NBA playoff chase: Six teams battling for seeding in the East
The Detroit Pistons are floundering, the Milwaukee Bucks are surging, and the Indiana Pacers are playing historically mediocre basketball.
Such is the Eastern Conference playoff race, where the standings heading into Thursday night’s game could be significantly different when the regular season ends April 12. Six teams are essentially vying for four spots, and they’re separated by 3.5 games. Those six teams are the Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Bucks, Pacers and Pistons.
The Heat are the No. 8 seed after beginning the season 11-30. No team has been 19 games under .500 halfway through the season and made the playoffs, according to the Heat. Miami, which finishes the regular season with seven of its remaining 10 games against teams fighting for the playoffs, could find itself in a first-round matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Coincidentally, the Heat have won two of three vs. the defending champions this season. Better yet, the Heat own tiebreakers over the Pacers and the Bucks should it come to that.
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The Heat are on the right side of the cut line, but hardly anything is settled as far up as the No. 5 seed, tenuously occupied by the Atlanta Hawks, who face the Bucks on Friday night. Milwaukee is 10-2 since March 3 and has a realistic chance of overtaking the Hawks for the No. 5 seed.
“Dwelling on what’s negative isn’t going to bring anything good out of it,” Hawks forward Thabo Sefolosha said after their eighth loss in 11 games Wednesday. “We’ve got to be able to be honest with one another and tell each other about what we see, but after a game like this, be positive.”
The Hawks and the Bucks are relatively safe, but teams such as the Pacers, Bulls and Pistons are anything but.
It doesn’t seem to matter how much Paul George contributes; the Pacers, a game ahead of the Heat for the seventh seed, are mired in mediocrity. Indiana has set a franchise record of 15 straight games for alternating wins and losses. The NBA record is 16. If the standings hold, the Pacers could find themselves facing the Boston Celtics in the first round. The Celtics, however, trail the Cavs by just one game for the top seed with an April 5 matchup looming.
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“This was a very winnable game,” George said after Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics. “Everybody at this point in the season is giving all they’ve got. It’s just that point in the season where it’s no excuses, no finger pointing. We’re just not getting it done.”
The Bulls and Pistons would gladly trade positions with any of the teams currently looking down at them in the standings. The Bulls have lost nine of 13 since Feb. 28. They also lost guard Dwyane Wade for the remainder of the regular season due to a minor fracture in his elbow. Fortunately, the Bulls own the tiebreaker over the Heat (by virtue of winning the season series 2-1). Whether they’ll take advantage of an easy remaining schedule remains another matter.
The Pistons remain on the outside looking in. They end their regular season with six of 10 games on the road and face six teams that would be in the postseason. Coach Stan Van Gundy didn’t sound optimistic after Wednesday’s dispiriting loss to the Bulls.
“We’re just not playing. It was just bad all the way around,” he said.
The margins are so small that anything from an injury to an untimely suspension could sway the race. The season-as-a-marathon analogy no longer applies. It’s now a sprint to the finish.
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Michael Singer on Twitter @msinger.