The team that finishes sixth in the West would avoid a first-round encounter against the fourth-place team, the formidable Dallas Mavericks, who have the second-best record in the conference but are in the same division with San Antonio, which clinched the West's top mark with a victory over Utah on Monday.
"We've got to be sixth to have the home court, and we'd like to have the home court, so then we need to finish sixth. It's that simple," co-captain Sam Cassell said. "You could say that isn't right, but life isn't right, and this is how the minds of the NBA made it with this alignment."
The Clippers (46-34) are a game behind Memphis (47-33) in the playoff standings, and each team has two games left in the regular season. The Grizzlies would clinch the fifth-seeded position with a victory over the Clippers tonight.
So maybe the Clippers and Grizzlies won't hustle for every loose ball tonight, battle for every rebound or give it everything they have. And under the circumstances, would that be so bad?
"Well, I know I'm going out to give optimum effort," Brand said. "That's the only way I know how to play, and nothing is going to change that. Yeah, we know we have home-court [advantage] against Denver, but you still have to play hard."
Even if the Clippers won tonight, there are other scenarios in which they could still finish sixth, including if they lost their final game, Wednesday at Dallas. The Clippers won the season series against Denver, 3-1, and are 0-3 against Dallas.
"Obviously, we would rather not play Dallas, and I think everyone knows that," center Chris Kaman said. "But there's too much pride on this team to just be dropping games. I know it looks bad because of the way we lost last night, I know what it looks like, but I know for a fact it wasn't intentional."
