Tonight's games will clarify things a lot. Would sure be swell if the Thunder would drop a game. Nuggets & Blazers game is huge.
The most realistic path for the Jazz is to capture the 3 seed and for Minnesota or OKC to end up at #7 where they would have a puncher's chance vs Golden State. When Butler was healthy, Minnesota was the clear #3 in the West, so that first round series without Curry would be interesting. The Jazz with homecourt in the second round would be huge.
As for the other side of the West bracket, it would be either Portland or OKC in the 2nd round vs Houston. Both teams could give Houston at least a 6 game series -- or more if Harden and Paul's playoff issues resurface.
IMO, GS needs to be knocked out when Curry is out and supposedly he won't be back until mid-way through the 2nd round series. Houston's quality of play notwithstanding, I still like a healthy GS team against them in the WC Finals.
There is only one scenario where the Jazz can get to 48 or 49 wins and avoid OKC if OKC wins out -- and that involves the Clippers beating the Pelicans tonight. But a possible end result of that sequence is the Jazz possibly having to play a healthy Minnesota team which I don't think is better than playing OKC. What really shakes things up is OKC losing to Miami. They puts all kinds of things into play, like OKC or Minnesota ending up at #7.
The absolute best scenario I found was the Jazz winning out, OKC gets upset by Miami and New Orleans and Minnesota both win out. That produces: 3. Utah, 4. Portland, 5. New Orleans, 6. San Antonio, 7. Minnesota, 8. OKC
