The Brooklyn Nets’ playoff situation is very easy to understand right now, on the last day of the NBA regular season. With the Indiana Pacers’ win over the Washington Wizards last night, Brooklyn fell a game behind Indiana, which is currently the No. 8 seed in the East.
Tonight, at 8:00 pm EST, the Nets will host the lowly Orlando Magic–with nothing to play for but pride–at Barclays, needing a win to keep their hopes of making the postseason alive. However, even if the Nets do win, they aren’t guaranteed a playoff berth. They would still need the Memphis Grizzlies–without starting point guard Mile Conley Jr.–to beat the Pacers in a game that tips off at 9:30 pm EST.
As of this writing, the Grizzlies still have a big incentive to try and win this game. With a win and losses by the Spurs and Rockets, Memphis could win the Southwest Division and be the No. 3 seed in the West. This means they would play either San Antonio or Houston but have homecourt advantage in the series. The Grizzlies were a dominant team at home this season–30-10 record at FedEx Forum–and surely would rather get that additional home game in any series.
The Spurs are playing the Pelicans–who, with a win, will be the West’s No. 8 seed–this evening and the Rockets are playing the Jazz. Since these games are starting 90 minutes before Memphis’ does, the Nets could really use a second half lead–at the very least–from New Orleans and Utah to ensure that Dave Joerger will use his better players in an attempt to improve his team’s playoff positioning.
In summary, the Nets need Lionel Hollins’ old team to win, Derrick Favors’ current team to win and Ryan Anderson’s current team to win. So if a bunch of fomer Nets–including Courtney Lee of Memphis–step up and help their teams gain victories on the final day of 2014-15 season, we just might see Brooklyn avoid giving a lottery pick to the Hawks, the team they just might see in the first round of the playoffs if everything works out in the Nets’ favor. Basketball is a weird spot.
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