Clippers Secure Massive Advantage in Playoff Race Heading into the Weekend

The Los Angeles Clippers had one of the weirdest, most improbable wins of the season on Friday against the Indiana Pacers. Despite Indiana's Jay Huff being on the charity stripe with 0.1 seconds left and the Pacers only down one, the Clippers came away with the win after two missed free throws. This win will go a long way in LA's pursuit of a playoff spot, especially considering what else went down on Friday night.

The biggest rival for the Clippers in their chase of the eighth seed is the Portland Trail Blazers. In a game they were widely expected to win, the Blazers lost at home to the tanking Dallas Mavericks. This pushed them to 37-38 for the season, putting them a game and a half behind the Clippers with only seven games remaining for them.

When the regular season comes to an end, the Blazers will likely look at this loss as the point at which they lost the playoff spot to the Clippers.

Clippers May Have Won Themselves a Playoff Spot on Friday Night

However, the race is not entirely over yet. The Blazers and the Clippers play twice over the next two weeks, so if Portland wins both games, they could still have the edge to finish eighth in the Western Conference. As long as the Clippers at least split those games, they will not be in danger of finishing below No. 8.

Finishing the regular season eighth is a massive advantage in the Play-In Tournament. You get two chances to clinch a playoff spot. As long as you win either against the No. 7 seed or against the winner of the 9-10 matchup, you earn a spot in the playoffs.

If anything, the Clippers have as good a chance of going up to No. 7 as going down to ninth. The Suns are only 2.5-games ahead of the Clippers for the seventh seed. Five of Phoenix's nine games are against good teams who still have a ton to play for (Thunder, Lakers, Rockets, Hornets, and Magic). The Clippers, on the other hand, have only two remaining games against teams over .500. If they can take care of the Blazers in their two games, LA could easily find itself seventh in the standings.

Considering where the Clippers were after the first two months of the season, this is an excellent place to be. The Clippers are looking increasingly like a playoff team, and Friday's results brought them significantly closer to their ultimate goal.