Real quick and dirty:
With the Jazz losing to the Lakers last night, those two teams are set as the 1-8 match-up in the West.
There’s no way we can play the Spurs, as a commenter on the Big Easy Buzz Blog explains:
Basically the only way the Spurs can move up high enough to play the Hornets is to beat us [tonight] and have Houston and Portland lose, which would mean Dallas would win, moving ahead of us, knocking us down to the 7th… seed.
So, the only possible opponents for the Hornets in Round 1 are the Nuggets, Rockets and Blazers.
Tonight’s (relevant) games:
- Rockets @ Mavericks
- Hornets @ Spurs
- Nuggets @ Blazers
We will play the Nuggets if…
- The Mavericks win, and the Hornets lose. (Nuggets will be 2 seed, Hornets will be 7 seed.)
- The Blazers win and the Rockets win. (Nuggets will be 3 seed, Hornets will be 6 seed.)
We will play the Rockets if…
- The Rockets win and the Nuggets win. (Rockets will be 3 seed, Hornets will be 6 seed.)
- The Hornets win and the Nuggets win. (Rockets will be 3 seed, Hornets will be 6 seed.)
We will play the Blazers if…
- The Blazers win, the Mavericks win and the Hornets win. (Blazers will be 3 seed, Hornets will be 6 seed.)
Please note that I had to rush through all those scenarios and so it’s very possible I may have made a mistake or missed something. If anyone has time to go through and double-check the possibilities, I’d very much appreciate corrections via the comments.
Some resources:
- Big Easy Buzz Blog: Seeding possibilities (from yesterday)
- RealGM: Playoff seeding scenarios (also from yesterday)
- ESPN.com: Full NBA standings
- NBA.com: Playoff tiebreakers (scroll down)