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.<\/p>\n
The Blazers currently hold the ninth place spot in the West with a 40-40 record, just one game behind the eighth-seed Clippers.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
When two teams in the same conference are tied, the league first considers the teams\u2019 record against each other during that season. The Blazers would move to 2-2 against the Clippers with a win on Friday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The third tie-breaker criteria, division record, isn\u2019t applicable in this case either since the two teams aren\u2019t in the same division.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
After Friday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
A loss to the Clippers, on the other hand, would lock the Blazers into ninth place<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Moda Center.<\/p>\n
This is a developing story.<\/p>\n
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