Game 82 for every team in the NBA has arrived. For 10 clubs, it’s the end of the season. For 13 others, it’s one last game before the postseason.
And for seven teams in the Western Conference, Game 82 might feel like Game 7.
The NBA regular season ends Sunday, with seven postseason-bound West teams entering the final day wondering where they’ll land in the standings. And it all could be decided around the same time; each of the games that will affect those unclaimed West spots starts a little after 2:30 p.m. CDT.
All 30 teams will be in action. Some just want to get things over with. Some want answers — and will get them.
“I don’t want to be too dramatic,” Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “It should be like a Game 7 kind of vibe. You win, and you control your destiny on a guaranteed playoff series. You lose, and you roll the dice. Good teams find a way to win big games like that, and that’s what we’re aiming to be.”
There are four West teams — the Warriors, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves — vying for three guaranteed playoff spots, and one of them will even get home-court in Round 1. The odd team out of that mix is headed to a play-in game Tuesday.
For those four teams, it’s very simple: Win and you’re in.
The Warriors play the Clippers, so the loser of that game likely — but not definitely — goes to the play-in. If the Utah Jazz knock off the Timberwolves, the Wolves are play-in-bound regardless of other outcomes.
Entering Sunday, the Timberwolves would be the odd team out in the race for those last three guaranteed West spots. The Nuggets enters the final day in the No. 4 spot, with the Clippers fifth and Warriors sixth. The Timberwolves close at home against the Jazz, the team with the worst record in the West.
“Win the game and then whatever happens after that happens,” the Timberwolves’ Julius Randle said. “We win the game, we’re where we want to be. So, focus on us and I always say control what we can control. And after that, we’ll figure it out.”
Also undecided: where the Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks will end up. The Grizzlies will be seventh or eighth in the West and in a play-in game Tuesday, while the Kings and Mavs will be ninth and 10th — in some order — with No. 9 hosting No. 10 in an elimination game Wednesday.
“It’s good that we know who we’re playing,” Mavericks forward Anthony Davis said. “So, we’ll start prepping.”
The Eastern Conference order is set.
The West spots that are set: The Oklahoma City Thunder are No. 1, Houston Rockets are No. 2 and the Los Angeles Lakers are No. 3. Next weekend’s openers will mark the first time the Lakers host a Game 1 in Los Angeles since 2012; the Lakers were the home team for all four Game 1s they played on their way to the NBA title in the bubble in 2020, but those games were in Florida.
“I’m just incredibly proud of our team,” Lakers first-year coach JJ Redick said. “It’s an accomplishment to win 50 games in the regular season in any year. I think particularly this year, in this Western Conference, it is, and it’s a credit to our players. … We want to go win one more game, and we’ll figure out Sunday who we play in the first round.”
East playoff picture
It’s as clear as things can be going into the play-in tournament.
- The No. 1 Cavs will find out their first-round opponent Friday.
- The No. 2 Celtics will play either the Magic or Hawks in Round 1. The Magic and Hawks play in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday to decide the No. 7 seed.
- The No. 3 Knicks will play the No. 6 Pistons in Round 1 starting next weekend.
- The No. 4 Pacers will play the No. 5 Bucks in Round 1 starting next weekend.
- The Bulls play host to the Heat on Wednesday at the United Center. The winner will play at the Magic-Hawks loser on Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and who’ll face the Cavaliers. The Bulls-Heat loser of is eliminated.
- The Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards are eliminated and will see their seasons end Sunday.
West playoff picture
- The No. 1 Thunder will find out their first-round opponent Friday.
- The No. 2 Rockets will find out their first-round opponent Tuesday.
- The Lakers are the No. 3 seed.
- The Kings and Mavericks will meet in an elimination play-in game Wednesday, site TBD. The winner moves on to another elimination game Friday to decide the No. 8 seed and who’ll play the Thunder in Round 1. Wednesday’s loser is eliminated.
- The Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors and Timberwolves are vying for three playoff spots. The team that doesn’t get one of those three guaranteed spots will play the Grizzlies, site TBD, on Tuesday in the play-in tournament to decide the No. 7 seed.
- The Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans and Jazz are eliminated and will see their seasons end Sunday.
Sunday’s games with playoff implications
- Clippers at Warriors: Massive for both teams, and may affect where other West teams land as well. Both teams would escape the play-in with a win.
- Mavericks at Grizzlies: The Mavericks will visit the Kings for a play-in game with a loss. The Grizzlies are in the 7-8 play-in game and could move to No. 7 (and get home-court) with a win.
- Suns at Kings: The Kings will host the 9-10 play-in game with a win or a Mavs loss.
- Nuggets at Rockets: The Nuggets would be No. 4 and have home-court in Round 1 with a win.
- Jazz at Timberwolves: The Timberwolves avoid the play-in with a win though could fall as far as No. 8 with a loss.
Betting odds
The Thunder (+175) are favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed closely by the Celtics (+220) and Cavaliers (+550), then the Warriors and Lakers (both +1200) and Nuggets (+2200). Nobody else has odds shorter than 30-1.
Numbers watch
- The NBA record for total 3-pointers made in a season fell last weekend. The 99th 3-pointer Sunday will be the 33,000th of the season. The previous record for a season was 31,579.
- For the first time, the NBA has three players with 300 3-pointers in a season. The Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards has 313, Pistons’ Malik Beasley has 312 and Curry has 304. There have been 10 instances of a player making 300 3s in a season. Curry has six. Edwards, Beasley, James Harden and Klay Thompson each have one.
- There had been four instances of teammates each having 250 3-pointers in a season: Curry and Thompson did it four times when they were the Warriors’ “Splash Brothers.” The Celtics are now the first team to have three players reach that number in a season: Derrick White has 265, Payton Pritchard has 251 and Jayson Tatum has 250.
- The Thunder are on the brink of setting an NBA record for point differential. They’re winning by an average of 12.8 points per game; the record is 12.3 by the 1971-72 Lakers. The Thunder have outscored teams by 1,040 points so far; three teams — the 1971-72 Lakers (1,007), 1970-71 Bucks (1,005) and 1995-96 Bulls (1,004) are the only teams to have a 1,000-point differential over a full season. This means all the Thunder need to do to break the record Sunday is not lose by 33 or more points to the Pelicans.
- The Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic has clinched a triple-double average for the season. He’s the third player to do it, joining Nuggets teammate Russell Westbrook and Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson.
Stats leader races
Not much of a race for the scoring, rebound and assist titles. They’re locked up.
The Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be the scoring champion, the Kings’ Domantas Sabonis will win the rebounding title for the third straight year — he’ll be the seventh player in NBA history to do that — and the Hawks’ Trae Young will win the assist title.
Stat of the day
The Heat became the first team in NBA history to have 11 players score at least nine points in a game. It happened Friday in a 49-point road win against the Pelicans — one of an NBA-record five blowouts by more than 30 points in the same day.
Playing in all 82
Eleven players entering Sunday have a chance of appearing in all 82 games and six have a chance to start all 82.
The Knicks’ Mikal Bridges is in line to play all 82 — again. He has appeared in all 555 possible regular-season games in his career, 39 more in the playoffs and all 116 of Villanova’s games when he was in college. His last game missed: one game because of illness in his junior year of high school.
Spurs point guard Chris Paul could become the second-oldest player, behind John Stockton, to start all 82 games. Stockton did it in the season in which he turned 40; Paul won’t turn 40 until May 6. Paul could become the first player to do so in Year 20 of a career or later; Stockton played 19 seasons.
The others who could start 82: the Cavs’ Jarrett Allen, Spurs’ Harrison Barnes, Rockets’ Jalen Green and Timberwolves’ Jaden McDaniels.
In addition to Bridges, Paul, Allen, Barnes, Green and McDaniels, the Spurs’ Julian Champagnie, Warriors’ Buddy Hield, Pistons’ Malik Beasley, Washington Wizards’ Bub Carrington and Timberwolves’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker could play in their 82nd games Sunday.
