Are you a Clippers fan who isn’t sure who to root for in the NBA’s August 3rd bubble games? You’re in the right place.
With each team playing just eight “seeding games” in Orlando before the playoffs begin, there’s limited time to both battle for playoff positioning as well as build momentum after a four-month layoff. That means that, while we obviously want the Clippers to be successful, Clippers fans can’t just pay attention to LAC–nearly every game played in the NBA over the next two weeks is important to the playoff picture.
Bubble play has been fantastic so far, with teams like Houston and Portland catching the attention of the national audience. There’s another full slate of exciting matchups in the NBA’s August 3rd bubble games, so let’s check out who the Clippers want to win in each.
The NBA’s August 3rd Bubble Games
All times pacific time.
Toronto Raptors vs Miami Heat, 10:30am, NBATV
Rooting for: Miami Heat
While Toronto is securely locked in to the 2nd seed in the East, Miami is in 4th with an outside shot of passing the Boston Celtics to claim the 3-seed. That would likely mean Milwaukee facing Boston in the 2nd round and then Toronto in the Eastern Conference Finals, giving them their toughest possible path to the Finals.
Unfortunately, Toronto won’t be an easy out (unless they’re also angling for Miami to move up). The Heat also play the Celtics on Tuesday, so this back-to-back is crucial for their hope of climbing–and two losses would send them reeling back towards Indiana and Philadelphia at 5 and 6.
Denver Nuggets vs Oklahoma City Thunder, 1:00pm, NBATV
Rooting for: Oklahoma City Thunder
This is likely the most important of the NBA’s August 3rd bubble games. The good news about these two teams playing is that one of them is guaranteed a win today. The bad news is that the other will pick up a loss.
Currently, Denver sits in 3rd and OKC in 6th–but with a razor-thin margin between the two, and the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz between them. In order for Houston to stay in the 4-5 first-round matchup (and therefore face the Lakers, not the Clippers, in the second round), at least one of the other 3 teams needs to finish ahead of them and at least one needs to finish behind them.
The Utah Jazz, who don’t seem to have a lot of firepower without Bogdan Bodganovic, are the likely choice to fall to 6th. With Denver shorthanded in their early bubble games, that means Oklahoma City is our most likely non-Houston 3rd seed, so we’ll root for them here despite it making the standings even more tightly packed–but if the results start to give clarity to the Western Conference standings in the coming days, we could easily switch course to whatever scenario is most likely to keep Houston in the 4-5.
Indiana Pacers vs Washington Wizards, 1:00pm, NBA League Pass
Rooting for: Indiana Pacers
We’re splitting hairs to find an angle here, but with the Wizards all but mathematically out of the playoff picture in the East, I would rather see Indiana’s cohesive squad keep the 5-seed over the dysfunctional Philadelphia 76ers. We’ll see, though–if Philly can get some things figured out, they’re a threat to the East’s top teams in a way the Pacers simply aren’t. But Philly figuring it out isn’t something I’m holding my breath waiting for.
Memphis Grizzlies vs New Orleans Pelicans, 3:30pm, ESPN
Rooting for: New Orleans Pelicans
I’m not a big believer in the Pelicans as the team that should challenge the Lakers in the first round–my support for Portland is well established–but with the current play-in spots held by Memphis and San Antonio, we’ll be rooting against both of those teams to lose nightly in hopes of someone else entering the picture.
Hopefully that someone else is Portland, but a win here would also keep the Pelicans in the conversation–though at the very edge of it.
One more far-off angle: the Pelicans play the Spurs later in the bubble. Keeping New Orleans’ hope alive makes it more likely that they actually contest that game against San Antonio on August 9th.
San Antonio Spurs vs Philadelphia 76ers, 5:00pm, NBA League Pass
Rooting for: Philadelphia 76ers
As I said two games up, I’m not crazy about Philly–but as I said one game up, we’re rooting against San Antonio and Memphis until further notice. A Spurs loss would match Portland’s loss to Boston Sunday (though San Antonio will only have 5 games left to play while Portland has 6). If the two finish level in the bubble, Portland will be ahead on win percentage due to their extra regular-season games before the season was suspended.
Los Angeles Lakers vs Utah Jazz, 6:00pm, ESPN
Rooting for: Los Angeles Lakers
If we have to root for the Lakers to win to help the Clippers out with seeding, at least we get to do it rooting against the Jazz, who I dislike almost as strongly.
To reference back to the discussion of Denver vs OKC above, I feel like Utah is the most likely team in the 3-6 cluster to fall to 6th and serve as a floor to protect Houston from falling out of the 4-5 matchup. A loss here puts them on track, as they’d be 1-2 in the bubble compared to Houston’s 2-0.
Plus, Utah’s next two games are against Memphis and San Antonio (with another game against the Spurs to close bubble play). Keeping Utah hungry for those games is a good thing, as long as Houston wins more of their remaining games than the Jazz do and maintain the 5th seed.
Yesterday’s Games
Brooklyn Nets 118, Washington Wizards 110
We were rooting for: Washington Wizards
With this game, hopes of a play-in tournament for the 8 seed in the East died. Washington, the clear worst team in the bubble, are now 7 losses back of Brooklyn, the clear second-worst team in the bubble. The Wizards simply are not going to find 3 wins anywhere on their schedule, even if you make the (reasonable) assumption that Brooklyn will lose out.
Portland Trail Blazers 124, Boston Celtics 128
We were rooting for: Portland Trail Blazers
This game was a blast, and despite their unfortunate loss, Portland’s ability to come back and play a one-possession game against one of the league’s best teams inspires further confidence that they are a step above the West’s other 8-seed contenders.
The bad news: they did lose, putting them at a disadvantage to qualify for the play-in tournament, and it was a costly loss in terms of fatigue: 44 minutes for Damian Lillard and 41 minutes for CJ McConnell. That’s a lot of mileage to walk away without the result.
For our Eastern Conference sub-plot, a Boston loss would have furthered the possibility of Miami claiming the 3rd seed–but the more significant game in that race is Tuesday’s head-to-head between the two teams.
San Antonio Spurs 108, Memphis Grizzlies 106
We were rooting for: Memphis Grizzlies
I wrote yesterday that I struggled making my pick for this game, so we can’t be too upset that it didn’t go how we hoped.
The Spurs’ narrow win, plus the Blazers’ narrow loss, puts San Antonio control in the race for 9th between the two without an upcoming head-to-head between them. Portland now needs to make up a loss on the Spurs to take 9th back.
The silver lining is that the Grizzlies continue to struggle. While they entered the bubble with a substantive lead for 8th place, they’re now 0-2 in Orlando (hopefully picking up a third loss to New Orleans Monday). If they go 2-6 or worse in their eight bubble games, they could potentially fall out of the play-in tournament altogether, helping Portland’s odds.
Orlando Magic 132, Sacramento Kings 116
We were rooting for: Sacramento Kings
Come on, Kings. While we had hoped for an Orlando loss to keep them in 8th place, it’s even more disappointing that a team with the potential to play some fun basketball in Sacramento have seemingly decided not to show up to the bubble.
Don’t let the final score fool you–the Kings trailed by as much as 36 in this one to a not-great Orlando team.
Milwaukee Bucks 116, Houston Rockets 120
We were rooting for: Houston Rockets
The Rockets’ rather impressive win against the league’s best team helps the goal of keeping them out of 6th place in the West and a potential second-round date with the Clippers–but with the toughest challenge on their schedule behind them and no losses on the board, concern is beginning to shift to their potential to climb all the way to 3rd.
Houston showed off exactly why they’re the scariest upset threat to both LA teams tonight, with a high-variance three-point attack that can spark runs and a weird collection of undersized veterans. They trailed 112-104 with 3:14 to play in this game. Look at the final score again.
Dallas Mavericks 115, Phoenix Suns 117
We were rooting for: Phoenix Suns
The Suns are now 2-0 in the bubble (though their competition hasn’t been as stiff as others’), and Dallas looks like they have questions to answer after losing to a 13th-place Suns team despite playing Luka Doncic 38 minutes and Devin Booker fouling out.
Phoenix is still in 13th place despite their 2-0 start, and it’s hard to get excited about their play-in hopes when they need to go at least 7-1, plus the perfect combination of teams ahead of them struggling, to have a realistic shot at ending up in 9th. That’s going to be a long shot, as they’ve played 2 of their 3 easiest games to start, with the 3rd coming against Dallas again to close bubble play.
Stay tuned in to 213Hoops every day of the NBA’s Orlando Bubble for a new Rooting Interests, letting you know who Clippers fans should root for in each of the day’s games.
