Thursday Therapy: A Look at the Playoff Picture

Good morning, and welcome to the Therapy couch. At this point, I feel like the less said about the Minnesota Timberwolves' crushing loss to the Portland Trail Blazers last night, the better. Eric has your recap over yonder, if you're into that sort of thing.

Let's take today to be thankful for one thing: the NBA playoffs start in under two weeks, and as Timberwolves fans, we have the privilege of watching as relatively unbiased observers for what should be one of the more exciting playoffs in a while. The Western Conference is an utter bloodbath, and while the bottom of the Eastern Conference isn't exactly good, the intrigue of the likely eventual battle between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks should be fascinating to watch. And really, once the playoffs get started, anything can happen.

But first, we have to actually get eight playoff teams set. Let's take a look at where things stand with six days of regular season left.

Eastern Conference

The East still has plenty to figure out below Atlanta and Cleveland.

The 3-5 seeds are all still up in the air, which is a game of who wants the Bucks and who wants homecourt against the worst of the three. The battle for the 5 is exclusively between the Bulls and Wizards, as Toronto must be a top 4 seed by virtue of winning their division. Each has two away games at teams in the fight for the 7 and 8 seeds, and two games they should win (although the Bulls losing to the Magic was not a good look). Tiebreakers between these three are as follows:

Then there's the issue of the 6, 7 and 8 seeds. There are still five teams alive for the 7 and 8, although the Hornets are on life support at this point (they're eliminated with one loss and one win from both BOS and BKN). The Pacers have probably the hardest schedule of the four, with games against still-fighting-for-position Memphis and Oklahoma City, but at this point, who knows what could happen. Ready for these tiebreakers? I'm going to assume the Hornets fizzle so I have slightly less to do. There are 26 scenarios, and I'm going to do all of them. (inhales)

(exhales) Long story short: ties are typically really good for the Heat, and really, REALLY bad for the Nets. Circle those two games between the Bucks and Nets on Sunday and the Bucks and Celtics on Wednesday. In a lot of scenarios, Boston needs to win that game to get in.

Western Conference

And the best part? The West might actually be crazier, although there's only the one question of which team's going to make the playoffs. The seeding's the key in the West. Here are your current standings:

This time we'll go from bottom up. The tiebreaker for the 8 seed is simple: the Pelicans have it, having won the season series with the Thunder 3-1. Oklahoma City must finish with a better record than New Orleans or they're out. Dallas, having gone through a mediocre stretch lately, is locked into the 7 seed. 2-6, though, who knows what's going to happen. The Trail Blazers, benefiting from winning the Northwest Division, can drop no lower than the 4 seed, even though they currently have the sixth best record in the conference. The winner of the Southwest Division will receive the same benefit. Currently that's the Grizzlies, but any of Memphis, Houston, and even San Antonio can storm in and take that top 4 guarantee. Tiebreaker time! As before, there's another lengthy list involved, and another five-way tie is possible! Hooray!

Confused yet? Me too!

So, let's make it a contest. Prediction time in the comments! Three parts:

1. List your 2-6 seeds in the Western Conference in order.

2. Who gets the 8 seed in the West?

3. List your 3-8 seeds in the Eastern Conference in order.

Games are fun. Basketball is fun. Tiebreakers are fun. Who likes fun? Song of the day's all about fun today. If you're not familiar with 2Cellos yet, get ready.