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The No. 8 Dallas Mavericks, No. 9 Los Angeles Lakers, No. 10 New Orleans Pelicans and No. 11 Oklahoma City Thunder hold identical 36-37 records after OKC’s loss to the Clippers on Thursday.
In tiebreaker scenarios that involve more than two teams, the nods, in order, go to the teams with the best aggregate head-to-head winning percentages against all teams involved.
Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Western Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Friday. This post will update daily throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched.
Reminder on how the play-in tournament works: No. 7 plays No. 8 and No. 9 plays No. 10. The winner of the 7-8 game gets the No. 7 seed, while the loser plays the winner of the 9-10 game for the No. 8 seed.
READ: Eastern Conference playoff picture
NOTE: Our SportsLine model, developed by predictive data engineer Stephen Oh, simulates the entire season 10,000 times to produce the most unbiased and precise projections imaginable.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Projected seed: 1Current first-round matchup: TBDTiebreaker vs. Memphis: Nuggets have clinchedTiebreaker vs. Sacramento: Season series tied 1-1 with one to playTiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Nuggets lead season series 2-0 with two to playProjected seed: 2Current first-round matchup: vs. Timberwolves-Mavericks play-in winnerTiebreaker vs. Denver: Nuggets have clinchedTiebreaker vs. Sacramento: Kings currently own via conference recordTiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Grizzlies own via division leaderProjected seed: 3Current first-round matchup: vs. WarriorsTiebreaker vs. Denver: Tied 1-1 with one to playTiebreaker vs. Memphis: Kings currently own via conference win percentage Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Suns lead 2-1 with one to…..
