Minnesota Sports Forum

Hmm...did that faint glimmer of hope just get a little less faint? Curry is out for the Warriors tonight.

Lakers/Warriors as well as Rockets/76ers with playoff implications and Raptors/Heat with draft pick implications.

Raptors up 19 at the half.

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 7:28 pm Lakers/Warriors as well as Rockets/76ers with playoff implications and Raptors/Heat with draft pick implications.

Raptors up 19 at the half.

One of your bigger hurdles is the Raptors beating the Knicks at the Garden. Knicks will most likely have something to play for, too...

60WinTim wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 7:41 pm

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 7:28 pm Lakers/Warriors as well as Rockets/76ers with playoff implications and Raptors/Heat with draft pick implications.

Raptors up 19 at the half.

One of your bigger hurdles is the Raptors beating the Knicks at the Garden. Knicks will most likely have something to play for, too...

One task at a time please

Raps and Rockets win. That's good. A Knicks win also doesnt hurt. Lakers are currently winning.

Operation have our cake and eat it too is baking.

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 10:04 pm Raps and Rockets win. That's good. A Knicks win also doesnt hurt. Lakers are currently winning.

Operation have our cake and eat it too is baking.

Your parlay is still in play! But tomorrow is the really BIG day for both the playoff matchups and the draft order.

The Wolves are locked in at #6, but #3 thru #5 is a complete mess! While the Lakers hold the tie breaker over the Nuggets, the Nuggets would win a 3-way tie breaker if Houston were to join their party! The Wolves could help their chances of a Lakers matchup by beath Houston tomorrow...

[Edit: Oops! I just realized a Wolves win would ruin your draft scenario. You must have gotten great odds on that parlay! ]

60WinTim wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 11:27 pm

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 10:04 pm Raps and Rockets win. That's good. A Knicks win also doesnt hurt. Lakers are currently winning.

Operation have our cake and eat it too is baking.

Your parlay is still in play! But tomorrow is the really BIG day for both the playoff matchups and the draft order.

The Wolves are locked in at #6, but #3 thru #5 is a complete mess! While the Lakers hold the tie breaker over the Nuggets, the Nuggets would win a 3-way tie breaker if Houston were to join their party! The Wolves could help their chances of a Lakers matchup by beath Houston tomorrow...

[Edit: Oops! I just realized a Wolves win would ruin your draft scenario. You must have gotten great odds on that parlay! ]

Lots of juicy bits today.

Houston is 10.5 point favorites, last I saw. That indicates that we have some guys sitting out. Even if Ant plays, I'm sure it won't be heavy minutes. Houston has an outside chance of getting to 3 and a Wolves loss keeps pick 19 in play.

Atlanta needs to win out to keep pick 19 in play. They play Cleveland without Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen tonight.

Toronto also needs to win out to keep 19 in play. They are 5.5 point underdogs in the Garden tonight. This iis one of the iffy ingredients in our cake mix. NY is 4-0 already against Toronto this season so maybe the Raptors are due. The Knicks are still trying to hold Cleveland off although the Cavs probably don't want to be on the Celtics side of the bracket as evidenced by resting some of their guys tonight.

Nuggets and Thunder is the other really iffy ingredient. There are a ton of guys listed as GTD for both teams. Conventional wisdom says both teams want Denver at 3 so they can put off facing one another till round 3. This one is very much up in the air.

The final ingredient is Lakers/Suns. I'm seeing Devin Booker as out so it will be the LeBron/Dillon Brooks showdown. LeBron has a hand injury of some sort but is going to play.

Phenom wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2026 9:11 am

60WinTim wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 11:27 pm

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 10:04 pm Raps and Rockets win. That's good. A Knicks win also doesnt hurt. Lakers are currently winning.

Operation have our cake and eat it too is baking.

Your parlay is still in play! But tomorrow is the really BIG day for both the playoff matchups and the draft order.

The Wolves are locked in at #6, but #3 thru #5 is a complete mess! While the Lakers hold the tie breaker over the Nuggets, the Nuggets would win a 3-way tie breaker if Houston were to join their party! The Wolves could help their chances of a Lakers matchup by beath Houston tomorrow...

[Edit: Oops! I just realized a Wolves win would ruin your draft scenario. You must have gotten great odds on that parlay! ]

Lots of juicy bits today.

Houston is 10.5 point favorites, last I saw. That indicates that we have some guys sitting out. Even if Ant plays, I'm sure it won't be heavy minutes. Houston has an outside chance of getting to 3 and a Wolves loss keeps pick 19 in play.

Atlanta needs to win out to keep pick 19 in play. They play Cleveland without Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen tonight.

Toronto also needs to win out to keep 19 in play. They are 5.5 point underdogs in the Garden tonight. This iis one of the iffy ingredients in our cake mix. NY is 4-0 already against Toronto this season so maybe the Raptors are due. The Knicks are still trying to hold Cleveland off although the Cavs probably don't want to be on the Celtics side of the bracket as evidenced by resting some of their guys tonight.

Nuggets and Thunder is the other really iffy ingredient. There are a ton of guys listed as GTD for both teams. Conventional wisdom says both teams want Denver at 3 so they can put off facing one another till round 3. This one is very much up in the air.

The final ingredient is Lakers/Suns. I'm seeing Devin Booker as out so it will be the LeBron/Dillon Brooks showdown. LeBron has a hand injury of some sort but is going to play.

I watched the Lakers game last night and saw the play where LeBron hurt his hand...he came back into the game though and played well. The Suns are favored tonight by 2 1/2, but with Booker out and the Suns having nothing to play for, I think the Lakers have a good chance to win this one. They should also beat Utah in their finale, so they could finish with 53 wins.

There remain two problems with the dream of facing the Lakers in round one. First, Denver has to lose one of its remaining two games. They are huge favorites tonight against a Thunder team resting a lot of its players. So then it comes down to whether the Spurs want to win their finale against the Nuggets. I'd love to see them rest Wemby tonight and then go all in against the Nuggets.

And then there's Houston. They are now likely to finish with 53 wins also...they are heavy favorites to win tonight against the Wolves and will also be heavy favorites against Memphis. You say they win a 3-way tiebreaker, but I think the first criteria in a 3-way tiebreaker is division champion...and that would be the Lakers.

So the way I see it, these two things have to happen for us to face the Lakers in round one: The Lakers need to beat the Suns and Jazz, and the Nuggets need to lose to either the Thunder or the Spurs. The dream is still alive!

Nice catch, FNG! I was unaware about a division winner being the first tie-breaker in a 3-way tie. The dream IS alive!!!

The Knicks are ruining our draft pick plan