Free to Read: What every NBA team is playing for on the last day of the regular season

No playoff or Play-In matchup is set heading into the final day of the NBA regular season, and a bona fide MVP candidate will have to play at least 20 minutes in Game No. 82 to meet eligibility requirements for the award.

And after running headfirst into Rory McIlroy’s historic Masters victory on this day last year, with the last games of the season playing out at the same time as the golf tournament, the NBA’s season-capping Sunday won’t get started until 6 p.m. ET, which means you should be able to watch the awarding of the green jacket and most of the games that matter.

In the East, the top four seeds are set and belong to the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively. The remaining six postseason slots are not yet settled. In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are locked into the first and second seeds, while the Houston Rockets are guaranteed to be fifth, the Minnesota Timberwolves are sixth, the Phoenix Suns are seventh and the Golden State Warriors are 10th.

Additionally, three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, who leads the league in rebounds and assists and is having arguably his best statistical season, has appeared in 64 games to date. League rules — which the players’ union wants to change — require most players to appear in at least 65 games to be eligible for awards like MVP. The Nuggets can finish third with a win over the Spurs or a Lakers loss to Utah on Sunday, and Jokić, their anchor, was held out of Friday’s game with “right wrist injury management.” Denver coach David Adelman said, “We’re gonna have that conversation” Saturday.

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luniz420 | Pistons

3 | 2 hours ago

for a second there I thought you were saying Rory already won this one like dangit man I was gonna watch that >.>

justtruckmystuffup

-3 | 2 hours ago

season is too long. cut the season by 30 games so they will mean more.

Crafty_Substance_954 | Pistons

8 | 2 hours ago

I didn’t realize people hated basketball and wanted less of it.

moch1 | Warriors

0 | 2 hours ago

Are you watching every game in the nba regular season? I highly doubt it. Even with a 30 game reduction there’s be more basketball than you can reasonably consume.

What we want is basketball with the best players playing their best and games with stakes. 82 games just makes each game to low impact.

Crafty_Substance_954 | Pistons

6 | 2 hours ago

I am watching as close to all 82 of my team’s games as humanly possible because I like NBA basketball.

I think I’ve probably only missed one broadcast so far this year.

I also tune into some national TV games and west coast start times because again, I like NBA basketball.

moch1 | Warriors

-2 | an hour ago

Ok so your not even watch 10% of the current games. There’s clearly room to have fewer.

Crafty_Substance_954 | Pistons

6 | an hour ago

You’re describing a hypothetical fan which doesn’t exist, so playing by make-believe rules gets you to your nonsensical “winning” argument.

I get it, the warriors are ass right now and have no path forward. I’ve been there.

Darnell2070 | United States

1 | an hour ago

If it’s basketball you truly love and not just basketball, there is literally too much NBA basketball in a regular season for any human to reasonably consume.

Across all 30 teams there are 1,230 games. If there were 30 less games that would be 780 a season.

Did you even watch more than 80 games?

Each individual game would mean more, players would be less likely to injured. There can be more rest between games. And you still have 780 games to choose from.

moch1 | Warriors

0 | an hour ago

Whether the warriors are ass or not is irrelevant to this discussion.

Look at the NFL, way fewer games and fans watch more games by other teams. They’re still getting lots of football. Id argue that fans watching more than their own team is part of what makes the NFL discussions better. Viewers actually see the other teams play, rather than just checking stat lines.

The same would be true with the NBA having 52 games per team. Still plenty of basketball to watch. Still too much for a person to reasonably consume. If you can only enjoy watching the game when your team is playing then I’d struggle to say you “love basketball”. He’ll just pick a secondary team to root for in the opposite conference and you’ve got more basketball games you can enjoy than the current system if you only root for 1 team.

March madness is a ton of fun to watch, even though there’s not a particular team I root for. Why? Because the games have stakes and the players are going all out.