NBA Rankings - 31 Mar

It's less than 2 weeks until the playoffs begin, and the playoff picture is starting to take shape. The East teams are pretty much set, with the bottom six teams just fighting for seeding. In the West, the Clippers and Nuggets are still in the race, but have fallen behind the others, and Portland has pulled ahead of the rest of the field to look pretty secure in the #3 seed. The bottom 5 playoff teams in the West are all projected to finish within a game of each other, so every game is very important for those 5 teams. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks:

				Rec		Proj
TW	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	MOV	SOS	PO Seed
1	1	Houston	-10	62	14	67	15	1	26	W1
2	2	Toronto	-7.708	55	20	60	22	2	30	E1
3	3	Golden State	-6.432	54	21	59	23	3	17	W2
4	4	Philadelphia	-4.791	45	30	50	32	4	16	E3
5	6	Utah	-4.311	43	33	46	36	6	9	W7
6	5	Boston	-4.216	52	23	56	26	5	28	E2
7	8	Portland	-3.744	47	29	50	32	7	23	W3
8	7	San Antonio	-3.526	44	32	47	35	9	18	W4
9	9	Oklahoma City	-3.513	44	33	46	36	8	22	W8
10	10	Minnesota	-3.175	44	33	47	35	10	8	W5
11	11	Denver	-3.043	41	35	44	38	11	14
12	15	Indiana	-2.119	45	31	48	34	12	29	E5
13	14	LA Clippers	-2.1	41	35	44	38	13	11
14	12	Washington	-1.883	41	34	45	37	15	20	E6
15	17	Miami	-1.706	41	35	45	37	14	25	E7
16	13	New Orleans	-1.674	43	33	46	36	17	7	W6
17	16	Cleveland	-1.589	46	30	49	33	16	27	E4
18	19	Milwaukee	-0.777	41	35	44	38	18	21	E8
19	18	Charlotte	-0.491	34	42	37	45	19	24
20	21	Detroit	-0.25	35	40	39	43	20	15
21	20	LA Lakers	-0.056	33	42	36	46	21	13
22	22	Dallas	1.2639	23	53	26	56	22	3
23	23	New York	2.8411	27	49	30	52	23	2
24	24	Brooklyn	2.9769	24	51	27	55	24	10
25	25	Orlando	4.0209	22	53	24	58	25	19
26	28	Memphis	4.6496	21	55	23	59	27	4
27	26	Atlanta	4.7118	21	55	23	59	26	12
28	27	Chicago	5.1505	25	51	27	55	28	6
29	29	Sacramento	5.3937	24	52	26	56	29	5
30	30	Phoenix	7.4916	19	58	20	62	30	1

Playoff Picks

First Round

(1) Raptors over (8) Bucks
(2) Celtics over (7) Heat
(3) 76ers over (6) Wizards
(5) Pacers over (4) Cavaliers
(1) Rockets over (8) Thunder
(2) Warriors over (7) Jazz
(3) Trail Blazers over (6) Pelicans
(5) Timberwolves over (4) Spurs

Second Round

(1) Raptors over (5) Pacers
(3) 76ers over (2) Celtics
(1) Rockets over (5) Timberwolves
(2) Warriors over (3) Trail Blazers

Conference Finals

(1) Raptors over (3) 76ers
(1) Rockets over (2) Warriors

NBA Finals

(1) Rockets over (1) Raptors