It's Final: There Will be a Play-In Tournament for the West's Final Playoff Spot

While the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference has already been solidified with the Orlando Magic locking up that number eight seed, the battle for the final playoff berth in the heavily-stacked Western Conference is far from over as the Memphis Grizzlies losing to the defending champions, the Toronto Raptors. This meant that the Ja Morant-led Grizzlies will have to wait who will finish as the ninth-seeded team in the West because whoever that team will be, will need to beat Memphis twice just to earn that date against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 2020 National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs. That if Memphis does finish as the eighth seed after their seeding games. 

And the beauty of it, there's more than one team who can actually snatch that eight seed away from Morant and company: the Portland Trail Blazers, the Phoenix Suns who are yet to lose a game inside the bubble in Orlando, and the San Antonio Spurs. Right now, Portland is only half a game behind Memphis while both Phoenix and San Antonio are just a game down. Now, all of the three teams vying for a spot in the play-in tournament for the final playoff spot in the West, have two remaining seeding games on their schedules. For Portland, they will face the Dallas Mavericks and the Brooklyn Nets. The Spurs will have to go through the Houston Rockets and the Utah Jazz while the still unbeaten-inside-bubble Suns of Devin Booker will finish the restart against the Philadephia 76ers and the Mavericks. And even if the Grizzlies go on to win its final two games against the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks, it won't be enough as the three teams that are chasing the Grizzlies are very much within the four games or less gap. While Memphis went a combined 4-2 against the three teams mentioned thus far this season, Memphis will need to get their act together if they want to avoid a late-season meltdown. 

Who has enough to beat the Grizzlies two straight to move into the postseason? All three teams have what it takes to actually snatch the playoff spot. Damian Lillard has been on an onslaught offensively as he scored 51 points against the Sixers the last time around. The Suns kept on rising inside the bubble with Devin Booker leading them while the Spurs of Coach Gregg Popovich are a team that we shouldn't forget either. 

The good news for Memphis though: If they can hang onto that eighth spot in the West, they hold what we call here in the Philippines as the "twice-to-beat" advantage in the play-in tournament which means they only need to win once. One thing is certain: if Ja Morant can bring the Grizzlies into the playoffs, it will strengthen his case for this season's Rookie of the Year award even though the games that are being played in Orlando are no longer counted as part of the voting procedures for this year's awards. 

Photo is from CBS Sports