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NBA Playoff Picture: Bulls, Rockets nearly out of disappointments
With less than a week left in the NBA's regular season, several games per night make a big difference in the fights for playoff berths and seeding. This post catches you up on everything that matters to these races.
GAMES THAT MATTERED A LOT
Bulls on parade Priceline, looking for reasonably priced vacation packages: After Tuesday's dispiriting 16-point loss to the injury-ravaged Memphis Grizzlies, the Chicago Bulls entered Thursday's meeting with the Miami Heat needing to turn in one of their best efforts of the season to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. In keeping with a season-long theme, though, they just couldn't finish the job.
Despite digging in and holding Miami under 40 percent shooting through the first two quarters to take a six-point lead into halftime, the Bulls just couldn't hold the Heat down after intermission, giving up 66 second-half points on 55.1 percent shooting in a game they absolutely had to have. Dwyane Wade scored 15 of his 21 points in the third and fourth quarters and took over principal playmaking duties late, while Hassan Whiteside turned in a post-halftime double-double to pace Miami to a 106-98 win.
Whiteside finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, one block and one steal in 27 minutes off the bench, and did the bulk of his damage in the fourth quarter, absolutely dominating in the paint and on the offensive glass over the final 4 1/2 minutes to help Miami pull away:
Miami has now won seven of 10, drawing even on record with the Celtics in the race for home-court advantage in Round 1. (Despite identical 46-32 records, Boston sits in fourth, one spot ahead of Miami, by virtue of winning the first two games of their three-game head-to-head season series.) Chicago ... well, they're headed the other direction.
Despite bounce-back nights from stars Jimmy Butler (25 points, six assists), Pau Gasol (21 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks, two assists) and Derrick Rose (17 points, three assists, three rebounds, two steals), Chicago could neither slow Miami's attack nor puncture its defense late. The Bulls got outscored by 20 points in the paint, by 13 on second-chance opportunities and by nine on fast breaks, dropping their seventh game in 10 tries to fall to 39-40.
Also, Doug McDermott tackled Hassan Whiteside, which is not something a basketball player should do:
The Bulls now sit three games behind the eighth-seeded Detroit Pistons with just three games left on their schedule. They're not yet mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, but they'll need a miracle to get there. Not only will Fred Hoiberg and company have to win its final three games (home for the Cavs on Saturday, at the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, home for the Philadelphia 76ers to close the season on Wednesday), but they'll need the Indiana Pacers — over whom Chicago holds the head-to-head tiebreaker — to lose out, dropping contests at Toronto, against the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks at home, and at the Milwaukee Bucks to finish up. If that sounds unlikely, it's because it is; FiveThirtyEight currently projects the Bulls to have less than a 1 percent chance to make it into the top eight.
This, to put it mildly, is not what Chicago's front office had in mind last summer after replacing Tom Thibodeau with Fred Hoiberg to lead a kinder, mellower, more offensively potent and balanced Bulls club into battle. But in his first year on the bench, Hoiberg struggled to provide a meaningful, substantive alternative identity to the legendarily hard-charging identity the Bulls cultivated under Thibodeau, leaving the team with ... well, not much of anything, on many nights. Even now, with the grim fact of a first lottery trip in eight years staring the Bulls in the face, it's kind of hard to believe that this is actually happening.
"“It’s kind of unreal when you really think about it," Rose said, according to Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune. "It probably won’t hit me until the season is over, but right now we have a chance."
If Indiana can knock off the Raptors at Air Canada Centre on Friday, that sliver of a whisper of a chance will be erased. That ought to give Rose, Butler, Hoiberg, the front office of Gar Forman and John Paxson and everybody else associated with the Bulls plenty of time to let the disappointment of the 2015-16 season wash over them and really sink in.
Rockets near the crypt: In Wednesday's installment of this feature, I wrote that the Houston Rockets were in reasonable shape to claim a playoff berth even after Wednesday's tough road loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The Rockets fell a game back of the Utah Jazz for No. 8 in the West with that defeat, but they had the good fortune of a closing quartet of contests against all but one of the worst five teams in the conference. The only thing stopping them from taking all four wins would be their own bad habits.
So, naturally, the Rockets went out and lost the first of the bunch on Thursday night on their own home floor. The lowly Phoenix Suns, losers of seven in a row, graciously accepted the role of spoiler and defeated the Rockets 124-115. Phoenix played Houston even most of the night and closed on a 17-5 run, as if to call even more attention to the season-long lack of focus that has made the Rockets the biggest disappointment in the NBA.
The night was not without successes for Houston. James Harden scored 30 points on just 14 field goal attempts to lead a 56.8 percent showing from the field, and the Rockets caused enough defensive trouble to get 19 turnovers out of the Suns. Yet Houston turned it over 18 times themselves and missed 11 of 28 free throws despite Dwight Howard attempting a mere pair. Phoenix contrasted that effort by going 24-of-29 at the stripe. That was the biggest difference in the game.
Remarkably, the Rockets still have a fighting chance to make the postseason. They trail the Utah Jazz by 1 1/2 games with only three of their own left to play, a gap that will require three wins for Houston and two losses in Utah's last four (or two wins and three losses, or one win and four losses) to trigger the in-conference record tiebreaker that would go to the Rockets. (Houston can also technically catch Dallas, but that's much more unlikely.) That's not an impossible scenario, because the Rockets get to face the Lakers, Wolves, and Kings while the Jazz must contend with the Clippers, Nuggets, Mavericks, and Lakers in Kobe Bryant's final game. The opportunity is there for the Rockets.
On the other hand, this season has proved that Houston knows how not to take advantage of massive opportunities. It would certainly be fitting if their season was ruined by a loss to a team led by top scorers Mirza Teletovic and P.J. Tucker.
It was a very, very bad loss for Houston. But at least it gave us this lasting image of their season — Andrew Goudelock passing the ball off a smarting Josh Smith's butt:
By the way, this Houston loss clinched a playoff berth for the Memphis Grizzlies. The injury ravaged Grizz remain very unlikely to hold onto the No. 5 seed they currently occupy, but they deserve lots of credit for grinding their way to the postseason when many, including me, counted them out. They are the anti-Rockets.
When is the No. 1 seed a secondary story?
When the No. 1 seed is also gunning for the single-season wins record. The Golden State Warriors bounced back from Tuesday's overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in fine fashion, handling the San Antonio Spurs 112-101 to become the second team in NBA history to win 70 games in a season. It also keeps alive their hopes of topping the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72 wins, although they'll have to win three tough games against the Grizzlies (twice) and Spurs to get there.
We covered that story at length in our very timely "Warriors Wins Watch" feature. But we almost must note the playoff ramifications, because Golden State just locked down homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs with this win over San Antonio. It's the first time in franchise history that the Warriors have finished with the NBA's best record in consecutive seasons.
The 65-12 Spurs will enter the postseason as arguably the most formidable No. 2 seed ever. They will continue their attempt to become the first team in NBA history to go undefeated at home when they host the Warriors for a rematch on Sunday night.
GAMES THAT MATTERED PLENTY
Teague Pass alert: Four months after Kyle Lowry made Philips Arena his house with a 22-point fourth quarter to lead the Toronto Raptors to a come-from-behind road win, Jeff Teague made it his business to take back the title.
The Atlanta Hawks point guard scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half, including a big and-one layup after blowing past the defense of Raptors reserve Cory Joseph that put the Hawks up five in the final minute of its matchup with the Atlantic Division champion Raptors, helping lead Mike Budenholzer's club to a 95-87 win on Thursday night. Teague added five assists and a block, continuing a strong run that's seen him top the 20-point mark in four of his last five outings; he entered Thursday averaging 17 points, 6.8 assists and 3.1 rebounds in just 28.8 minutes per game over his previous 15 contests.
Atlanta's top-flight defense largely held the Raptors' All-Star backcourt in check. Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combined for 39 points on 13-for-39 shooting, a big part of the reason why Toronto shot just 38.1 percent from the field against the Hawks, often struggling to generate and cash in on clean looks against a swarming defense that ranks first in the league in points allowed per possession since the All-Star break. With the loss, Toronto falls to 52-26, 3 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers in the race for the No. 1 seed in the East, with only four games left on their schedule.
Teague led seven Hawks in double figures, including do-everything All-Stars Paul Millsap (13 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks, two assists, one steal) and Al Horford (11 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two steals), in the win, Atlanta's first of the season over the Raptors in four tries. The victory improved the Hawks to 47-32 and moved them into sole possession of third place in the Eastern Conference, a half-game ahead of the Boston Celtics; the two teams will face off for the final time this season in Boston on Saturday. It also gave Atlanta a half-game edge on the Miami Heat in the race for the Southeast Division title.
Behind hot starts from Millsap, Horford and Kyle Korver, the Hawks took a 28-20 lead after the first quarter, and led by as many as 13 in the second before the Raptors began to tighten up their defense and walk them down thanks to the shot-making of Lowry and reserve swingman Terrence Ross. Teague began to impose his will on the game in the third quarter, keeping Toronto's defenders off-balance with the threat of his ability to drive all the way to the rim, which opened up opportunities to stop short for floaters and midrange attempts, or to pull up from deep and let it fly, helping stake Atlanta to a 13-point lead midway through the frame.
A 6-0 Raptor spurt got Toronto within seven, 70-63, after three, but the Hawks opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 reply to take their largest lead of the game at 14. Toronto would fight back to within a pair of possessions on multiple occasions, thanks to late sparks from the wing tandem of rookie Norman Powell and veteran DeMarre Carroll, who made his return to the lineup against his former team after missing three months following knee surgery, and cut the deficit to 88-86 on a pair of free throws by center Jonas Valanciunas at the one-minute mark. But then Teague torched Joseph for a three-point play, and the Hawks won the free-throw battle to get one step closer to locking up home-court advantage in Round 1.
GAMES THAT MATTERED TO MATH ONLY
Thursday was the rare late-season night in which four of five games carried meaningful playoff implications and the other didn't matter at all. For once, we did not have to pretend to care about anything.
FRIDAY'S BIGGEST GAMES
Washington Wizards at Detroit Pistons, 7:30 p.m. ET: The stakes are clear for the Pistons — win and they make the playoffs, eliminating both the Wizards and Bulls in one fell swoop. The Pacers visit the Toronto Raptors at the same tipoff time, so it's possible that the Pistons can swap positions and finish the night with a half-game lead for No. 7 in the East.
Memphis Grizzlies at Dallas Mavericks, 8:30 p.m. ET: Memphis can rest a little easy after clinching a playoff berth on Thursday, but they still need to keep a top-six seed to avoid seeing the Warriors or Spurs in the first round. A win wouldn't accomplish that goal for certain, but it would put them three games up on Dallas.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks can lower their magic number to one with a win. Otherwise, they could be sweating out their situation until the season's final night.
Los Angeles Clippers at Utah Jazz, 9:00 p.m. ET: Utah sits 1 1/2 games ahead of the Rockets for the West's final playoff berth and should be able to get there eventually, but a win over their best remaining opponent would make things considerably easier. Utah is unlikely to finish in the top six seeds, but they could draw even with Dallas if Memphis wins, as well. The Clippers already have the No. 4 seed in their possession, so they could choose to rest players.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
