PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – The Portland Trail Blazers are set to face the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night with the potential to move to eight place in the Western Conference.
The Blazers currently hold the ninth place spot in the West with a 40-40 record, just one game behind the eighth-seed Clippers.
A win over the Clippers on Friday night would put both teams 41-40 for the season, and move the Blazers up to eighth under NBA tie-breaker rules.
When two teams in the same conference are tied, the league first considers the teams’ record against each other during that season. The Blazers would move to 2-2 against the Clippers with a win on Friday.
The tie-breaker then favors the division leader over the team that is not leading their division, which is the case for neither the Blazers nor the Clippers.
The third tie-breaker criteria, division record, isn’t applicable in this case either since the two teams aren’t in the same division.
So conference record will be used to break the tie, which favors the Blazers with a 27-23 record against Western Conference teams. The Clippers are 24-26 in conference play.
After Friday’s matchup, the Blazers would need either need a win over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday or a loss by the Clippers against the Golden State Warriors to hold the eighth spot.
A loss to the Clippers, on the other hand, would lock the Blazers into ninth place
Following the regular season finale on Sunday, the eighth seed in the West will face the No. 7 Phoenix Suns in the play-in, while the ninth seed will play the No. 10 Golden State Warriors.
The winner of the seventh/eighth place play-in game will move on to play the No. 2 San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs.
The loser of the seventh/eighth place game will then play the winner of the ninth/tenth place game for a chance to play the top-seed Oklahoma City Thunder.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Moda Center.
This is a developing story.
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