Your 2015 NBA Eastern Conference playoff picture and tiebreaker guide

The Celtics clinch the No. 7 seed, the Raptors look headed for fourth and the Pacers are in the driver's seat for the No. 8 seed.

With just one game left in the regular season, only five seeds and one matchup is decided. The eighth and final playoff spot will go down to the season's final day, while the No. 3 seed remains up for grabs. Here's where we stand entering the final night of the season.

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Last updated: Includes results from games played on 4/14/15. Indiana and Washington set basketball back 100 years, but the Pacers' double-overtime win victory keeps them a game ahead of the Nets for the eighth and final playoff spot. Brooklyn has the tiebreaker, so the Pacers aren't out of the woods yet. They must beat the Grizzlies or hope for a Nets loss to the Magic to clinch the final spot.

Elsewhere, the Celtics clinched the No. 7 seed and a series against the Cavaliers, while the Raptors' loss drops them a full game behind Chicago for the No. 3 seed. Toronto must beat Charlotte and hope Chicago loses to Atlanta to jump back into third.

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Current playoff picture

This is the Too Long; Didn't Read version. If the season ended today, here are your first-round matchups. The seeds that are locked in are in ALL CAPS.

HAWKS (1) vs. Pacers (8)

Raptors (4) vs. WIZARDS (5)



CAVALIERS (2) vs. CELTICS (7)

Bulls (3) vs. BUCKS (6)

Standings

Obviously, tiebreakers only matter if the teams are tied. There is one oddity here: division winners cannot be seeded below No. 4. But division winners don't get home-court advantage against teams higher than them in the standings anyway.

Here's the race for the No. 3 and 4 spots.

3. Bulls     49-32  --
4. Raptors  48-33  1

And here's the race for the last spot.

8. Pacers    38-43  --  
9. Nets      37-44  1 
10. Heat     36-45  2

Magic Numbers

Chicago clinches the No. 3 seed with a win OR Raptors loss

Toronto clinches the No. 3 seed with a win AND Bulls loss

Indiana clinches the No. 8 seed with a win OR Nets loss

Brooklyn clinches the No. 8 seed with a win AND Pacers loss

Tiebreaker Situations

If teams finish the season tied in the standings, these tiebreakers will decide berths and seeds.

TORONTO over Chicago (division winner)

BOSTON over Brooklyn and Indiana (H2H)

BROOKLYN over Indiana (H2H)

INDIANA over Miami (H2H)

MIAMI over Brooklyn (H2H)

Head-to-Head Data

This is the head-to-head data used in the above tiebreaker breakdown.

The following table shows each playoff contender's record against other playoff contenders. BOLD indicates one of the teams has clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker for the season. ITALICS indicates a season series tie. An asterisk indicates the teams will play only three times this season. Otherwise, the teams play each other four times.

X	ATL	CLE	TOR	CHI	WAS	MIL	IND	CHA	MIA	BOS	BKN
ATL	--	ATL 3-1	TOR 3-1	ATL 2-0*	ATL 3-1	ATL 3-1	ATL 3-0*	2-2	ATL 4-0	ATL 2-1*	ATL 4-0
CLE	ATL 3-1	--	CLE 3-1	CLE 3-1	CLE 2-1	CLE 3-1	2-2	CLE 3-0*	2-2	2-2	CLE 3-1
TOR	TOR 3-1	CLE 3-1	--	CHI 4-0	TOR 3-0*	TOR 2-1*	TOR 3-0*	CHA 2-1	TOR 2-1*	2-2	2-2
CHI	ATL 2-0*	CLE 3-1	CHI 4-0	--	2-2	CHI 4-0	2-2	2-2	CHI 2-1*	CHI 3-1	CHI 3-1
WAS	ATL 3-1	CLE 2-1	TOR 3-0*	2-2	--	WAS 2-1*	2-2	2-2	WAS 3-1	WAS 2-1*	2-2
MIL	ATL 3-1	CLE 3-1	TOR 2-1*	CHI 4-0	WAS 2-1*	--	2-2	CHA 2-1*	MIL 4-0	MIL 2-0*	MIL 3-1
IND	ATL 3-0*	2-2	TOR 3-0*	2-2	2-2	2-2	--	IND 3-1	IND 3-1	BOS 3-1	BKN 2-1*
CHA	2-2	CLE 3-0*	CHA 2-1	2-2	2-2	CHA 2-1*	IND 3-1	--	2-2	2-2	BKN 2-1*
MIA	ATL 4-0	2-2	TOR 2-1*	CHI 2-1*	WAS 3-1	MIL 4-0	IND 3-1	2-2	--	MIA 3-1	MIA 4-0
BOS	ATL 2-1*	2-2	2-2	CHI 3-1	WAS 2-1*	MIL 2-0*	BOS 3-1	2-2	MIA 3-1	--	BOS 3-1
BKN	ATL 4-0	CLE 3-1	2-2	CHI 3-1	2-2	MIL 3-1	BKN 2-1*	BKN 2-1*	MIA 4-0	BOS 3-1	--

Be sure to also see our Guide to the West Tiebreakers.

Source SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1CgE0VY