East play-in field set, Embiid poised to win scoring title

The EasternConference play-in tournament matchups are set, as are the top fourseeds in the Western Conference.

Alsoapparently decided: The NBA’s scoring race.

Brooklynsealed the No. 6 seed in the East on Friday night, which lockedMiami into No. 7 and the play-in tournament. The Nets will playPhiladelphia in Round 1 of the playoffs — meaning Brooklyn will beup against a soon-to-be two-time scoring champion.

Philadelphiacenter Joel Embiid — he didn’t play in Friday’s overtime win overAtlanta and there’s no need for him to in the 76ers’ regular-seasonfinale on Sunday, either — will almost certainly finish the seasonaveraging 33.1 points.

The onlyplayer who had a realistic chance entering Friday to catch him wasDallas’ Luka Doncic. But he played sparingly Friday, changed intostreet clothes at halftime of the Mavericks’ loss to Chicago — onethat eliminated Dallas from postseason contention and assuredOklahoma City the No. 10 spot in the play-in tournament. Mavs coachJason Kidd said Doncic won’t play Sunday in the finale against SanAntonio, so his season is over.

“Decisions,sometimes, are hard in this business,” Kidd said.

Doncic playedFriday for only the first quarter and the first 35 seconds of thesecond quarter. He scored 13 points, his average falling to32.4.

Barringsomething mathematically improbable in the season’s final two days,Embiid will become the 13th player to win back-to-back scoringcrowns — with the most recent name on that list being his 76ersteammate James Harden, who did it with Houston. Embiid won it lastyear by holding off Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo by 0.7 pointsper game and is now poised to edge Doncic this year by the samemargin.

Portland’sDamian Lillard will finish with an average of 32.2 points per game;Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is currently fourth at 31.4per game. For him to catch Embiid, assuming Embiid doesn’t playSunday against Brooklyn, Gilgeous-Alexander would need to play andscore 148 points in the Thunder’s regular season finale againstMemphis — so it’s probably safe to start engraving the trophy.

Doncic likelyonly made any appearance Friday because it was Slovenia Night atDallas; the first 3,500 fans in the building got a scarf that said“I Feel Slovenia” in an obvious nod to Doncic’s homeland.

Dallas was inan uphill spot for the last play-in berth in the West anyway. Itneeded to win Friday and Sunday, and hope that Oklahoma City wouldlose to Memphis on Sunday — just to get the No. 10 spot and stillneed two more road wins to make it to a Round 1 series againstDenver.

“We werefighting for our lives and this is the situation we’re in,” Kiddsaid. “The organization has made a decision to change and we haveto go by that.”

Not makingthe play-in tournament helps Dallas’ chances of claiming no worsethan the No. 10 pick in this summer’s draft — which is important —and provide at least a tiny chance of winning the lottery and thechance to draft French phenom Victor Wembanyama.

If the Mavs’pick is between No. 1 and No. 10, Dallas keeps it. If it is No. 11or deeper in the draft, it conveys to New York as part of thecompensation agreed to as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade in2019.

So while theWest play-in field and first-round matchups remain unsettled andwon’t be totally finalized until Sunday’s regular season finales,the East is set.

No. 7 Miamiwill play host to No. 8 Atlanta on Tuesday night, while No. 9Toronto will get a visit from No. 10 Chicago on Wednesday night inthe first two games of the East play-in.

Miami stillhad an outside shot at reaching No. 6 entering Friday, but nowknows the play-in round awaits.

“This is ourreality and you have to embrace that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstrasaid. “This is a totally new experience for all of us. It’s notexactly where we wanted to be heading into this season if you goback to training camp, but that is totally irrelevant. We have thisin front of us, and it’s competition, and it’s great competitionwith a lot at stake. That is something to look forward to.”

TheMiami-Atlanta winner will face No. 2 Boston in Round 1; theMiami-Atlanta loser will play host to the Toronto-Chicago winner onFriday to see who meets No. 1 Milwaukee in the opening round.

The East’sother Round 1 matchups: Philadelphia-Brooklyn and Cleveland-NewYork. Those series will begin either April 15 or 16, when theplayoffs officially open.

Denver hadpreviously clinched No. 1 in the West, and Phoenix was locked intoNo. 4 already. Memphis beat Milwaukee on Friday to earn the West’sNo. 2 seed, which means Sacramento — a franchise about to play itsfirst playoff game since 2006 — will be No. 3 on the Westbracket.

The other sixteams assured of no worse than a play-in berth out West are the LosAngeles Clippers, defending champion Golden State, New Orleans, theLos Angeles Lakers, Minnesota and the Thunder.