Short Version tonight.

Games of 3/31:

Long story short - we take care of business but get absolutely no help whatsoever - even where we could have expected it (looking at your Boston!). Denver was the only West playoff team not in action tonight, and everyone but the湖人队won.

Games of 4/1:

Orlando & Dallas- Won't affect our seeding, but could affect who we play in round 1. Hard to know yet though whether we want Dallas to slot into the 2 or 3 slot. Optimists, root for Orlando; Pessimists, Dallas.

Portland at Denver- This game is going to tell us a LOT. Win, and we have a semblance of a chance left of passing Denver and an outside shot of climbing as high as 4th. Lose, and we're going to be hoping for a Phoenix meltdown to finish better than 6th.

JScot's Projections:

For those who saw my preview edition in the gameday thread, pretty sure I mucked something up. That's what I get for trying to jump the gun I suppose. Anywhere, here's latest and greatest:

1 Los Angeles 54-21 59.3 2 Dallas 50-25 54.6 3 Utah 50-26 53.7 4 Denver 48-27 52.8 5 Phoenix 49-26 52.6 6 Oklahoma City 46-28 50.4 (up from 6th) 7 Portland 46-29 50.2 (down from 7th) 8 San Antonio 45-29 49.2

As you can see, it's looking more and more like it's Dallas vs. Utah for the 2 and 3 seeds, Denver and Phoenix heading for an opening round matchup with homecourt being up for grabs, and OKC, Portland, and San Antonio all jockeying for position in the 6 through 8 slots. Matchups being key in the playoffs, it will be real interesting to see how things play out. There doesn't appear to be an easy out for any of the top seeds, does there? You think any of them want to face a veteranSpursteam in round 1? A surging Blazers squad whose playing their best ball of the year? An up and comingThunderwho defend well, have no pressure and nothing to lose, and have a guy capable of going off for 40 on any given night?

And now, the East:

1 Cleveland 59-16 64.5 2 Orlando 52-22 57.5 3 Atlanta 48-26 52.8 4 Boston 47-27 51.7 5 Miami 41-34 46.4 6 Milwaukee 41-33 45.3 7 Charlotte 39-35 43.4 8 Toronto 37-37 41.7 -- Chicago 35-39 38.5

Atlanta's big win over the Lakers tonight pushes their projection almost a full game ahead of Boston. As many of you are aware, there is a brewing potential controversy in the East should the two teams finished tied. Boston would then get the 3 seed by virtue of the "division winner" provision, even though Atlanta swept them 4 games to 0 this year. My guess is the NBA is hoping they don't end tied. With Boston continuing to roll over for any Western playoff team that comes into town, that appears to be more likely now.