Beijing time on April 3, now there are only a few games left before the NBA playoffs officially started, and this season's regular season is unprecedentedly intense, until now there are still many teams have not been able to lock up the playoffs, and many strong teams have directly fallen out of the playoffs. Almost every day a round of the regular season determines the direction of the next playoff roster, and even the Nets with Irving and Durant are not feeling well during this time. So after today's round of regular season, what new changes have taken place in the NBA's playoff landscape?
The Nets lost to the Hawks, and the Hornets came in ninth
Due to the previous NBA reform of the playoffs, a playoff between the seventh and tenth places in each division will need to determine the last two playoff spots, while the previous seventh to tenth teams in the East are the Nets, Hornets, Hawks and Cavaliers. This gameday the Nets and Hawks have a head-to-head showdown, and the showdown between them will determine whether they have some home advantage in the playoffs. But even though Durant and Irving were doing their best, the Hawks still won the game, which led to the Nets going to enter the playoffs in the tenth place in the East.
This is undoubtedly a regrettable situation for the Nets, who have been ranked first in the East at the beginning of the season, after all, entering the playoffs in tenth place is doomed to have no home advantage, and it is likely that they will be eliminated in one game. The Hornets are still in ninth place in the East, which is also their chance to enter the playoffs after a few years. As for the Cavaliers, who have always been regarded as dark horses, it is likely that they are the blockers of these three teams, and in this case, the most likely add-on teams in the East to enter the playoffs will be the Nets and Cavaliers.
Thompson helped the Warriors comeback and lock up a playoff spot
Due to Curry's injury some time ago, this has led to a lot of decline in the strength of the league's seeded team, the Warriors, but fortunately the Warriors can always have other players to stand up. In the game against the Jazz, the Warriors, who were originally ranked third in the West, will face the Jazz in fifth, which will also determine whether the Warriors can lock up a playoff spot as soon as possible. In the end, under Thompson's play, the Warriors won the Jazz through a big reversal to lock in a playoff spot in the third place in the West, but this ranking is still debatable.
Because the Suns, who are currently number one in the West, are 7.5 wins ahead of the second-place Grizzlies and 13.5 wins ahead of the warriors in third place, the Suns can't be surpassed. However, the Lone Ranger is only one win away from the Warriors, so even if the Warriors lock in a playoff spot, they may not be able to rank third in the West. If the Lone Rangers and Jazz overtake the Warriors, then the Warriors will not have the home advantage of the playoffs, so what the Warriors have to do at this stage is to save every game.
The Heat locked up home field advantage and the Bulls were in jeopardy
For the west, which has a relatively large gap in record, the gap in the record in the east is very small. At this stage, the Heat, which is ranked first in the East, are only 1.5 wins ahead of the second-place Bucks, and two wins ahead of the third-place Green Army. The Heat won the Bulls on this game day to achieve such an advantage, but this does not mean that the Heat are not good, they can at least stabilize the top four positions in the East, that is, in the first round of the playoffs, the Heat are already destined to have home advantage.
As for the bulls in the sixth place in the East, it is more dangerous, because the Bulls are now only 2 wins away from the seventh-place Cavaliers, and in the next four games, the Cavaliers still have a certain possibility of overtaking the Bulls to become the last team that does not need to play a playoff. So on this basis, the Bulls and Cavaliers will definitely compete with each other, after all, no one wants to play in the playoffs, and if they are not careful, they are likely to overturn.
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