Mobile Menu
HEADLINES

Hawks Rumors

Southeast Notes: Rozier, Mitchell, Heat, Johnson, Magic

April 20th, 2025 at 8:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Heat guard Terry Rozier admits it’s been a rough season but he doesn’t want to be a distraction, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. Rozier didn’t get off the bench in the play-in tournament, except to cheer for his teammates, including his de facto replacement, midseason trade acquisition Davion Mitchell.

“I don’t carry bad energy with me,” said Rozier, who has one year and $26.6MM remaining on his contract. “I’m not a hater. How he’s playing, Davion, I think we’re all excited to see that. So I don’t carry bad energy with me and I love to see it.

“Even if I’m not playing, we still got to get in the playoffs and give ourselves another chance to be able to enjoy that dance at the end,” Rozier added. “I’m just happy to be a part of the process, even if I’m not playing. You never know, I could play in Game 2, 3 or 4. I know how that stuff works. Just making sure I’m staying ready. And definitely me being positive, me being a good teammate, I’m never going to change.”

We have more from the Southeast Division:

  • Speaking of Mitchell, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is happy with the way the fourth-year guard and two other major in-season acquisitions, Kyle Anderson and Andrew Wiggins, have meshed with their new teammates. “They’ve fit in very well because they want to make it work,” Spoelstra said, per Chiang. “They’re winning players, winning personalities. They each bring something a little bit different, which are things that we needed. “Davion has that defensive presence and his toughness and his passion. We love the passion that he brings to the game. Wiggs is just a very good basketball player. The things that he does lead to winning because he plays both sides of the floor. He takes pride in doing that and doing it at a high level. And then Kyle, it just takes awhile to get accustomed to how he plays.”
  • Jalen Johnson couldn’t help the Hawks during the second half of the season after suffering a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He hopes to be at full strength by next season’s opener. “That’s probably the worst feeling in the world, just not being able to be out there and go out to war with my guys,” Johnson told Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It sucks, but sometimes you can’t control those things, and all I can do now is just do everything in my power for next year and play the whole season. That’s my goal, and I’m gonna do everything I can so I can be out there in those type of games with my teammates.”
  • Paolo Banchero racked up 36 points on Sunday but it wasn’t enough in a 103-86 loss to Boston in Game 1 of the Magic’s first-round series. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were held to a combined 33 points but Derrick White poured in 30 and Payton Pritchard tossed in 19. “That’s something that we as a team harped on coming in that they do have two main guys but it’s really the other guys that kill you,” Banchero said, per Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). “I just think we have to do a better job getting those guys off the line because they really kill you from 3.”
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

NBA Announces Finalists For 2024/25 Awards

April 20th, 2025 at 6:22pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic are the three finalists for the league’s Most Valuable Player award this season, the league announced on Sunday (Twitter link).

While all three players put up monster numbers, Gilgeous-Alexander is generally considered the favorite to win the award due in large part to the Thunder’s team success this season. Oklahoma City won a league-high 68 regular season games, compared to 50 for Jokic’s Nuggets and 48 for Antetokounmpo’s Bucks.

The finalists for each award represent the top three vote-getters. The winners will be announced at a later date.

Here’s a rundown of the finalists for the major NBA awards voted on by media members:

Coach of the Year

  • Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers)
  • J.B. Bickerstaff (Pistons)
  • Ime Udoka (Rockets)

Rookie of the Year

Sixth Man of the Year

Defensive Player of the Year

Most Improved Player

Clutch Player of the Year

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Hawks Notes: Young, Snyder, Daniels, Offseason

April 19th, 2025 at 5:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Trae Young described the season as a “failure” after being eliminated from the play-in tournament with Friday’s loss to Miami, writes Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Hawks appeared to be in a good position to earn a playoff spot after finishing eighth in the East, but they were overwhelmed in the play-in opener at Orlando and couldn’t overcome the Heat in an overtime battle.

You could make a case that the Hawks overachieved considering their young roster and numerous injuries, including the loss of star forward Jalen Johnson, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in late January. But Young doesn’t believe there should be any excuses for not advancing past the play-in.

“For me, personally, not making the playoffs is a failure for me,” he said. “No matter who’s out there, no matter how much adversity we faced, I still feel like we’ve got a good enough group to make the playoffs and at least go in there and compete.”

As Cunningham notes, the early exit casts more doubt on Young’s future with the team. He has one guaranteed year remaining on his contract at $46MM, along with a nearly $49MM player option for 2026/27. The Hawks reportedly explored potential deals involving Young last season and could decide to revisit that option this summer. But after Friday’s loss, he sounded like he plans to stay in Atlanta.

“The goal is to always win, of course, but when you have the kind of team that we have, you know there is going to be bumps and bruises,” Young added. “It’s not easy for me. Hopefully next year can focus on winning.”

There’s more on the Hawks:

  • General manager Landry Fields shot down any speculation that he might consider replacing head coach Quin Snyder (Twitter video link from Caleb Johnson of 929 The Game). “Quin has done a terrific job. I couldn’t be more thrilled,” Fields told reporters. “I’m excited about what we’ve built and are building.”
  • One of the most positive developments for the Hawks was the emergence of Dyson Daniels as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate after he was acquired in an offseason trade with the Pelicans. Daniels talked to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about what led to his breakthrough season. “I don’t point fingers at anyone but myself,” Daniels said. “I came in there in New Orleans and took a step back. I let the superstars be the superstars. I didn’t fit into being a role player. Coming into the NBA, you can’t do that. If you want to settle for being a role player, then you’re going to be out of the league in a few years. So, that’s what I did in New Orleans and I know it wasn’t me. … It was my confidence. I was second-guessing myself and in my head too much. I came here [Atlanta] with a free mind.”
  • ESPN’s Bobby Marks looks ahead to the Hawks’ offseason in an Insider-only story and a YouTube video. Marks points out that Daniels will be extension-eligible this summer and states that making a decision on Young’s future will be a priority.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Heat Become First No. 10 Seed To Win Two Play-In Games

April 18th, 2025 at 9:04pm CST by Luke Adams

For a third straight year, the Heat have earned the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot via the play-in tournament.

This time around, Miami made history by becoming the first No. 10 seed to make it through the play-in tournament since the event’s inception in 2021. After defeating the No. 9 Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday, the Heat registered their second consecutive road play-in win in Atlanta on Friday against the No. 8 Hawks.

The Heat led for most of the night until the Hawks made a fourth-quarter comeback and forced overtime. Trade-deadline acquisition and free-agent-to-be Davion Mitchell helped Miami secure the 123-114 win by knocking down a trio of three-pointers in the extra frame.

Tyler Herro (30 points), Bam Adebayo (17 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks), and Andrew Wiggins (20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists) also played key roles in the victory.

As a result of the win, the Heat have a first-round series on tap with the No. 1 Cavaliers. As the NBA announced this week (via Twitter), that series will get underway in Cleveland on Sunday evening. The Hawks’ season is over.

Friday’s game also had major draft-related implications. Because they made the playoffs, the Heat will no longer control their first-round pick, which will land at No. 15 overall and will be sent to the Thunder. Miami will still receive Golden State’s first-round pick, which will end up at No. 18, 19, or 20, depending on the outcome of a random tiebreaker on Monday.

If they’d missed the playoffs, the Heat would’ve hung onto their own 2025 pick and would’ve owed their unprotected 2026 first-rounder to Oklahoma City and their unprotected 2028 first-rounder to Charlotte. Instead, the Heat will keep their 2026 pick and will owe their lottery-protected 2027 first-rounder to the Hornets. That pick would become unprotected in 2028 if it lands in the top 14 in 2027.

The Spurs, meanwhile, control the Hawks’ first-round pick, which will now be No. 12, 13, or 14 in the lottery standings, depending on the outcome of Friday’s Grizzlies/Mavericks game and a Monday tiebreaker between Atlanta and Sacramento, both of whom finished with 40-42 regular season records.

If Dallas beats Memphis on Friday, that Hawks/Kings tiebreaker would be incredibly meaningful, since it would determine the 12th and 13th spots in the lottery — Sacramento owes its first-round pick to Atlanta if it lands outside the top 12, so the odds of the Kings keeping that pick would increase significantly if they move up to No. 12 in the lottery standings.

If the Grizzlies beat Dallas on Friday, that tiebreaker between Atlanta and Sacramento would be for the 13th and 14th spots in the lottery standings, putting the Hawks in position to claim the Kings’ pick regardless of the tiebreaker outcome (unless it jumps into the top four on lottery night).

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Poll: Who Will Win Friday’s Play-In Games?

April 18th, 2025 at 6:48am CST by Luke Adams

The higher seed came out on top in each of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games on Tuesday, but the two lower seeds pulled off upsets in the No. 9 vs. 10 contests on Wednesday, setting up a pair of No. 8 vs. 10 matchups on Friday to determine the final playoff teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences.

In the East, the No. 10 Heat will visit the No. 8 Hawks in a second consecutive battle of divisional rivals for Atlanta. The first of those matchups didn’t go well for the Hawks, who really struggled to get the ball in the basket against the NBA’s No. 2 defense on Tuesday in Orlando.

Trae Young (8-of-21), Zaccharie Risacher (2-of-10), and Caris LeVert (3-of-11) were among the players who had poor shooting nights vs. the Magic. Atlanta made a season-low four 3-pointers on the night and shot just 38.1% from the floor, including 19.0% from beyond the arc.

While the Heat weren’t quite as good defensively during the regular season as Orlando, they also ranked in the top 10 in defensive rating and played very well on that end of the court in Wednesday’s win over Chicago. The Bulls scored just 90 points on 39.8% shooting (27.0% on three-pointers). As the Hawks return home, they’ll need to figure out how to make more headway against the Heat’s defense than they did against the Magic’s.

The Hawks, who won 12 of their last 20 games of the regular season, had more momentum entering the play-in tournament than the Heat, who won just 12 of their last 33. Atlanta will also have home-court advantage on Friday.

But the two teams split their season series, and given how the first round of the play-in tournament played out, oddsmakers aren’t willing to give Atlanta the typical edge that would be awarded to the higher seed and home team. As I was writing this article, BetOnline.ag modified their betting line, which had been a pick-em, to make the Heat one-point favorites.

Over in the West, it’s the No. 8 Grizzlies hosting the No. 10 Mavericks in a battle of teams whose seasons have taken a nose-dive since the trade deadline. While Dallas was hammered by injuries and has been dealing with the fallout of the immensely unpopular Luka Doncic trade, Memphis has undergone a head coaching change and fell several spots in the standings.

The only reason the Grizzlies didn’t have the worst record (13-18) among all 10 Western Conference playoff/play-in teams between February 7 and the end of the regular season is because the Mavericks (12-18) were slightly worse.

Both teams were competitive in their first play-in matchups though. Memphis took the Warriors down to the wire in Golden State on Tuesday, while Dallas comfortably handled the Kings in Sacramento on Wednesday. There’s no shortage of talent on either roster, especially in the frontcourt, where Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. is a candidate for All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year honors, while Mavericks big man Anthony Davis would have been too if he’d played enough games to qualify.

The Mavs’ Achilles heel is in their backcourt, where star point guard Kyrie Irving is unavailable after going down in March with a season-ending ACL tear. Dallas actually went without a starting point guard vs. Sacramento, rolling with a jumbo lineup featuring Davis, Dereck Lively, P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall, and Klay Thompson.

But former two-way player Brandon Williams, who was promoted to the 15-man roster in the final week of the season, showed why Dallas wanted him for the postseason. The undrafted point guard put up 17 points and five assists in 18 minutes off the bench — the Mavs outscored Sacramento by 24 points during those minutes.

The Grizzlies’ own star point guard, Ja Morant, vowed to play in Friday’s do-or-die game, but it remains to be seen how effective he’ll be. Morant sustained a sprained right ankle on Tuesday and clearly lost a step late in the game as he tried to play through that injury.

Home-court advantage could end up being a real factor here. The Grizzlies posted a 26-15 record in Memphis this season, while the Mavs went just 17-25 on the road. That’s likely a major reason why the oddsmakers at BetOnline currently have Memphis as the six-point favorite.

We want to know what you think. Will either the Heat or Mavericks become the first No. 10 seed since the play-in tournament was implemented in 2021 to earn a playoff spot? Or will the Hawks and Grizzlies defend their home courts and earn first-round series against Cleveland and Oklahoma City, respectively?

Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts and predictions!

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

And-Ones: Clutch Player Award, NBA Europe, Award Picks, Oweh

April 15th, 2025 at 6:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The official candidates for Clutch Player of the Year have been revealed, NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor tweets. Here’s the list of candidates that voters can select for the award, as chosen by the league’s 30 head coaches:

Curry won the award last year.

We have more from around the international basketball world:

  • While the NBA is trying to establish a new league in Europe, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum insists that the goal is not to replace the EuroLeague, Eurohoops relays via a Reuters interview. “Our goal is to create a commercially viable league that features high quality on -court competition and respects the rich tradition of European basketball. And we think that that will better serve fans and players on the continent,” Tatum said. He notes that there are major cities in Europe that don’t have a team where the NBA can establish roots. “There are big markets in Europe that aren’t being serviced today, where there are millions of basketball fans that aren’t being serviced,” he said. London, Paris, Berlin and Rome are among the candidates that NBA Europe considers as prime targets.
  • The Athletic’s John Hollinger reveals his award picks. He has Gilgeous-Alexander atop his MVP list and the Rockets’ Amen Thompson as his Defensive Player of the Year. O’Connor, writing for Yahoo Sports, has the same duo winning those awards. They also both have Stephon Castle taking Rookie of the Year honors, Payton Pritchard atop their Sixth Man of the Year lists, and Kenny Atkinson as Coach of the Year.
  • Kentucky junior guard Otega Oweh will test the draft waters, Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 tweets. Oweh averaged 16.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 steals this past season. He played his first two seasons at Oklahoma.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Poll: Who Will Win Tuesday’s Play-In Games?

April 15th, 2025 at 8:24am CST by Luke Adams

The Grizzlies were tied for second place in the West as recently as March 14, while the Warriors held a top-five spot in the conference for the entire first week of April. However, neither Memphis nor Golden State was able to lock up a guaranteed playoff spot in the final days of the regular season.

The two teams will face one another on Tuesday in the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game for the Western Conference, with the winner earning the right to enter the playoffs as the seventh seed and match up with Houston in round one.

Although the Warriors and Grizzlies finished the season with matching 48-34 records, the two clubs were headed in opposite directions down the stretch.

Hours after finalizing a trade for Jimmy Butler on February 6, Golden State fell to 25-26 on the season and held the No. 10 seed in the West only by a tiebreaker. But the Warriors won Butler’s debut two days later and never fell below .500 again, finishing the season on a 23-8 run. During that stretch, Golden State had the NBA’s third-best winning percentage (.742), eight-best offensive rating (118.2) and top defensive rating (109.0).

The Warriors aren’t entering the postseason as one of the title favorites, having stumbled a little as of late — they would have clinched a playoff berth already if they hadn’t lost three of their last five games, including a disappointing defeat to the lottery-bound Spurs last Wednesday. But they’ve certainly looked better than the Grizzlies, whose season has been trending downward in recent months.

On the day of the trade deadline, the Grizzlies had a 35-16 record. But two days later, on the same day the Warriors won Butler’s debut, Memphis lost to Oklahoma City to kick off an uninspiring stretch that saw the team finish the season by going just 13-18. Lottery teams like Portland and Toronto had better records during that stretch than the Grizzlies, who ranked in the bottom half of the league in both offensive rating (115.6) and defensive rating (116.0) from Feb. 8 onward.

Oh, and Memphis also made a head coaching change during that time, replacing Taylor Jenkins with assistant Tuomas Iisalo on March 28. The Grizzlies have a 4-5 record since that change.

The Grizzlies have plenty of talent on their roster and Warriors stars Stephen Curry (thumb) and Butler (thigh) are dealing with nagging ailments, so the result of Tuesday’s Western Conference play-in game is hardly a foregone conclusion. Still, after accounting for the Warriors’ 3-1 record vs. Memphis this season and the fact that they’ll be hosting Tuesday’s play-in game in San Francisco, it’s not hard to understand why Golden State is considered a good bet to advance — BetOnline.ag has the Warriors listed as seven-point favorites.

Over in the East, it’s a battle of the year’s top Southeast teams on Tuesday, as the No. 7 Magic (41-41) host the No. 8 Hawks (40-42). The winner will claim the seventh seed and face Boston in the first round of the playoffs.

It has been an odd season in Orlando, where the Magic looked like one of the conference’s top teams in early going despite losing Paolo Banchero and then Franz Wagner to oblique tears that sidelined them for extended periods. But the Magic’s injury issues – which also ended Jalen Suggs‘ and Moritz Wagner‘s seasons early – eventually caught up with them, resulting in a 12-26 midseason swoon from December to March that cost the team a chance at a top-six seed.

Orlando finished the year strong, winning nine of its last 12 games, and performed very well defensively on the season as a whole, registering the league’s second-best defensive rating (109.1). But even with Banchero and Wagner on the court, the Magic struggled to score — their 108.9 offensive rating ranked 27th in the NBA, ahead of only Brooklyn, Charlotte, and Washington.

The Hawks, meanwhile, appeared to be in trouble when rising star forward Jalen Johnson went down in January with a season-ending shoulder injury. They were 22-22 as of Johnson’s last game and promptly fell several games below .500 without him before trading away second-leading scorer De’Andre Hunter at the trade deadline shortly thereafter.

But instead of continuing to slide down the standings and ending up in the lottery, Atlanta got a second wind, led by Trae Young, Onyeka Okongwu, Dyson Daniels, and Zaccharie Risacher, along with deadline additions like Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, and Terance Mann.

As good as Daniels has been defensively this season, the Hawks’ overall team defense has lagged behind — it was their offense that propelled them to a spot in the No. 7 vs. 8 play-in game. From March 6 onward, Atlanta went 12-8 and posted the second-best offensive rating in the Eastern Conference (120.4).

Tuesday’s matchup, in which the Magic are listed as five-point favorites, per BetOnline, could come down to how much headway the Hawks’ offensive weapons can make against one of the NBA’s best defensive units in Orlando.

We want to know what you think. Which two teams will claim playoff spots on Tuesday and which ones will have to try again on Friday to punch their tickets into round one?

Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts and predictions.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Southeast Notes: Heat, Wizards, Magic, Play-In, Nance

April 14th, 2025 at 5:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

There are a lot of moves the Heat, who face the Bulls in the play-in tournament on Wednesday, need to make to become true contenders again, says Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.

Not only do the Heat need to add an elite scorer, Jackson writes, they also need an elite shot creator and a better floor leader to prevent the late-game slides that plagued the team this season. However, the pairing of Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware worked well and should be the team’s power duo going forward, according to Jackson, who adds that they also have a solid second unit to bring back next season.

We have more from the Southeast Division:

  • Wizards general manager Will Dawkins was pleased with the growth of his young players this season but knows they have many more steps to take to become a playoff contender, he told Josh Robbins of The Athletic.  “I would say that we discovered through a lot of different assessments and lineups that there’s a style of play that, if we’re rowing in the right direction, can be successful. And we have the type of players here who were bought into that,” he said. “We’re far from where we need to be — still at the ground level. But we feel good about the camaraderie of the group, the work ethic of the group, and the direction we’re headed. But (there’s) a lot of work ahead of us.”
  • After an injury-marred season, the Magic still wound up as the highest seed in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. A victory over Atlanta on Tuesday would clinch the No. 7 seed and a matchup with Boston in the first round. “With everything we’ve gone through, with the bodies being down, with guys being in and out of lineups and the adversity that we’ve hit this year, for this group to get to .500, [it] says a lot about their character, their care factor, and the coaching staff,” coach Jamahl Mosley said, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. “We’re going to have to put that behind us in this moment and move onto Tuesday and make sure we’re ready to take care of business.”
  • Forward Larry Nance Jr. won’t be available for the Hawks against the Magic, Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. He’s still recovering from a right medial femoral condyle fracture.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Southeast Notes: Larsson, Mitchell, Risacher, Middleton

April 12th, 2025 at 12:00pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The Heat lost rookie guard Pelle Larsson on Wednesday to a sprained ankle he suffered during a weightlifting incident, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. The rookie out of Arizona called the incident a “freak accident.”

“I was lifting and just stepped and got my foot caught in something,” Larsson said. “So I just stepped on a twisted ankle, and it doesn’t feel great.”

Larsson isn’t sure if he’ll be ready for next week’s play-in tournament, according to coach Erik Spoelstra. It’s unfortunate timing, as he had established himself as a strong perimeter defender for Miami and started six games in a row with Andrew Wiggins sidelined, averaging 10.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.2 steals in those games, Chiang notes.

“It’s more frustrating than anything, especially when it happens off the court,” Larsson added. “It feels like you don’t have as much control. So it’s frustrating.”

We have more from the Southeast Division:

  • After playing 22 minutes in Friday’s matchup against the Pelicans, Heat guard Davion Mitchell crossed the 2,000-minute mark on the season and met the starter criteria. That means his qualifying offer this season will remain at $8,741,210 — it would have dipped to $7,976,830 if he had fallen short of 2,000 minutes.
  • Hawks No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher continued his late-season push for Rookie of the Year consideration on Thursday, scoring a career-high 38 points against the Nets. According to the team (Twitter link), Risacher’s 38 points were the most by any rookie in a single game this season.
  • Wizards forward Khris Middleton has been out since March 27 and will probably miss the team’s final game of the season on Sunday, according to The Washington Post’s Varun Shankar (Twitter link). In 14 games with the Wizards, all starts, Middleton averaged 10.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per night.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Postseason Seeding Set For Eastern Conference

April 11th, 2025 at 11:30pm CST by Luke Adams

Wins by the Orlando, Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Chicago on Friday night have locked in the playoff seeds for all six Eastern Conference playoff teams, along with the four play-in clubs.

Here’s how the top 10 teams in the East will finish the regular season, as the NBA confirms (via Twitter):

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers
  2. Boston Celtics
  3. New York Knicks
  4. Indiana Pacers
  5. Milwaukee Bucks
  6. Detroit Pistons
  7. Orlando Magic
  8. Atlanta Hawks
  9. Chicago Bulls
  10. Miami Heat

The play-in tournament in the Eastern Conference will feature the Magic hosting the Hawks on Tuesday and the Bulls hosting the Heat on Wednesday. The Orlando/Atlanta winner will claim the No. 7 spot in the playoffs and face the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. The loser of that game will host the Chicago/Miami winner on Friday for the No. 8 spot and the right to face the Cavaliers in round one.

The Knicks will match up with the Pistons in the first round of the playoffs, while the Pacers and Bucks will meet in round one for a second consecutive year, with Indiana claiming home court advantage this time around.

We got a little more clarity on the Western Conference playoff picture by the end of Friday night, with the Lakers clinching the No. 3 seed by beating Houston and the Grizzlies now locked into the play-in tournament as a result of their loss to Denver. However, there are still several playoff berths and seeds up in the air, with the Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors, and Timberwolves vying for the final three spots in the West’s top six.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0
Load More Posts