i just looked at all the remaining games for the 9 western conference teams that can still make the playoffs and projected winners in all the games and tallied up the final standings to make playoff seeds.
new orleans has an easy last 4... their toughest game is against LA, but that's LA's second game in 2 nights. i have NO going 3-1 to close out the year.
the lakers have two tough games with new orleans and san antonio, and two gimmies with the clips and the kings. 2-2.
san antonio has tough games with the lakers and utah but they're at home. 4-0.
utah, denver and houston have the toughest schedules left...
utah 3-1
houston 2-2
denver 1-3
phoenix has tough games with houston and golden state but other than a hiccup in the 4th against dallas they've been playing very well. 3-0
dallas has an easy go... a tough game against utah and then two gimmies against portland and seattle, and they finish against new orleans but the hornets will have the 1 seed wrapped up by then. 3-1
golden state has a head to head with denver which i think they'll win, and the other 3 are against the clips, phoenix and seattle. 3-1.
so that will put the final win totals as this...
1. new orleans 58
2. san antonio 57
3. phoenix 56
4. utah 55 (win tie breaker automaticly by winning division)
5. houston 55 (better head to head record against lakers)
6. lakers 55
7. dallas 52
8. golden state 50
9. denver 48 (48 wins would be good enough for the 4 seed in the east
)
so your western conference matchups would be as such...
new orleans vs.
golden state
utah vs.
houston
san antonio vs.
dallas
phoenix vs.
lakers
damn