The Northwest Division title already in hand, the Seattle SuperSonics were able to settle back in their Minneapolis hotel rooms on Saturday night, enjoying the role of spectators.
With four days left until the end of the NBA’s regular season, the Sonics still are waiting to find out who they face in their first-round playoff series, which begins next weekend. Based on Saturday night’s results there is at last a frontrunner – Sacramento, a team Seattle defeated in three of four games this season.
On Saturday, Houston defeated Denver 115-87 and Phoenix beat Sacramento 116-98. Those outcomes leave Houston and Sacramento tied for the No. 5 Western Conference playoff spot, with Denver currently in the No. 7 position, one game back. Houston, Sacramento and Denver all have two games remaining.
Though plenty can change in the season’s final days, Houston has the edge for the fifth spot.
The Rockets have the tiebreaker with Sacramento based on a better conference record. The two teams split in their head-to-head season series, the first tiebreaker. Houston also has a more favorable schedule with home games remaining against the L.A. Clippers on Monday and Seattle on Wednesday. Sacramento is at Utah on Monday and hosts Phoenix on Wednesday.
For now, that puts Sacramento in the sixth spot, one game ahead of Denver. Sacramento also has the tiebreaker with the Nuggets, based on a 2-1 season series edge. Denver closes its schedule with games at Phoenix on Monday and at home against Portland on Tuesday.
All of this is of great interest to the Sonics who, having earned the No. 3 playoff berth with Friday’s win against New Orleans, will take on the No. 6 seed in the best-of-seven, opening-round series.
Unfortunately for the Seattle coaches and players, they probably won’t know their foe for sure until at least Tuesday night, when Denver plays its final game, or even Wednesday night, when Houston and Sacramento close their schedules.
“We would definitely like to know so we can prepare,” acknowledged Seattle coach Nate McMillan. “If we knew it would definitely be great, but the unknown is where we are right now. … if we have to wait until Wednesday to find out, that only give us two days to put some stuff together.”
If Seattle does face Sacramento, the good news is that the Sonics would have homecourt advantage, determined by regular season records and tiebreakers. Seattle already has clinched homecourt advantage in the first round against either Sacramento or Denver, but needs one more win or a Houston loss to clinch homecourt advantage against the Rockets.
If they have the homecourt advantage, the Sonics’ first two games would be at KeyArena, likely on Saturday and on Tuesday, April 26.
Though he might have private preferences, McMillan’s public stance is that he doesn’t care who the Sonics play in the first round.
Houston, Sacramento and Denver “are all very good teams,” he said. “We’ve won games and lost games against all of them. So, no, it doesn’t make a difference to me.”
Conversely, McMillan suspects that Houston, Sacramento and Denver would like to face Seattle in the opening round due to the team’s recent six-game losing streak. The alternative for the fifth seed is No. 4 Dallas while the seventh seed plays No. 2 San Antonio.
“I think everybody wants to play us,” McMillan conceded. “We dropped six straight games and we’ve had some injuries, so we’re probably the team everybody wants to face. We’re the underdogs in the playoffs.”
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