The Pelicans and Thunder will go down to the final day of the season to decide the No. 8 seed.
The Warriors have clinched the No. 1 seed in the 2015 NBA Western Conference playoffs, the Blazers are set at No. 4 and the Mavericks are locked into No. 7. Everything else is up for grabs. This playoff guide breaks down all of the quirks and tiebreaker situations as the regular season winds down.
We'll update this every morning with current situations.
Last updated: At 1:30 a.m. ET on 4/14/15. The Clippers closed their season with a win to at least temporarily jump a half game ahead of San Antonio and Houston for the No. 2 seed. The Clippers won't hold that position, however, if the Spurs or Rockets win as they'd hold the tiebreaker as the Southwest champs. Los Angeles' victory did seal it at least the No. 3 seed.
Current playoff picture
This is the Too Long; Didn't Read version. If the season ended right this second, here are your first-round matchups. Teams in ALL CAPS are locked into their seeds.
WARRIORS (1) vs. Pelicans (8)
BLAZERS (4) vs. Rockets (5)
Houston has home court advantage
Clippers (2) vs. MAVERICKS (7)
Spurs (3) vs. Grizzlies (6)
Standings
If you have a better record than the next team in line, tiebreakers don't matter. There is one quirky thing here: division winners cannot be seeded below No. 4, but division winners do not get home court advantage against teams higher than them in the standings in any case.
Here's the major jumble from the No. 2-6 spots.
2. Clippers 56-26 --
3. Spurs 55-26 0.5
4. Blazers 51-30 4.5
5. Rockets 55-26 0.5
6. Grizzlies 54-27 1.5
And here's the race for No. 8.
8. Pelicans 44-37 --
9. Thunder 44-37 --
Magic numbers
New Orleans' magic number to clinch the No. 8 seed is 1 (combined wins and Thunder losses)
Oklahoma City's magic number to clinch the No. 8 seed is 2 (combined wins and Pelicans losses)
Tiebreaker Situations
If teams finish tied in the standings, this is how berths and seeds will be determined.
MEMPHIS over Houston: The teams split the season series. But the Rockets can no longer finish with a better division or conference record than the Grizzlies, and Memphis' record against West playoff teams (regardless of whether OKC or New Orleans make it) is guaranteed to be better.
MEMPHIS over San Antonio: The teams split the season series. San Antonio cannot finish with a better divisional record and the Grizzlies have clinched a better record against the West.
SAN ANTONIO over Houston (head to head)
SOUTHWEST CHAMP over Los Angeles (division winner)
LOS ANGELES over San Antonio and Houston*: The Clippers split these season series, but neither the Spurs nor Rockets can finish with a better record against the West. This does not apply to whichever of the Spurs and Rockets win the Southwest. It does apply if Memphis wins the Southwest.
NEW ORLEANS over Oklahoma City (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. Records in BOLD indicate that one of the teams has clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker for the season. Records in ITALICS indicate a season series tie, in which case the next tiebreak comes into play. An asterisk indicates the teams will play only three times this season. Otherwise, the teams play each other four times.
| X | GSW | MEM | HOU | POR | LAC | DAL | SAS | OKC | NOP | PHX |
| GSW | -- | GSW 2-1* | GSW 4-0 | GSW 3-0* | GSW 3-1 | GSW 4-0 | SAS 2-1* | GSW 3-1 | GSW 3-1 | GSW 3-1 |
| MEM | GSW 2-1* | -- | 2-2 | MEM 4-0 | 2-2 | MEM 3-1 | 2-2 | MEM 3-1 | 2-2 | MEM 3-0 |
| HOU | GSW 4-0 | 2-2 | -- | POR 2-1* | 2-2 | HOU 3-1 | SAS 3-1 | HOU 3-0* | 2-2 | HOU 3-1 |
| POR | GSW 3-0* | MEM 4-0 | POR 2-1* | -- | LAC 3-1 | POR 2-1 | POR 3-1 | POR 3-1 | POR 3-0* | POR 3-1 |
| LAC | GSW 3-1 | 2-2 | 2-2 | LAC 3-1 | -- | LAC 2-1* | 2-2 | LAC 2-1* | LAC 2-1* | LAC 4-0 |
| DAL | GSW 3-0 | MEM 3-1 | HOU 3-1 | POR 2-1 | LAC 2-1* | -- | 2-2 | DAL 3-1 | DAL 3-1 | PHX 3-1 |
| SAS | SAS 2-1* | 2-2 | SAS 3-1 | POR 3-1 | 2-2 | 2-2 | -- | SAS 2-1* | NOP 2-1 | SAS 3-1 |
| OKC | GSW 3-1 | MEM 3-1 | HOU 3-0* | POR 3-1 | LAC 2-1* | DAL 3-1 | SAS 2-1* | -- | NOP 3-1 | OKC 3-1 |
| NOP | GSW 3-1 | 2-2 | NOP 2-1 | POR 3-0* | LAC 2-1* | DAL 3-1 | 2-2 | NOP 3-1 | -- | 1-1* |
| PHX | GSW 3-1 | MEM 3-0 | HOU 3-1 | POR 3-1 | LAC 4-0 | PHX 3-1 | SAS 3-1 | OKC 3-1 | 1-1* | -- |
Be sure to check out our East Playoff Standings and Tiebreaker Guide.
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