REGULAR SEASON ENDS WITH SPURS WRAPPING UP WEST

 

 

The San Antonio Spurs have won their season long megaduel with the Dallas Mavericks to claim both the Southwest division title and the top seed in the Western Conference with a 63-19 record. Gregg Poppovich's crew finished off their season by picking up wins in Minnisota(103-90) at home to the Jazz(115-82) and finally in Houston(89-87) to put them in a strong position to continue their defense of the NBA title.

The last two playoff spots in the West have also been wrapped. The Lakers have banked the 7th seed, which must be a relief to Phil Jackson with the 2000 NBA champions having shockingly failed to make the playoffs last year. Home wins over the Blazers(110-99), the Suns(109-89) and the Hornets(115-95) with Kobe Bryant on red hot form going into the playoffs.

The Kings won the fight for the 8th spot coming in with a 44-38 record. Mike Bibby and Kurt Thomas led their side to wins in Denver(100-82) before snapping up wins at home to the Hornets(96-79) and the Sonics(111-105) to give their attacking brand of basketball another workout in the playoffs.

Finally, the three final playoff spots in the East have been snapped up. The Wizards have claimed the fifth spot with a 42-40 record. Gilbert Arenas led home wins over the Cavs(104-92) and Bucks (116-103) were pretty impressive but that counts for nothing compared to taking Detroit to the tune of 96-80 with Caron Butler running the show with 33 points and 12 rebounds.

The other amazing story comes out of Chicago with the Bulls having amazingly not only qualified for the playoffs after spending most of the season outside the top eight but have avoided the Pistons after surging to the seventh spot on a six game winning streak. Luol Deng put up 26 points in a 117-93 win in Miami, then 11 rebounds in a 116-112 overtime win in Orlando before his side finished off at home with a 127-106 win over the Raptors. A 41-41 record turned out to be good enough

The 8th spot was wrapped up by the Milwaukee Bucks who despite only finishing with a 40-42 record, showed that they were still capable of embarassing the Pistons after downing them 113-93 at home. Michael Redd and Bobby Simmons came up with 19 points a piece with Jamal Magloire adding in 14 rebounds - the sort of result that could make the playoffs very interesting.

So with the regular season tidied up - what are the first round of the playoffs going to look like?