Portland Trail Blazers seize control of race for eighth place in Western Conference
Watch Mavericks @ Suns (9pm) and Trail Blazers @ Nets (2am) live on Sky Sports Arena on Thursday night
Wednesday 12 August 2020 09:54, UK
Damian Lillard's 61-point eruption against the Dallas Mavericks placed the Portland Trail Blazers in control of the race for the Western Conference's eighth seed. With three other teams still in contention, what are the permutations heading into the final seeding games?
Behind a brilliant 61-point performance from Damian Lillard - matching his career-high from earlier this season - the Blazers put themselves in the driver's seat for the No 8 seed in the Western Conference play-in with a 134-131 win over Dallas on Tuesday night.
With the win, Portland hold a half-game lead over the other three contenders for the play-in. The Memphis Grizzlies sit ninth by virtue of a head-to-head tie-breaker with the Phoenix Suns.
Phoenix are currently in 10th, with San Antonio in 11th due to having a slightly lower win percentage than the Grizzlies and Suns.
All four teams will be back in action on Thursday night to close out their seeding games and determine which two teams will square off in the Western Conference Play-In for a chance to face the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.
The first game of the Play-In will be on Saturday, August 15 at 7:30pm, live on Sky Sports and free for non-Sky subscribers to watch on skysports.com. the Sky Sports app and Sky Sports YouTube channel via a live stream.
Here is a complete breakdown of how each team can either claim the No 8 seed (and the advantage of having to only win one game in the Play-In series) or the No 9 seed (with which they would need to win two Play-In games against the No 8 seed to reach the playoffs) or find themselves out and headed back home as their season comes to an end.
Portland will be seeded:
- No 8 if they win their final seeding game win OR Grizzlies, Suns and Spurs lose theirs
- No 9 if they lose their final seeding game and any two of Grizzlies, Suns or Spurs also lose their final seeding game
- The Blazers will be eliminated if they lose and any two of Grizzlies, Suns or Spurs win their final seeding game
Memphis will be seeded:
- No 8 if they win their final seeding game and the Blazers lose theirs
- No 9 if they win their final seeding game and the Blazers win OR Grizzlies, Suns and Spurs all lose
- The Grizzlies will be eliminated if they lose and either the Suns or Spurs win their final seeding game
Phoenix will be seeded:
- No 8 if they win their final seeding game and the Blazers and Grizzlies both lose theirs
- No 9 if they win their final seeding game and the Blazers or Grizzlies lose theirs
- The Suns will be eliminated if they lose their final seeding game
San Antonio will be seeded:
- No 8 if they win their final seeding game and the Blazers, Grizzlies and Suns all lose theirs
- No 9 if they win their seeding game and any two of the Blazers, Grizzlies and Suns lose theirs
- The Spurs will be eliminated if they lose their final seeding game
