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Apr 18, 2006 05:45 PM
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An absolutely bizarre situation in the NBA tonight: A game between two playoff teams who, if they're smart, will be doing everything in their power to lose.
Tonight, at 8 p.m. ET, the Memphis Grizzlies will host the Los Angeles Clippers in one of the final games of the season. Ordinarily, a late-season game between the Grizzlies and the Clippers would be meaningless, because both teams would be long out of the playoffs. But this year, they're battling for playoff seeding ... but in the wrong direction.
As Mark Cuban pointed out more than a week ago, there is absolutely no reason for either team to want to win tonight. Whoever finishes with the sixth seed — the worse record — has the home-court advantage against the Denver Nuggets in the first round. Whoever ends up with the fith seed — the better record — has to play on the road against Dallas ... and if they somehow survive that, they get the Spurs.
We know the playoffs is all about beating whoever is front of you. But if you know you can make it easier on yourself, and get yourself more games in front of your home fans, why would you want to even try tonight?
Should be something to see. We're not gamblers here, but we'd highly suggest the under here. We have a feeling the Clippers will revert to history and, finally, win ... exactly when they're supposed to lose.
The Clippers And Grizzlies Have A Lot To Lose For [Detroit Bad Boys]
NBA Playoff Seeding ... What If [Blog Maverick]
(UPDATE: Frighteningly, Woody Paige appears to have a point on how to best deal with this game. A reader writes:
"Call me crazy, but I think Woody Paige has a solution regarding this one — change the rules of that specific game so that the Clips are scoring points for the Grizz and the Grizz for the Clips. I think we would see, easily, the most competitive NBA game in years. Both teams would absolutely play their asses off."
By the way, we don't actually suggest betting the under. As always, we're terrible at gambling advice.)
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