It’s playoff-positioning time in the NBA.
Going into Monday, there are 57 games left in the season. The 10 Eastern Conference postseason teams are set; Cleveland, Boston, New York, Indiana, Milwaukee and Detroit are in the playoffs. Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago and Miami have clinched play-in spots.
In the Western Conference, Oklahoma City is the No. 1 seed and Houston is in the playoffs. The Los Angeles Lakers, Denver, the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State enter Monday holding playoff spots, with Minnesota and Memphis chasing them and trying to stay out of the play-in. Dallas and Sacramento have the inside track for the last two West play-in berths, with Phoenix (2 1/2 games back of 10th entering Monday) still alive.
Add it up, and 21 of the 30 teams are still playing for something other than lottery odds with a week to go in the regular season.
Tommie baseball secured its fourth consecutive conference series win with a 5-3 victory over the University of Northern Colorado Saturday afternoon at Koch Diamond.
This season, the Tommies sit in first place in the Summit League with a 9-1 conference record. The bats are a major part of the team’s success. The Tommies lead the Summit League in hits, runs and runs batted in while striking out the least among the six teams. St. Thomas is the only team in the conference with a batting average over .300.
Bridget Schmid can be reached at beschmid@stthomas.edu.
