Early this Monday morning in Spain, Oklahoma City became the first classified in the regular phase of the Western Conference of the NBA in an intense Last Monday that was played by the 30 teams in the competition and in which the majority of the matches were decided. playoff crossovers. In fact, until this last day only the Western duel between Clippers and Dallas was defined.
After beating the Mavericks without hesitation at home (135-86), the Thunders will now face the loser of the conference play-in final, an attractive tie that will be played this week by New Orleans, the Lakers, Sacramento and Golden State. The other conference games in the playoff are the one between Denver against the winner of the play-in final and Minnesota-Phoenix.
Confirmed weeks ago, Boston's lead in the regular phase in the Eastern Conference, the fight for second place between Milwaukee, New York and Cleveland finally went to the Knicks, who won in an intense game that was decided in the extension to Chicago at Madison Square Garden (120-119).
The Bucks continued their losing streak by falling on their visit to Orlando to finish third in the East and the Cavaliers ruined their chances by losing at home to Charlotte, which was already out of the fight to be fourth in the conference.
In the playoffs, the Celtics await the loser of the final of a play-in between Philadelphia, Miami - a finalist last season -, Chicago and Atlanta. The winner of this tie will face New York. The other Eastern crossings will be Milwaukee-Indiana and Cleveland-Orlando.
