Giannis Antetokounmpo avoids serious injury but likely to miss time: sources

Only five games tonight and three of them are functionally irrelevant unless you believe the Blazers can beat Golden State.

Nevertheless, the other two, combined with last night's results, once again give us a lot to discuss.

In the East, Orlando's loss to an undermanned Milwaukee team is the biggest news. It now puts the Magic in the dangerous position of slipping down the seeding table; They were still alive to secure second place with a win, but could now only end up in eighth place!!! More on that in a moment.

Meanwhile, the Bucks are in good shape to hold on to second place or, in a worst-case scenario, slip to third. With a win or a loss in Cleveland, the Bucks will secure the Central Division and, with a win, second place.

However, the Bucks' final two games are in Oklahoma City and Orlando. Two losses would open the door for Cleveland and New York to overtake them and push the Bucks into the four seeds, but that only happens if both teams win – which requires seven different game results that don't go Milwaukee's way.

New York's game in Boston is the most important East game tonight. The Celtics are great, but have already secured the No. 1 spot in the playoffs. So we'll see which Celtics actually play and for how long. (Shoutout also to Celtics GM Brad Stevens, who was watching Hoop Summit practices here in Portland with complete calm as news of the Jrue holiday extension broke.)

The Knicks can still clinch second place if they win their last three games and the Bucks lose their last two. It would be more realistic that with two wins and either a loss in Cleveland or a win in Milwaukee, New York can hold on to the three seeds (and, above all, avoid the powerful Boston team). (Yes, a Bucks win helps them in this scenario. A three-way tie with the Bucks and Cavs at 49 wins drops the Knicks to fourth place, but a two-way tie with the Cavs at 49 wins puts New York in third place.)

And should the Knicks lose two of their last three? That puts more chaotic scenarios in the air as the Magic and Pacers could move past them and push New York into sixth place.

Regardless, Cavs fans should cheer for Boston; Two wins plus two losses against New York or Milwaukee is the equation Cleveland needs to move into second or third place.

Okay, back to Orlando. Suddenly things can easily get really bad, even if Miami also loses. Amazingly, with two wins and two Orlando losses, the Heat can still be division champions, a scenario that would likely drop Orlando all the way back to eighth place. With Miami hosting an impressive Raptors team in its last two games and Orlando still having two lost games with Philadelphia and Milwaukee, that's possible.

On the other hand, the Magic win their division with just one win and secure a place in the top six, except in a very strange scenario where they finished seventh. (Philadelphia and Indiana win, Cleveland beat Charlotte and New York wins at least once.)

Orlando's loss also helps Philly's hopes of avoiding the play-in; The two teams play each other on Friday. To move up to sixth, Philly would only need to win this game and its finale on Sunday and take either another Orlando loss, two Cleveland losses, two Indiana losses or two Indiana wins.

In the West, the focus tonight is on the New Orleans-Sacramento game. The Kings are clinging to a scenario where they win, the Pelicans lose their final three games and Sacramento steals sixth place. New Orleans ties with the Warriors and Lakers, so it's not entirely far-fetched.

Phoenix will be watching closely. The Suns have to win and hope the Pelicans lose at least once to secure sixth place; Any combination of three Suns losses and Pelicans wins secures New Orleans sixth place.

Meanwhile, the Kings can still finish in tenth place. A loss and a win at Golden State would leave the Lakers, Warriors and Kings tied at 45-35; However, Sacramento still has that tiebreaker and won two-way matchups against both. The Lakers and Warriors would both need two Kings losses and no more of their own to get past Sacramento. By the way, Golden State also wins the tiebreaker with the Lakers and moves up to ninth place assuming it beats Portland tonight.

However, what we really care about is MAXIMUM CHAOS. Let me present you a scenario where the Lakers and Warriors win, the Kings beat New Orleans and Portland but lose to Phoenix, and the Suns lose to Minnesota.

In this case, we end the season with a five-way tie at 47-35 between New Orleans, Sacramento, Phoenix, the Lakers and Warriors.

Unfortunately, solving this tie would be relatively easy, rather than dragging us into a netherworld of records against conference playoff teams and other mysteries from the tiebreaker table. Based on the initial tiebreaker and head-to-head record, Phoenix would be sixth, Golden State seventh, Sacramento eighth, New Orleans ninth and the Lakers tenth.

Still, it shows the Pelicans' work isn't done; Falling to ninth place and needing two wins next week to make the playoffs would be quite a setback.

Denver is in control of the top seed in the West after last night's win over Minnesota, but the Nuggets' work isn't done yet. They have a tough game in San Antonio on Friday with Victor Wembanyama likely to play, and a loss there would put Oklahoma City back in pole position and steal the top spot. The Thunder win a three-way tie with Denver and Minnesota, while the Nuggets finish third. However, Denver certainly won't lose its Finals to the remaining pieces of a broken Memphis team.

If the Nuggets finish first, Minnesota will win the two-way tiebreaker with Oklahoma City in second. Both teams are tied and probably have at least one more difficult game ahead of them; Minnesota on Sunday against Phoenix and Oklahoma City at home against Milwaukee on Friday. I expect their other opponents (Atlanta for the Wolves, Dallas for the Thunder) to give the players a break due to their locked-in playoff positions.

The Clippers' loss to Phoenix means LA needs one more win or loss against Dallas to secure fourth place; Regardless, they will face the Mavs in the first round. With the Clips next facing a struggling Utah team, this game still seems safe.