The die is cast. After the very long 82-game regular season, the best team ever comes out of the Western Conference as predicted: they are the San Antonio Spurs, last year's finalists, who are also driven by an excellent Belinelli (who became the owner of coach Popovich's quintet and won the 3-point shooting at the All Star Game) finished with 62 wins, 30 of them on the road. 75,6% of victories, therefore, better than the 68,3% of Indiana which wins the Eastern classification, eventually overcoming the reigning champions of the Miami Heat.
Witnessing the upper level of the West there is also the mockery of the Phoenix Suns, out of the playoffs despite totaling a good 58% of victories: better than this percentage, in the East, only the Pacers and Heat, while grabbing the last useful place Atlanta despite collecting more losses than victories (46,3%).
So the playoff draw was decided, with the last night offering a jolt for each of the two conferences, with Washington hooking Brooklyn in fifth place in the East and overtaking it thanks to direct clashes, while Memphis (thanks to Mike Conley's free throws 1” from the end of overtime) wins the direct challenge against Dallas and becomes seventh, relegating the Mavericks to eighth place.
On an individual level, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder wins the scoring chart with 32 points per game and ahead of Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks, just outside the playoffs with the ninth place finish. LeBron James is only third, while the rebounders ranking is dominated by DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers and that of assists by teammate Chris Paul, who served more than 10 per game.
Here are the pairings:
Eastern Conference
(1) Indiana-(8) Atlanta
(4) Chicago-(5) Washington
(3) Toronto-(6) Brooklyn
(2) Miami-(7) Charlotte
Western Conference
(1) San Antonio-(8) Dallas
(4) Houston-(5) Portland
(3) LA Clippers-(6) Golden State
(2) Oklahoma City-(7) Memphis
