On April 8, Beijing time, the NBA arranged a total of 13 regular season matchups, all of which have now ended, including 9 games involving Western teams, all of which are blockbuster matchups, the results are Rockets 136-147 Mavericks, Clippers 120-118 Cavaliers, Pelicans 113-105 Suns, Thunder 121-118 Hornets, Trail Blazers 107-124 Celtics, 76ers 133-126 Spurs, Kings 107-77 Nets, Warriors 118-110 Jazz, Lakers 117-127 Timberwolves.
As a result, the latest ranking and situation of the western region are as follows:
Playoff qualifiers (1-6): Timberwolves, Nuggets, Thunder, Clippers, Mavericks, Suns
Idea Qualification Zone (7-10): Pelicans, Kings, Lakers, Warriors
11-15: Rockets, Jazz, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, Spurs
The Rockets, who have suffered four consecutive defeats, challenge the Mavericks away. The Rockets led the Mavericks by 22 points at most, but the Mavericks, led by Doncic and Irving, began to chase points from the second quarter until the Mavericks relied on Exum's three-pointer to tie the Rockets before the end, and the two sides went into overtime. Irving and Washington led the Mavericks to consecutive points in overtime, while the Rockets were struggling to chase down points and eventually lost 136-147 to the Mavericks on the road, and the Rockets suffered five straight losses, with a record of 38 wins and 40 losses, and completely missed the play-in tournament. The Mavericks improved their record to 48-30 and remained in fifth place in the West.
The Clippers host the Cavaliers, and Leonard continues to miss the game. The Cavaliers blasted a season-record 80 points in the first half, with the Clippers trailing by 21 points and trailing by as many as 26 points. The Clippers began to chase points in the second half, and in the final quarter, under George's 23-point + quasi-lore performance in a single quarter, the Clippers completed a 26-point reversal at 120-118, celebrating three consecutive wins, while improving their record to 50-28, continuing to rank fourth in the West, 3 wins behind the 3rd Thunder team, and 2 wins ahead of the Mavericks behind them.
The Suns, who are sixth in the West, host the Pelicans, who are seventh in the West. The Suns built a seven-point lead in the first quarter, but the Pelicans caught up from the second quarter and went into the final quarter with a seven-point lead. Beal scored consecutive points in the final quarter to lead the Suns to overtake, Zion's excellent offensive and defensive performance led the Pelicans to regain the advantage, and then the Suns were weak in chasing points, and finally lost to the Pelicans 105-113, missing a four-game winning streak, and the record became 46-32, and the Pelicans also had a 46-32 record. With the win-loss relationship, the Suns remain in 6th place in the West, 2 wins behind the Mavericks in 5th place in the West, and the Pelicans are in 7th place in the West, one win ahead of the Kings behind them.
Thunder away against the Hornets, in Alexander's absence, Giddey played a triple-double of 20+13+13 to lead the team to score 20+, the Thunder refused to be scored by the Hornets 8 points on the double to complete a 14-point reversal, and finally the Thunder narrowly swept the Hornets 121-118 to end a three-game losing streak, with a record of 53-25, continuing to rank third in the West, one win behind the second-place Timberwolves, and three wins ahead of the Clippers behind him.
The Kings defeated the Nets away, ending a two-game losing streak, with a record of 45 wins and 33 losses, 0.5 wins ahead of the Lakers behind them, because the relationship between the two teams is that the next two teams are tied and still in an advantage, so now the Kings have overtaken the Lakers and returned to eighth in the West, with a gap of 1 win between the top six in the West that will go straight to the playoffs.
The Spurs played at home against the 76ers, who led by 14 points at the beginning of the second quarter, but were overtaken by the Spurs on a 35-11 offensive run and once trailed by 13 points. In the second half, the 76ers stubbornly fought back to chase the score, Maxey hit a tie layup in the fourth quarter, Wembanyama and Oubre missed the first overtime, and the 76ers won in a wave of the second overtime, and finally the Spurs were swept by the 76ers 126-133 in double overtime, and the record came to 19-58 and continued to rank at the bottom of the West.
The Trail Blazers played away against the Green Army, Tatum was absent, Brown reached the 10,000-point milestone in his career, and the Celtics overpowered the Trail Blazers with more points, and finally swept the Trail Blazers 124-107 to win five in a row. The Trail Blazers' record came to 21-57 and continued to rank second from the bottom in the West.
The Warriors played at home against the Jazz, and Curry and Wiggins were absent in rotation. Because the Rockets lost to the Mavericks, the Warriors had locked up the top 10 in the West before the game. In this game, Klay and Kuminga teamed up to lead the Warriors to extend their 23-point lead at one point, and finally the Warriors sent the Jazz to 12 consecutive losses 118-110, with a record of 43-35, 1.5 wins behind the Lakers in front of them and 5 wins ahead of the Rockets behind them.
The Lakers lost 117-127 at home to the Timberwolves to end a four-game winning streak. The Lakers once led the Timberwolves in the first quarter, but with the injury of thick eyebrows, the Lakers scored a net negative of 19 points in the second quarter, and the Lakers only narrowed to 5 points in the third quarter, and the Timberwolves firmly controlled the overall situation in the final quarter. After this game, the Lakers fell from eighth to ninth in the West, 1.5 wins ahead of the Warriors and 0.5 wins behind the Kings, while the Timberwolves once again overtook the Nuggets to return to first place in the West, and led the latter by 0.5 wins.
The next four regular season games are mainly interesting for Western teams:
1. Who can be the first in the West? The Timberwolves, Nuggets and Thunder will compete for the first place in the West, and the three teams are currently only one win apart.
2. Can the Clippers keep the fourth place in the West? At present, the Clippers and the top three in the West have basically missed the chance, but the Mavericks behind them are still in hot pursuit, and the Clippers' primary goal now is to maintain the home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
3. Who can win the 5th and 6th places in the West and qualify for the playoffs? Now, the Mavericks, Suns, Kings, Pelicans, and Lakers all have the ability and qualification to compete for the 5th and 6th places in the West, and there is only a maximum of 3 wins between them.
4. How many places can the Warriors and Lakers finally rank?The two teams have locked the play-off places, and now they have the opportunity to impact the upper half of the play-off qualification.