There was plenty happening in the basketball world yesterday. There was something going on that rhymes with Larch Padness and plenty of NBA games that impacted the Western Conference Playoff picture.
Let’s break down the ones that had implications for the Wolves of Minnesota.
Thanks, Spurs!
The San Antonio Spurs, who have not been playing well at all of late, took down the New Orleans Pelicans at home, 98-93, behind 18 points, 12 rebounds and four assists from Dejounte Murray.
Hit ‘em with some facts, Jordan!
With the win, the Spurs move to 39-30, back to eighth in the West by a game over the Clippers (more on them soon).
More importantly for the Wolves, the Pelicans fell to 39-29 and fell to sixth in the West, 0.6 percentage points behind Minnesota. If the playoffs started today, the Wolves would face off against the Thunder in the first-round of the playoffs.
Oh, boy!
The Spurs and Wolves face off on Saturday in San Antonio in a pretty-important game for the Wolves with them playing the Rockets on Sunday at home.
The Pelicans host the Rockets on Saturday night.
Clippers Back Out Of Playoffs
The Clippers predictably lost to the Rockets in Houston, 101-96. In credit to LA, it was close than I anticipated.
Clippers forward Tobias Harris finished with 29 points and eight rebounds. Are we sure he isn’t better than Blake Griffin?
LA falls to 37-30, a game out of the eight-seed and two games back from the Wolves.
The Clippers stay on the road tonight against the Thunder.
The Joker Is No Joke
Nikola Jokic led Denver with 23 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, three steals and three blocks to lead Denver to a 120-113 win over the Pistons at home.
In his last three games, Jokic is averaging 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists per game. He’s doing everything he can to keep the Nuggets in the playoff race.
The win moves Denver to 38-31, 10th in the West and two games behind the Wolves.
Denver hosts Memphis on Saturday night.
Utah Might Never Lose Again
The Jazz have won eight-straight games with their 116-88 blowout win over the Suns.
The likely Rookie of the Year Donovan Mitchell led Utah with 23 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The win moves Utah to 39-30, seventh in the West and just 1.5 games behind the Wolves.
The next few games aren’t the hardest for Utah. The Jazz host the Kings on Saturday, the Hawks on Tuesday and travel to play Dallas on Thursday.
Portland Might Never Lose Again
The Blazers won their 11th-straight game against the Cavaliers at home, 113-105, behind 29 points from C.J. McCollum.
Portland moves to 42-26, third in the West and 2.5 games ahead of the Wolves.
Meanwhile, things aren’t going great in Cleveland.
The loss moves Cleveland back to the four seed in the East, just a half game ahead of the Wizards.
It’d be weird seeing LeBron not having home-court advantage in the first round.
Portland hosts Detroit on Saturday.
We’ll preview tonight’s games later this afternoon.