Exciting night for non playoff teams

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Finally fans of losing teams having something to look forward to for the first time since October. Tonight is not only the night of the first game of the Western Conference finals. It is draft lottery night. As excited as fans may be about acquiring a franchise player some fans will be disappointed after the lottery is all said and done. The Lakers could possibly lose their pick to the Sixers. The Sixers could end up with 3 picks in the top 11. And the most unlikely of all the Thunder have a .5% chance of winning the number one pick. A lot of these losing teams are banking on the possibility of getting a franchise player. I'm most interested in seeing where teams like the Heat, Magic and Pacers land in the lottery. A high pick for any of those teams could be what gets them in the playoffs.
Here is a break down of each teams odds and there record from last year.

• Minnesota Timberwolves (16-66): 25%
• New York Knicks (17-65): 19.9%
• Philadelphia 76ers (18-64): 15.6%
• Los Angeles Lakers (21-61): 11.9%
• Orlando Magic (25-57): 8.8%
• Sacramento Kings (29-53): 6.3%
• Denver Nuggets (30-52): 4.3%
• Detroit Pistons (32-50): 2.8%
• Charlotte Hornets (33-49): 1.7%
• Miami Heat (37-45): 1.1%
• Indiana Pacers (38-44): 0.8%
• Utah Jazz (38-44): 0.7%
• Phoenix Suns (39-43): 0.6%
• Oklahoma City Thunder (45-37): 0.5%

The lottery will be on tonight at 8 o'clock eastern time on ESPN. The lottery will be followed by game one of the Western Conference finals between the Warriors and Rockets. This should be a good night for NBA fans.

Rockets or Clippers?

Photo Credit: Thomas Shea USA Today Sports

Tomorrow the Rockets and Clippers will play a game 7 in Houston. The winner will advance and face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference finals. The Rockets have all the momentum going into this game. After being down 3-1 in the series Houston has won two in a row to stay alive. In game 6 it looked like the clippers were going to put the nail in the coffin and finish off the Rockets. The Clippers were up by 19 points in the third quarter and were dominating the Rockets. By the time the third quarter came to a close the Rockets were still down by 13. With James Harden on the bench, most people thought the game was over. That's where everyone was wrong. In the fourth quarter the Rockets outscored the Clippers 40 to 15 and went on to win by 12. Hard to imagine the team down by 13 going on to win such an important game by 12. It's even harder to imagine when their best player didn't play the whole fourth quarter. That's right! James Harden didn't log a single second in the final quarter of game 6. So who fueled such a hefty scoring fourth quarter? The credit goes to Josh Smith, Corey Brewer and Jason Terry. Dwight Howard contributed, but those role players all stepped up and at the right time to help the Rockets force game 7.
In game 7 I'm going to stick with the Rockets. They are the hot team right now and they put a lot of pressure on the Clippers. I think it will be hard for the Clippers to put that game 6 loss behind especially considering it was their second opportunity to finish off the Rockets. Also game 7 will be in Houston which definitely plays in the Rockets favor. I expect to see the best James Harden and a healthy Dwight Howard after two days of rest.
This will be a close game though. The Clippers have a very deep team and have multiple ways of attacking the Rockets defense. The Clippers can spread the floor and shoot the three, but they can also run a deadly pick and role with either Jordan or Griffin. Griffin also is a great passer from the post so look for him to kick out to the three point shooters or dump it off to Jordan. For the Rockets they are going to need Josh Smith, Corey Brewer, Jason Terry, Terrance Jones and Trevor Ariza all at their best in game 7 to overcome the depth of the Clippers. This should be a closely contested game and possibly the best of the playoffs so far. Tune in to ABC Sunday, May 17 at 3:30 for tip off.