Assessing Clippers' Chances of Finishing With the No. 8 Seed

The Los Angeles Clippers will finish the regular season either eighth or ninth in the Western Conference. This is a significant difference for their playoff hopes as the No. 8 seed has two chances to win one game and make the playoffs. They either have to defeat the Phoenix Suns in the 7-8 game in the Play-In Tournament and clinch the No. 7 seed, or beat the winner of the 9-10 game and earn the No. 8 seed.

The No. 9 seed, on the other hand, has to win two games in a row: first, against the Golden State Warriors at home, then against the loser of the 7-8 game on the road.

The road to making the playoffs as a No. 8 seed is far less rockier than making it as the ninth seed.

The Clippers are in an intense battle with the Portland Trail Blazers right now. Both at 40-38, the Blazers and the Clippers have four more games left in the season, which will determine where they finish in the standings.

Clippers Schedule

Tuesday, April 7: vs. Dallas Mavericks
Wednesday, April 8: vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Friday, April 10: @ Portland Trail Blazers
Sunday, April 12: vs. Golden State Warriors

Blazers Schedule

Monday, April 6: @ Denver Nuggets
Wednesday, April 8: @ San Antonio Spurs
Friday, April 10: vs. Los Angeles Clippers
Sunday, April 12: vs. Sacramento Kings

What to Expect from Both Teams the Rest of the Way

It's hard to tell how motivated each opponent will be in the final week of the season. Teams whose seeds have already been decided may rest their starters. On paper, LA's game against the Thunder on the second night of a back-to-back looks difficult, but if OKC clinches the No. 1 seed by then, they will have little motivation to push their veterans. The Warriors, who will finish tenth, and the Mavericks, who are headed to the lottery, also don't have anything to play for.

The Blazers have two hard games on the deck, on the road against Denver and San Antonio. It's safe to assume that the Nuggets will still be trying hard to win, but the Spurs may take it easy on Wednesday if the No. 1 seed is no longer within reach. In the final game of the season, Portland should take care of business against the Kings.

Tiebreaker

Since there is a real possibility that the teams will end the season with the same record, tiebreakers could play an important role. In that scenario, the head-to-head record between the teams will come into play.

The Clippers are 2-1 in those games. If they beat the Blazers on the road in the second-to-last game of the season, LA will have a huge advantage in securing the No. 8 seed. If Portland wins and the teams are tied at the end of the season, then the tiebreaker will be the teams' records against teams in the Western Conference. The Blazers are 27-21, and the Clippers are 22-25 there, meaning that Portland would finish eighth in that scenario.

Therefore, it's not an exaggeration to suggest that the game between the Blazers and the Clippers will decide the 8-9 race.

Prediction

The Clippers have two relatively favorable games, at home against Dallas and Golden State. Let's assume they win those games, but lose to OKC.

In that scenario, all Portland needs to do is beat the Kings on the final day of the season. If they defeat the Clippers, they would still clinch the No. 8 seed, even if they lose to both Denver and San Antonio.

For the Clippers to feel good about their chances heading into Portland, they have to beat the Thunder at home on Wednesday.

Otherwise, we are almost certainly headed for a winner-take-all game in Portland on Friday. The Clippers should have the two best offensive players in that game in Darius Garland and Kawhi Leonard. They are the most experienced side with a more proven head coach. They should like their chances there.

Prediction: Clippers finish 43-39 and clinch No. 8 seed