Today’s Games (All times are Eastern):

The Los Angeles Lakers will try to hold on to the eighth—and final—Western Conference playoff spot when they host the Memphis Grizzlies in today’s NBA Game of the Day. This will be third and final meeting between the Lakers and Grizzlies this season. Memphis, who won the two prior meetings at home, can sweep the season series from the Lakers for the first time since winning all three matchups during the 2004-2005 season with a victory tonight.

Los Angeles (39-36) leads the Utah Jazz by half a game for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot. The Lakers must avoid being swept by the Grizzlies if they want to ensure that they remain among the top eight teams in the West by the time the night is over. If the Lakers fall to Memphis and the Utah Jazz get a home win over the New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles would drop down to ninth place in the West and would lose control of its playoff destiny. With a win tonight, the Lakers would remain at least one game ahead of the Jazz in the loss column and would thereby maintain complete control of their playoff destiny. If the Lakers can win out, they would earn their eighth straight playoff berth.

The Grizzlies, who have already locked up their third straight postseason appearance, are trying to stay in the hunt for the third spot in the Western Conference playoff seedings. Memphis (51-24) currently sits in fifth place in the West, one-half game behind the third-place Denver Nuggets. The Grizzlies and Nuggets both have 24 losses, but since Denver won the season series between the teams 3-1, the Nuggets own the tiebreaker and Memphis would need some help from Denver to move up to third.

However, although the Grizzlies are currently in fifth place behind the fourth-place Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis does have the better record and would have home-court advantage against the Clippers in a probable first-round playoff matchup. The Clippers have the fourth-place seeding by virtue of being a division leader. Memphis currently has a game-and-a-half advantage over the Clippers and that lead can be extended to two games or be slashed to a tenuous single game depending on the result of tonight’s game. If the Grizzlies lose tonight, they would be just one game better than the Clippers in the loss column, which Los Angeles would have an opportunity to possibly make up when the Clippers visit Memphis on April 13.

Yesterday’s Results:

Random NBA Fan’s Record in Yesterday’s Games: 2-1
Random NBA Fan’s Record for the Season: 714-411