Photo via Heiko Brinkmann on Flickr.
As February draws to a close, we’re getting to the point in the season where every game that isn’t in the Bobcats-Suns tier has playoff implications. Teams are on the edges of the race for the eighth seed, attempting to hold home-court advantage, and praying they can play their way out of an unfavorable first-round matchup. With one exception, today’s games all have at least some bearing on the playoff pictures in each conference.
Wizards at Raptors (7:00pm ET)
Two teams that might be on the periphery of the playoff picture if they hadn’t started the season so terribly. The Wizards pulled out an upset over the Rockets on Saturday, and the Raptors ain’t the Rockets. Toronto has been playing well lately, though. Rudy Gay has proven himself to be a legitimate late-game option, and Kyle Lowry is back to some semblance of his early-season play now that Jose Calderon isn’t starting ahead of him. KLOE and John Wall is a very Twitter matchup, and Bradley Beal has had more freedom since the Wizards traded Jordan Crawford. We might be talking about this game as a playoff preview in a few years. For now, it’s at least going to be entertaining.
Hawks at Pistons (7:30pm ET)
Quick tangent: This morning, it was reported that Andre Drummond could be on track to return as soon as a week from now, after suffering a stress fracture in his lower back. The Pistons are currently six games out of the eighth seed in the playoffs. A team in the Western Conference that’s also on the outside looking in at the playoff picture at the moment also has an enormously talented center who came back early from back surgery. It hasn’t gone great for them. Detroit isn’t making the playoffs, and they own their own draft pick this June. Wouldn’t it make more sense to hold Drummond out the rest of the year, let him take his time to recover, and make sure that the potential franchise cornerstone of a team with a suddenly promising future doesn’t hurt his long-term health most of the way through his rookie season? Meh. With Brandon Knight hurt and Will Bynum suspended, the Pistons will be shorthanded. There will be a lot of Rodney Stuckey and a lot of Charlie Villanueva. The Hawks are trying to solidify a playoff spot and claw their way up to home-court advantage. Do the math.
Lakers at Nuggets (9:00pm ET)
The Nuggets already used their amnesty on Chris Andersen. The Lakers have not used their amnesty on anybody. Has anyone suggested lately, particularly the owner of another Western Conference playoff hopeful, that LA should use it on Kobe? It’s something I haven’t heard about, if it’s even happened at all. Anyway, this is a must-win for the Lakers. Every game going forward will be a must-win, so that’s not saying a lot, but the Nuggets are pretty firmly entrenched in a playoff spot, so a win against them would be a huge confidence boost for LA. Andre Iguodala guarding Kobe should be riveting. Plus, Dwight and JaVale. Even Jared Dubin can’t say argue that Pierre is the more annoying of the two centers.
Celtics at Jazz (9:00pm ET)
Two teams trying to stay afloat in the playoff pictures in their respective conferences. The Celtics’ offense looked pretty rough last night against the Blazers, and they’re on the second end of a road back-to-back. They’ve won a lot of games since Rajon Rondo tore his ACL, but nobody really thinks that hot streak is sustainable in any way. The Jordan Crawford Celtics Experience has been fun so far, though, especially now that Terrence Williams is in the mix on a 10-day contract. It’s the Marbury/Francis of backup wings. Post-Rondo, the only real reason to watch the Celtics is to hope that it turns into a blowout and Fab Melo gets some garbage minutes. As for the Jazz, they got blown out by the Clippers on Saturday and cling to a two-game lead in the loss column over the Rockets for the seventh seed. The Lakers are gaining on both of them. It won’t be pretty basketball, but it’s one of those games we’re obligated to watch because of the playoff implications.
The post 15 Footer, 2/25/2013: Playoff Implications (Or Not) appeared first on Hardwood Paroxysm.