Playoff race tightens
The NBA regular season is barreling toward crunch time with the East a neck-and-neck duel between Boston and New York and tiebreakers looming — the West is just as fluid with Minnesota and OKC listed among the frontrunners. (bleacherreport.com) (cbssports.com)
Boston is 47-23 and New York is 46-25 in the East, with Detroit holding a larger gap at 51-19 atop the conference. (nba.com) New York leads the season series 2-1 against Boston — that head-to-head edge would be the first tiebreaker if the teams finish with identical records. (landofbasketball.com) The Celtics have 12 regular-season games remaining and the Knicks have 11, giving Boston one more chance to change the seeding math before the April deadline. (nba.com) Oklahoma City sits at 55-15 as the clear West leader while Minnesota is 43-28 and tied in the middling seeding cluster with Denver, creating a multi-team scramble for top-six positioning. (nba.com) Minnesota has been middling recently (5-5 over its last 10) while Oklahoma City is on a double-digit win streak, a form split that affects strength-of-schedule and late-season momentum. (nba.com) The NBA’s SoFi Play-In Tournament starts April 14 and the playoffs begin April 18, meaning remaining regular-season matchups over the next three weeks will lock seeding, tiebreakers and play-in participants. (nba.com)
