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5 NBA playoff races to keep an eye on

Kelvin Kuo / USA TODAY Sports

As we come down to the final few weeks of the season, nearly two-thirds of the league still has something to play for, setting us up for some thrilling races down the stretch. And it's not just about the races to squeak into the playoffs or to lock up home court (which the Pacers and Spurs look to be in control of), as some of the battles for positioning should be just as exciting.

So on that note, here are six races to keep an eye on over the final 19 days of the regular season.

Clippers vs. Rockets for West's No. 3 seed
The Clippers may have their sights on Oklahoma City and the No. 2 seed (L.A. is two games back), but they should also be concerned about the Rockets creeping up behind them. Houston trails L.A. by just one game heading into tonight's matchup in Texas, but they're tied in the loss column and the Rockets would technically move into third with a slightly better winning percentage with a win tonight.

The Clippers have already locked up the season series by beating the Rockets in their first three meetings, so if they can complete the sweep tonight, we may have to change this race to Clippers vs. Thunder for the No. 2 seed (The Clips host OKC in April and can clinch the season series with a win).

Trail Blazers vs. Warriors vs. Grizzlies vs. Suns vs. Mavericks
By far the best race to monitor over the next few weeks, five teams are separated by just three games for seeds five through nine in the Western Conference. Zach Lowe wrote about this race in depth on Thursday, and if you're wondering, there are eight games remaining that feature two of these five teams squaring off, with all five involved in at least three of those games:

March 28: Memphis @ Golden State
March 30: Memphis @ Portland
April 1: Golden State @ Dallas
April 4: Phoenix @ Portland
April 12: Phoenix @ Dallas
April 13: Golden State @ Portland
April 14: Memphis @ Phoenix
April 16: Dallas @ Memphis

This is going to be gloriously insane.

Raptors vs. Bulls vs. Nets
The three teams that added an element of intrigue and respectability to the Eastern Conference besides just Indiana and Miami will now come down to the wire to decide a division and home court advantage in the first round of the postseason.

The Raptors lead the Nets by 2.5 games atop the Atlantic Division and have a 1.5-game lead in the inter-division record tiebreaker after the two teams split their four-game season series. As for the Bulls, they're currently tied with Toronto at 40-31, split their season series and have the better Conference record, but a team leading its division always takes precedent over a tied team that's not leading a division, so Chicago will need to finish with a better record than whichever Atlantic team takes that division if they want the No. 3 seed.

Perhaps the most interesting twist in this three-team race is that the teams have the second, third, and fourth-easiest remaining schedules of all teams based on opponents' winning percentage, so they're all facing the same underwhelming competition.

Wizards vs. Bobcats for East's No. 6 seed
The Wizards are only a game-and-a-half behind Brooklyn for fifth and probably consider themselves in the aforementioned 3-5 race, but they need to be concerned about the charging Bobcats, who sit just 1.5 games behind them. 
Charlotte has won eight of 12, including wins against the Pacers, Wizards, Timberwolves, Trail Blazers and Nets, have by far the easiest remaining schedule with an opponents' winning percentage of just .370, and have two games remaining against Washington - on March 31 in Charlotte and on April 9 in D.C. - after splitting their first two meetings.

This race is very much alive, and if the Bobcats can find a way to take both of those games and the season series, they should steal the No. 6 seed. That would mean the difference between opening the postseason against one of the Heat or Pacers in a "We're just happy to be here" series or having a puncher's chance at competing against one of the Raptors, Bulls or Nets. In that sense, this might be the most important Eastern Conference race of all.

Hawks vs. Knicks (vs. Cavaliers?) for East's No. 8 seed
With the Hawks in another tailspin - they've lost five straight after winning five straight after losing 14 of 15 - the Knicks have somehow found a way to continue to fail upwards, and they now sit just 1.5 games behind Atlanta for the eighth and final playoff spot. New York's final 10 games feature nine winning teams and a road game in Utah on the second night of a back-to-back, so expecting them to gain ground on anyone in the standings over that time is a long shot, but the Hawks are going to need to win a game or two here or there if they want to close this thing out.

And as crazy as it sounds, don't completely rule out the Cavs. Cleveland looked dead in the water just a week ago, as last Friday they sat six games back of eighth and had just found out that Kyrie Irving was out for at least a couple of weeks. But now, after three straight wins to counter Atlanta's losing streak, they're suddenly back within three games of the Hawks and within 1.5 games of the Knicks. The Cavs are four back of the Hawks in the loss column and asking a bad team to overcome that with nine games to go is likely asking way too much, but with a game remaining against Atlanta a week from today, don't discount Cleveland's ability to at least make things interesting.

Bonus: Bucks vs. 76ers for No. 1 Lottery odds
Okay, so this isn't so much a 'race' as it is a war of attrition for tortured fans in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, but it's still something to keep an eye on in the background of all those exciting playoff races.

When the Sixers beat the Celtics on January 29, they actually had a better record than Boston and Orlando, and they were 6.5 games better than the 8-37 Bucks. Think about that, for Milwaukee to catch Philadelphia, they had to make up 6.5 games over the final half of the season despite winning just eight total in their first 45 contests. The thing is, the Sixers haven't won since then, putting together a record tying 26-game losing streak that may very well run through the final 10 games of the year, and the Bucks are now just one game behind them with three weeks to go.

What would be worse? The Bucks losing the No. 1 pick by doing the most Milwaukee thing ever and suddenly picking up their pace when it looked like they had the best odds locked up, or Philly getting the best odds, then watching Milwaukee land the No. 1 pick with the second-best odds, meaning they would have had that No. 1 pick if they had just found a way to win one measly game over the final three months of the season?

By the way, if the two teams finish tied for the worst record, they'll split the 449 lottery combinations (out of 1000) that usually go to the teams with the worst record and second-worst record combined, with a coin toss deciding who gets 225 combinations and who gets 224.

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