Five must-watch games from final week of NBA season

One week from today, the NBA postseason starts with the first play-in games.

But little is settled heading into this final week of the NBA campaign, especially out West. The league has a gift for scheduling games that matter on crucial days, and now that UConn has ended the NCAA season, the final week of the NBA season is packed with must-watch games. Starting tonight.

Here are five must-watch games this week:

The Boston Celtics have an outside shot at still getting the No.1 overall seed in the East (and NBA), but they will need help (particularly from the Raptors).

That starts for what is a must-win game for Boston on Tuesday night — the Celtics are two games back of the Bucks with four to play but have the tiebreaker. If the Celtics win out and the Bucks go 2-2, Boston gets the top seed (which means avoiding a potential series with Miami in the first round and Philadelphia in the second, the No.1 seed has a much easier path on paper). Boston must beat Philadelphia Tuesday, then sweep a two-game set at home against Toronto. Milwaukee closes the season at the Wizards (who have shut it down for the year), hosting the Bulls then Grizzlies, and finishing at Toronto. Do the Bucks have two losses in those four?

There hasn’t been much of a rivalry between the Lakers and Clippers in Los Angeles, primarily because they haven’t played games of real consequence — there have been no playoff series matchups. This starts to change things. The winner of this game has an inside track on a top-six finish in the crowded bottom of the West and avoiding the play-in. It’s on the Clippers’ home floor, but it won’t sound like it (Clipper home games against the Lakers remain two-thirds Lakers fans).

Lakers nation views the Clippers as their