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The Milwaukee Bucks lost to the Indiana Pacers on Thursday to give a game back to Boston and Philadelphia in the race for the East’s No. 1 seed. Milwaukee now leads the Celtics and Sixers by two in the loss column. It could get interesting with Boston and Milwaukee still having one matchup left, which will also decide the season tiebreaker.
Also of note, with the Brooklyn Nets’ loss to the Sacramento Kings, the Miami Heat now control their own destiny to climb above the play-in line and into the No. 6 seed. The Heat trail the No. 6 Nets by two in the loss column with two head-to-head matchups remaining. If Miami were to win those two, they would, as it stands, also win the tiebreaker by way of being a division winner.
Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Eastern Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Friday. This post will update daily throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched.
Reminder on how the play-in tournament works: No. 7 plays No. 8 and No. 9 plays No. 10. The winner of the 7-8 game gets the No. 7 seed, while the loser plays the winner of the 9-10 game for the No. 8 seed.
READ: Western Conference playoff picture
NOTE: Our SportsLine model, developed by predictive data engineer Stephen Oh, simulates the entire season 10,000 times to produce the most unbiased and precise projections imaginable.
Projected seed: 1Current first-round matchup: TBDTiebreaker vs. Boston: Tied 1-1 with one to playTiebreaker vs. Philadelphia: Sixers lead 2-1 with one to playProjected seed: 2Current first-round matchup: Winner of Heat/Hawks play-inTiebreaker vs. Milwaukee: Tied 1-1 with one to playTiebreaker vs. Philadelphia: Celtics clinchedTiebreaker vs. Cleveland: Cavs clinchedProjected seed: 3Current…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-east-playoff-picture-celtics-sixers-gain-on-bucks-heat-control-destiny-to-climb-out-of-play-in/
Author : Brad Botkin
Publish date : 2023-03-17 10:00:27
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