NBA Coverage

The NBA’s regular season wraps up on Wednesday night and there are still some dangling threads to the story of the upcoming playoffs.

Before that, however, a quick word about the (yeah, yeah, yeah) Golden State Warriors. If they beat the Memphis Grizzlies, they set the NBA record for victories in a season with 73. We’ll also bid farewell to Kobe Bryant, who will play his final game for the worst Los Angeles Lakers team of his 20-year career.

Now, playoff possibilities. One involves the Houston Rockets. If they win against the Sacramento Kings, they’re in. That’s the good news. The bad news? It will make them the eighth seed in the Western Conference, pitting them in the first round of the postseason against the (yeah, yeah, yeah) top-seeded Warriors.

If the Dallas Mavericks beat the San Antonio Spurs, it will help them avoid a first-round playoff matchup with … the Spurs. So we’ll see if the Spurs rest their starters (a likely proposition) and let the Mavs dodge them for, it seems, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In the Eastern Conference, the No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 seeds will be determined – your plucky contestants are the Miami Heat, the Atlanta Hawks, the Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Hornets. The Heat play the Celtics; a Heat win means a division title, the No. 3 seed and homecourt advantage in the first round; a Celtics loss means a No. 6 seed for them.

The playoffs get underway on Saturday and conclude in mid-June. It’s as if another groundhog saw his shadow and we get eight more weeks of basketball.

Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman