugh" by fouling Martell Webster on a three with 3.1 seconds left. Webster hit all 3 and Pau Gasol missed a game tying trey. The big story for Portland was the loss of Brandon Roy to a knee injury. Per Jason Quick, it is a bone bruise and he'll miss tomorrow's game against OKC - no word on him moving forward.
Golden State Warriors 120 Oklahoma City Thunder 117 (Recap) - Wait...what? How? I didn't watch this game as I was at US Airways watching the local Phoenix squad so I'll go off what I'm reading off of a summary. Basically the Thunder had a 17 point lead in the first and despite Kevin Durant's 40 points they blew that lead and lost to Golden State. This is a bad, bad loss for a team hoping not to get the Lakers in the first round.
Phoenix Suns 116 Houston Rockets 106 (Recap) - The Suns blew a 14 point 3rd quarter lead but hit a flurry of three pointers beginning with 3:06 left in the 4th to seal the win. Seth covered it closer than my series of screams and yells from Section 108. Short version: Amar'e is awesome.
Western Conference Standings
| TEAM | W | L | PCT | GB | L10 | STREAK |
| 1. LA Lakers | 56 | 24 | .700 | - | 4-6 | LOST 1 |
| 2. Dallas | 53 | 27 | .663 | 3 |
7-3 | WON 3 |
| 3. Denver | 52 | 28 | .650 | 4 | 5-5 | LOST 1 |
| 4. Utah | 52 | 28 | .650 | 4 | 7-3 | WON 1 |
| 5. SUNS | 52 | 28 | .650 | 4 | 8-2 | WON 1 |
| 6. Portland |
49 | 31 | .613 | 7 | 7-3 | WON 1 |
| 7. San Antonio |
49 | 31 | .613 | 7 | 7-3 | WON 1 |
| 8. Oklahoma City |
49 | 31 | .613 | 7 |
6-4 | LOST 1 |
Monday April 12th Western Conference Games of Significance
Thunder @ Trail Blazers - Game of the night in the West by far. While neither of these teams can catch the Suns, it will go a long way towards deciding the bottom 3 seeds. Both teams played last night but Portland is going to be without Brandon Roy. I'll take the Thunder.
Timberwolves @ Spurs - On my old blog we used to call these types of games "TCB" games. It means "take care of business" - and I'm certain the Spurs will do so.
Grizzlies @ Nuggets - Memphis pulled off a win in San Antonio last week so maybe they can rise up and take out Denver? Probably not....but I can root for it to happen.
Mavericks @ Clippers - See above comment concerning T'Wolves @ Spurs.
[Note by Seth Pollack, 04/12/10 8:17 AM MST ]
BSotS new member Cinsana88 created this cool spreadsheet with all the possible outcomes for seedings:
Here's the explanation from him:
I did all the possible winning scenarios for Dal, Den, Utah and Phx. I accounted for the fact that Den and Utah play Phx so with that I had 54 combination's that could happen between the 4 teams. I followed the tie-breaking format too. Here are the results:
8% Suns get the 2 seed
16% they get the 3 seed
35% they get the 4 seed
41% they get the 5 seed
if they win both of their games they are a lock for the 3 seed and need Dal to lose its two games to get the 2 seed.
if they split their games then they have a 85% chance to get the 4 seed.
if they lose both its no higher then a 5th seed.