Two-Team Tiebreaker Status Has Won Currently Ahead Currently Equal Currently Behind Has Lost more infoi. X, %, ^, ^, ^, ^, ^, ^, ^, ^, ^. TimberwolvesT. If the Suns beat the Timberwolves on Sunday, and the Pelicans lose to the Lakers, the Suns will be locked into the pelicans timberwolves tiebreaker seed and will not. The Cavaliers, Timberwolves, Knicks and Nuggets -- all the higher seeds in their respective matchups -- were winners on Saturday, protecting. Tiebreakers. If the Wolves end the regular season with the same record as another team, a tie-breaker will determine the higher seed.
As things currently stand the Thunder have the No. An interesting aspect of the playoff tiebreakers is that even though the Thunder have the three-way tiebreaker, the Timberwolves have the individual tiebreakers over both the Thunder and the Nuggets. This means that for the Wolves to finish with the number one seed, they need to defeat the Phoenix Suns and get a loss from either the Thunder or the Nuggets.
The problem with counting on a loss from the Thunder is that their opponent, the Dallas Mavericks , will be resting most if not all of their rotation players as they did Friday night when they lost to the league-worst Detroit Pistons. The Thunder are currently point favorites on the DraftKings Sportsbook.
The wrinkle to that is it appears the Nuggets may be resting most of their players in the game. It is unclear whether the Nuggets are trying to give the Timberwolves an opportunity at the No. Keep in mind that Denver will be the No. Either way, Timberwolves fans should be cheering for the Grizzlies, who are locked into having the seventh-best lottery odds and can win the game without jeopardizing their draft position.
The group Memphis will send out on Sunday almost beat a full-strength Los Angeles Lakers team on Friday, so they have some ability. With a win against the Suns, the Timberwolves can finish no lower than the No. With a loss, the Wolves would be out of contention for the No. The Kings, Warriors and Lakers have identical records across the season, which means a tiebreaker could well be needed to decide in which position they finish , and which play-in game they qualify for.
If there is a three-way tie , which is entirely possible with only two games left, the following rules apply:. The playoffs themselves get underway on Saturday 20 April. The tournament works as follows , as described by the NBA itself:. The winners secure the No. The losers will get another chance to earn a playoff spot.
The winners will advance to the final stage of the Play-In Tournament. The losers are eliminated. Pelicans timberwolves tiebreaker The losers are eliminated. The losers of the No. The losing teams are eliminated. The Pelicans will fight it out with the Suns for the final playoff place, with the Kings, Warriors and Lakers set for the play-in round. Roddy Cons RoddyCons. Update: Apr 12th, EDT.
PHO, vs. Division leaders win ties Which of the three teams has the best winning percentage in all games?