NBA Playoff Picture: Russell Westbrook sets the West, and the East remains hazy

WHAT MATTERED MOST

A subjective ranking of the results that mattered most to the playoff bracket.

1. Oklahoma City Thunder 106, Denver Nuggets 105

By now, you’ve probably heard Russell Westbrook logged his 42nd triple-double of the 2016-17 campaign against the Nuggets, passing Oscar Robertson for the most triple doubles in a single season in NBA history. If you haven’t, you’re way behind, and you should read all about it before going any further.

Now that you’re caught up, what you may have skipped over amid the drama of Westbrook’s 50-point, 16-rebound, 10-assist effort on Sunday night was that the 36-foot buzzer-beater he hit to beat Denver knocked the Nuggets out of the playoff contention and punched the Portland Trail Blazers’ ticket.

Even if Denver (38-42) wins out and Portland (40-40) loses its final two games, the Blazers own the tiebreaker, thanks to former Nuggets big man Jusuf Nurkic’s revenge win over his former team late last month. Needless to say, C.J. McCollum, Damian Lillard and company appreciated Westbrook’s effort:

The Blazers are hoping Nurkic, who will miss the final five games of the regular season due to a non-displaced fractured right fibula, could return for the playoffs. If Portland has any chance against the West-leading Golden State Warriors in the first round, the Blazers need Nurkic’s help and then some.

Now that the Warriors and Blazers are locked into their 1 vs. 8 playoff matchup, the entire West field is set. The No. 2 San Antonio Spurs are set to face the No. 7 Memphis Grizzlies. The No. 3 Houston Rockets will battle Westbrook’s No. 6 Thunder. The Los Angeles Clippers will play the Utah Jazz in a 4-5 battle, though the host is yet to be decided, since the two teams own the same 49-31 record. (The Rockets beat the Sacramento Kings and Grizzlies lost to the Detroit Pistons in meaningless games on Sunday.)

Denver’s robs one of the season’s great revelations — second-year center Nikola Jokic, who has six triple-doubles of his own and is averaging 19.2 points, 11 rebounds and 5.8 assists since become a full-time starter on Dec. 15 — of his first playoff appearance. He finished with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists, and teammate Danilo Gallinari poured in a season-high 34 points, but it wasn’t enough, as Westbrook outscored the Nuggets 15-4 by himself over the final 3:35 to end Denver’s season.

2. Atlanta Hawks 126, Cleveland Cavaliers 125 (OT)

Speaking of blown opportunities, the Cavaliers led by 26 entering the fourth quarter and appeared well on their way to another convincing victory against a playoff-bound Eastern Conference opponent. The Hawks had other ideas, outscoring the Cavs 44-18 in the fourth quarter to force overtime, and ultimately holding off Cleveland in overtime to defeat the East’s top team twice in one weekend.

The Cavaliers and Boston Celtics entered their meeting on Wednesday with identical 50-27 records, and then LeBron James decimated the C’s to give Cleveland a one-game lead on first place in the standings and the head-to-head tiebreaker. After Boston lost to Atlanta on Thursday, the Cavs needed just two wins in their final four games to secure the East’s top overall seed for a second straight year.

But after two losses to the Hawks — the result of a 21-2 Atlanta run in Friday’s fourth quarter, followed by Sunday’s overtime debacle — Cleveland is again tied record-wise with the Celtics at 51-29.

The Cavs will still clinch first place with a) wins over the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors in their final two games, b) a win against either team combined with a Celtics loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Monday or the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, or c) two straight losses to end the regular season for the C’s.

While the Cavs were steamrolled in the fourth quarter by the Hawks, who still have some playoff motivation of their own, Sunday’s loss did not come without controversy. In the waning seconds of regulation, Atlanta teammates Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore tied Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving up in the corner, forcing a jump ball that Bazemore tipped to Millsap for the game-tying shot at the buzzer:

Only, screenshots of the play that forced the jump ball appeared to show both Millsap and Bazemore stepping out of bounds, which should have resulted in the Cavaliers gaining possession up two points:

Making matters worse, referees whistled LeBron for a phantom foul with two minutes left in overtime:

That marked his sixth foul of the game — only the second time all season he’s fouled out — and led to his departure with his team leading 116-113 in the extra frame. LeBron posted a triple-double (32 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists), so yeah, he was kind of important at that point.

Back-to-back turnovers by Kevin Love (11 points, 15 rebounds) and Kyrie Irving (45 points, nine assists) in the final 25 seconds of OT turned a back-and-forth battle into a two-possession Hawks lead from which the Cavs never recovered. Irving’s desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer made the final closer than it appeared.

The Hawks (42-38) clinched a playoff spot with the Chicago Bulls’ loss to the Nets on Saturday. Sunday’s win kept them one game up on the Bucks (41-39) for fifth place, thanks to a balanced effort led by Millsap (22 points, nine rebounds) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (21 points, nine rebounds). Atlanta faces the eliminated Charlotte Hornets and still-fighting Indiana Pacers to close out the season.

A Hawks win in either of their final two games would clinch the fifth seed, since they own a tiebreaker against the Bucks. However, a Pacers win over the lifeless Philadelphia 76ers on Monday and a Hawks loss to the Hornets on Tuesday would set up a battle between Atlanta and Indiana on Wednesday with a tiebreaker and more on the line. That could mean the difference between anywhere from fifth to seventh place for the Hawks and fifth to eighth for the Pacers.

It’s all very confusing. Stay tuned.

3. Toronto Raptors 110, New York Knicks 97

The Knicks aren’t very good, but they really wish they were worse, since wins over the Pacers, Pistons, Miami Heat and Bulls in the past month have cost them a pair of lottery spots and 41 Ping Pong balls:

Through three quarters, New York put on a show for potential No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz sitting in the front row, trailing by just one point entering the final frame, despite a starting lineup featuring Justin Holiday, Maurice Ndour, Willy Hernangomez, Ron Baker and Courtney Lee. Either that, or they were motivated to win, just to spite the kid who might take their jobs watching from a few feet away.

Then, the Knicks proved to be the Knicks again, getting their doors blown off in the fourth quarter. On the strength of their bench, including 21 combined fourth-quarter points from Patrick Patterson and Jakob Poeltl, the Raptors outscored New York 34-22 over the final 12 minutes to win by double digits.

In just his third game back after missing six weeks with a wrist injury, Toronto’s Kyle Lowry collected 17 points (on 5-of-10 shooting), 11 assists, seven rebounds and three steals over 38 minutes in the win. Backcourt mate DeMar DeRozan added a game-high 35 points on 11-of-15 shooting in just 29 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Raptors (50-31) clinched a top-three seed with the victory. Even if they lose to the Cavs on Wednesday and the Wizards (48-32) win out, Toronto owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Washington.

The Raps also kept their long-shot hopes for the No. 2 seed alive. Also owners of the tiebreaker against the Celtics, they would need to beat Cleveland on Wednesday and hope Boston loses both of its final two games in order to gain home-court advantage through the first two rounds.

MVP OF THE DAY
A subjective choice for the player most valuable to his team, on just one day and determined by the NBA playoff picture.

Well, Russell Westbrook amassed 50 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists while breaking the record for most triple-doubles in a season, making a buzzer-beating game-winner to eliminate Denver from the playoffs and reinforcing his MVP case for the whole league, so we’ll just end this conversation there.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
A subjective choice for the most important play of the day as determined by all the same stuff listed in the last section.

Did you honestly expect anything else? Even on a night when Millsap sunk a game-tying jumper off a jump ball to cap a 26-point fourth-quarter comeback and force overtime against the defending NBA champions, there was no close second. This was Westbrook’s night.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach