OKC Thunder: Wild races for seeding in final week of regular season

The OKC Thunder and their 21 opponents hit final week with wild races for playoff berths on tap.

As teams hit the second half of their closing seeding schedule they tend to fall on one of two sides. That means how they’ll approach the final week of the regular season wil take very different paths to the end result. Those choices will affect the specific team but could also impact other clubs. The OKC Thunder, for example, felt the effects of a game they didn’t even play in last week but played a role in.

To wit, the Thunder delivered the Lakers their worst loss of the season. Unfortunately, scheduling worked out that the Lakers would play their one back-to-back set against the Thunder-Rockets. So the night after OKC faced LeBron James the king sat out the match versus Houston due to a sore groin.

Although we’ll never know if the Lakers would’ve beat the Rockets had James played  – it’s a good bet, at a minimum LeBron improves their chances of winning the contest. And, in that way, the Thunder may have gained an edge via the win over LA but the Rockets also got the benefit of the scrappy OKC win.

As for the objectives of how games will play out there are two ends of the spectrum. On one side, are the teams who’ll ease into the playoffs having secured their seeds. The opposite side of the spectrum is the West play-in tourney chase pack operating with much greater desperation.

Somewhere in the middle are squads who lean to one edge or the other perhaps preferring a specific placement to avoid a matchup or conversely to align with a particular part of the playoff bracket.

The OKC Thunder falls into the latter category. Billy Donovan won’t come out and say it but the Thunder would definitely prefer to avoid the Nuggets in round one and if possible align with the side of the bracket featuring the lesser of two evils (the Lakers).

To accomplish that feat OKC will need (at worst) to tie one of the Jazz or Rockets. Since the Thunder own tiebreaks on both ensuring they avoid the sixth seed and Nuggets or Clippers in the first-round series.

There is one week remaining of seeded games featuring as many as seven matches in a day and as few as four.

The Wizards were eliminated which means there won’t be a play-in tournament in the Eastern Conference.

The same cannot be said of the Western Conference. In fact, the team who entered the bubble seeded last in the west is the only club that reached the end of this week unbeaten. That squad is the Phoenix Suns who are 5-0.

Moreover, they had the hardest schedule of all the chase pack teams. Their hit list began with the Wizards but was followed by a veritable who’s who of the NBA elite with the Mavericks, Clippers, Pacers (who’ve lost once – – to the Suns) and Heat.

The OKC Thunder back-to-back set has a similar dichotomy with the Wizards on the front end and the Suns on the back end.

Entering the final week of what will complete the regular season the 22 bubble participants will play two or three games.

Let’s look at where the teams fall on the spectrum and how games can directly or indirectly affect the playoff picture.

Eliminated teams:

• Washington Wizards
• New Orleans Pelicans
• Sacramento Kings

The above trio could attempt to play spoiler, but it’s doubtful. None of these clubs competed with a similar intensity to the Suns to land that play-in berth, so why start now?

Moreover, none of the teams they play are in the desperate category so they’ll have no opportunity to affect seeding.