Beijing time on April 10, 2018.

The penultimate matchday of the 17-18 regular season.

After playing 9 games on this day, there are only 18 games left in the final two days of the regular season. However, many suspense remains unsolved.

1/

The last team to make the playoffs?

The dust has settled on the Eastern Conference playoff roster, but the West will save the suspense until the last game day.

With the Thunder, Spurs, and Pelicans winning today's game, they have all ensured to enter the playoffs, but the Timberwolves and Nuggets, the two youth teams, are eighth and ninth in the West with a 46-35 record, and will brutally face each other on the last day to decide the last spot.

In today's game between the Nuggets and the Trail Blazers, the Nuggets once relied on Jokic's triple-double performance (15 points, 20 rebounds, 11 assists, 16th in his career) after the middle of the game, and finally relied on Jokic's triple-double performance (15 points, 20 rebounds, 11 assists, 16th time in his career) to get through the danger at home in the snowy region, giving themselves a chance to decide the winner.

What if the Nuggets don't bounce back today and lose to the Trail Blazers? Then the Timberwolves will become 46-35, the Nuggets will be 45-36, and the difference between the two sides will reach 1 game - the Nuggets will be cold?!

No!

Let's first understand the NBA's promotion rules for the same record:

1. Mutual record: If the Nuggets beat the Timberwolves in the last game, the two sides will be tied 2:2 this season.

2. The regional champion is ahead of the non-regional champion: the two companies are all out of line. The Northwest Division should go to either the Trail Blazers or the Jazz. (It's worth mentioning that before the end of today's game, the five teams in the Northwest Division, the Trail Blazers, Jazz, Thunder, Nuggets, and Timberwolves were all expected to advance to the playoffs — the previous honor would only belong to the Southwest Division, where the Rockets are located!) ）

3. The record in the division is limited to two teams in the same division: if you lose, the Nuggets have a 14-9 record in the division, the Timberwolves have 15 wins and 9 losses, and the last Nuggets win will come from behind!

Fourth, the record in the division.

5. The winning rate of the playoff teams in the division.

……

Forget it, it's still simple and happy to come to this kind of situation. Wait for April 12, whether the Wolves will defend their Minneapolis home stadium, or the Nuggets will complete the away counterattack!

2/

Playoff matchups?

A more complicated situation than the promotion rules with the same record. There are 16 teams in the playoffs, 8 games to catch each other, and none of them can be determined!

The top two spots in the East and West were locked early, with the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics representing the strongest forces in the East, and the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors representing the Western champions and runners-up. While they have long been at ease, they have been slow to know who they will be in the first round of the playoffs. Thinking about the coaches of the two teams is also a headache, today they have prepared a battle plan with Team A, and they may have to overturn it tomorrow for Team B!

The three or four Philadelphia 76ers in the East and the Cleveland Cavaliers could swap places at any time, and it remains to be seen if the Utah Jazz can steal the third place in the West at the last minute.

As for the 3-9 members with similar records in the west, how did they settle down in the end, there were too many changes, not to mention!

3/

Who will win the MVP trophy?

About a month ago, few would have doubted that Yang Yiming's Rockets teammate James Harden would win this year's Most Valuable Player award. The league's No. 1 average score per game of 30.6, No. 4 averaging 8.7 assists per game, the highest usage rate in the league, leading the team to break through the Warriors' dominance and rise to No. 1, a variety of unsolvable operations, a triple-double miracle with a score of 60+... At that time, the discussion was almost not whether Harden would be elected MVP, but whether he would be unanimously elected for the first time.

But today, a month later?

Not to mention Anthony Davis, who led the team to carry the Pelicans, who are strong in offense and weak in defense, into the playoffs (28.2 points, 11 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2nd in scoring, 1st in efficiency, 7th in rebounds), not to mention that he has played the best of his career at the age of 33 for more than ten years. LeBron James (27.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 9.2 assists, 3rd in scoring, 3rd in assists, 2nd in efficiency) who is likely to take the Cavaliers out of the doldrums in 82 games, Russell Westbrook is enough to be a big threat to Harden when it comes to Harden's former Thunder teammate.

The MVP selection in the 16-17 season is also a two-man competition between Wei Shao and Harden. Even though Harden was very strong, he fell short in the end, losing to Willis, who set a new record for triple-doubles in a season and the only two-season average triple-double in history. In the carnival of data, Harden was lonely and deflated.

Think this season is already a foregone conclusion? The teammate "Schoolbag Du" also shouted for Harden: "It's his turn to win the award, it's time, it's time to give it to him." ”

But Wei Shao, who is competitive and claims to be the second, and no one dares to call himself the first, doesn't think so!

Before the game between the Rockets and the Thunder the day before, Yang Yiming witnessed Wei Shao's ambition in the players' tunnel. In this game, the task of the Rockets is relatively easy, and the task of the whole team is to practice their tactics and try to win while trying to stay healthy - compared to the Thunder, who must win, the Rockets are really like playing a training game.

Fortunately, although the mentality is different, Wei Shao and Harden have not been teammates for many years, and the friendship left from the Thunder has always been strong. Yang Yiming followed Harden and a group of teammates into the Toyota Center to shoot warm-up, and happened to meet Wei Shao, who left after practicing shooting, and the two chatted warmly for a long time, hugging and patting, like brothers who hadn't seen each other for a long time. Yang Yiming listened for a while and found that the two talked about almost everything except basketball. Family, partners, girlfriends, business plans, vacation spots, and even newfound restaurants and nightclubs are all pulled down, except for the battle for MVP on the basketball court. He is so angry that he seems to have nothing to do with himself and can hang high.

But after the two said goodbye, Wei Shao gave a pre-game interview to a media outlet in the locker room, and when asked about his good friend James Harden's chances of winning the Most Valuable Player, he did not hesitate to change his words:

"I'm not sure if he's going to win the MVP, obviously he's had a great season, they've had their best record, but I'm really not sure. There have been a lot of people who have been doing really well this season, and to be honest, the selection criteria for MVP are different every year, so it depends on what kind of selection criteria..."

A lot of people have outstanding performances?

The judging criteria are all different?

Was Russell Westbrook talking about the two contenders just mentioned, Little Emperor and Bushy Eyebrows, or was he himself? Different selection criteria, do you still have to refer to whether there are three pairs of data? !

Because unconsciously, Wei Shao actually had the opportunity to get an average triple-double for two consecutive seasons!

After grabbing "only" 7 rebounds in the Rockets' game but leading the team to victory, Wei Shao needed a total of 34 rebounds in the last two regular season games to increase his rebounding numbers in addition to points and assists to double digits.

34 rebounds, a seemingly impossible task?

Not really!

Under the "escort" of the whole team, Wei Shao slashed 18 rebounds in today's game with the Heat, and none of the remaining Thunder players scored a double-double (center Adams, who played 32 minutes, only scored 3 rebounds). In this way, in the last game, it is very possible for Wei Shao to grab another 16 rebounds!

As long as the heart desires, there is nothing impossible!

Regardless of whether the triple-double results are enough to compete for the MVP seat, at least, it is also a big suspense!