Three Things to Know: NBA playoff picture update with one week to go

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There is one week left in the NBA season. There are seven days of games to go, the season ends with all 30 teams playing on Sunday. To get an idea of what games might matter, let’s take a look at the NBA playoff picture.

EAST

1. Miami (51-28) 2. Boston (49-30) 3. Milwaukee (48-30) 4. Philadelphia (48-30) 5. Chicago (45-33) 6. Toronto (45-33) 7. Cleveland (43-36) 8. Atlanta (41-37) 9. Charlotte (40-38) 10. Brooklyn (40-38)

Miami is two games clear as the No. 1 seed with three to play, they will almost certainly hang onto that spot barring an epic collapse. However, the Celtics, Bucks and 76ers are all basically tied (Boston has played one more game and has one more win, so they are half a game ahead in second right now) and could finish in any order. Boston has the toughest schedule of the three — three challenging games all on the road — and the big showdown of the week is Thursday when the Celtics face the Bucks.

Chicago and Toronto are tied for 5/6, but the Bulls have the tougher remaining schedule by far. Cleveland is likely destined to finish seventh if they can find a win or two this week (if the Hawks win out maybe they could leapfrog the Cavs). The Hawks are eighth and one game up on the Nets and Hornets (who are tied, Charlotte has the tiebreaker). The big showdown at the bottom is Cleveland traveling to Brooklyn on Friday.

WEST

1. Phoenix (62-16) 2. Memphis (55-23) 3. Golden State (50-29) 4. Dallas (49-30) 5. Denver (47-32) 6. Utah (46-32) 7. Minnesota (45-34) 8. Los Angeles Clippers