Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Plus: Milwaukee, Denver, Boston, and Philly are all locked into their playoff seeding
With 80 games in the books for most teams across the NBA, the playoff picture is starting to take shape. Here’s everything that the Wednesday games set in stone:
Bucks: #1 in the East and best record overall among both conferences
Celtics: #2 and Atlantic division title
Sixers: #3
Hawks: play-in appearance
Nuggets: #1 in the West
Atlanta would still be alive for a top 6 spot and a play-in bye if not for two separate outcomes, including the win from Brooklyn in our first game of the night:
Brooklyn use 26-5 first quarter run to beat Pistons 123-108
Just metaphorical inches away from clinching a play-in bye in the top 6, the Nets moved the ball well in this game, finishing with their second-highest team assist total of the year with 36 to just 11 turnovers, much better than Detroit’s ratio of 27 to 14.
They needed the balanced attack to be clicking, because this was a rare inefficient night for Mikal Bridges, shooting just 10-26 (2-11 3P) for a team-high 26 points. Spencer Dinwiddie, meanwhile, finished with a season-high 16 assists for the second time since re-joining the Nets.
Three Knicks score 30+ in 138-129 barnburner with Pacers
It’s the fourth time in the past eight games that Knicks have scored at least 130, and it was fueled by Immanuel Quickley (39 points, one away from tying career high), Quentin Grimes (career-high 36) and Obi Toppin (32).
Hawks take reigns with 39-point third in 134-116 win over Wizards
Trae Young came back from a one-game flu absence with a stat-stuffing 25-point, 16-assist night in a high-stakes moment; Atlanta is trying to stay in the 7-8 slot of the play-in instead of the 9-10 slot, where #9 Toronto lurks just one game behind. John Collins scored 12 of his 23 points in a momentum-shifting third quarter, which the Hawks won 39-30.
Celtics lock up East’s 2-seed with Raptors falling 97-93 in the process
Jaylen Brown racked up a 25-point, 11-rebound night for his 13th double double on the year, but Boston was led in scoring by Malcolm Brogdon’s 29 off the bench. Pascal Siakam was the only other 20-point man of the game, finishing with 28 points and 11 rebounds for his 24th double double of the season.
Bucks beat Bulls without Giannis, 105-92
Not only did Giannis Antetokounmpo miss the game in its entirety, but Khris Middleton played just eight minutes after an 0-3 start from the floor; both were listed as dealing with knee soreness, though now that Milwaukee has locked up #1 in the East, they might be feeling super sore the rest of the way, if you catch my drift.
Bobby Portis (27 points), Brook Lopez (26), and Jrue Holiday (20) did most of the scoring for the Bucks, especially since they only got 16 points off the bench in the game, way down from their season average of 34.1 bench points per game. For the Bulls, Nikola Vucevic had 18 points on 8-13 shooting in the first half (net -2) before just three points on 1-8 in the second half (-9).
JJJ’s 40 not enough in Grizzlies’ 131-138 overtime loss to Pelicans
Ja Morant was sidelined for this one, leaving Jaren Jackson Jr. (40 points), Dillon Brooks (25), and Desmond Bane (24) to step up while Tre Jones dished out 12 assists in Morant’s starting point guard spot; 11 of his 12 assists went out to those three leading scorers.
Their combined 89 points, however, wasn’t enough even in more than 48 minutes because the leading scorers for New Orleans — Herb Jones (35), CJ McCollum (31) and Trey Murphy III (30) — combined for 96. Brandon Ingram was their big playmaker on the night with a career-high-tying 13 assists, 12 of which went to the three scoring leaders.
Mavs pick up second win over last seven, beating Kings 123-119
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Dallas is a spiraling mess once again, this time most closely involving players’ dads, Tim Hardaway Sr. and Rick Brunson. They were able to put that all behind them for 48 minutes of basketball and good thing they did too, because there was a first half double-digit deficit to make up for.
Dallas won the third quarter 32-21, tying the game going into the fourth, which was knotted up for most of the first six minutes. Dallas never trailed from then on despite Sacramento cutting it to a 3-point game with 2:30 remaining, thanks in part to the clutch play of Kyrie Irving, who scored 19 points in the final frame compared with a goose egg for Luka’s fourth on 0-2 shooting.
Clippers take advantage of flat Lakers in 125-118 win
This was technically the fifth game of a five-game road trip for the Lakers, which they finish 4-1 after splitting a back-to-back, winning the first in overtime in Utah before falling Wednesday to the Clippers. LeBron James did the best he could with 33 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, but also had a game-high six turnovers.
Russell Westbrook was the only other player in the game with more than two turnovers, finishing with three in 21 minutes of a revenge game. He came out firing with 12 points and four assists in the first half but played just five minutes in the second half with the game in hand, adding just two more points to his total.
