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The Clippers will gain ground on one of the teams ahead of them in the Western Conference standings and lose ground to the other one tonight. That's because the big game in the NBA has the Thunder visiting the Spurs in San Antonio.
Brooklyn at Philadelphia, 4:00 PM
Oklahoma City at San Antonio, 5:30 PM, NBA-TV
Detroit at Utah, 6:00 PM
Denver at Phoenix, 7:00 PM
New York at Golden State, 7:30 PM
This is the Spurs fourth game without Tony Parker, and their first since being completely humiliated in a 30 point loss to the Blazers. The stakes are high as Oklahoma City can catch the Spurs for best record in the west with a win.
The lower half of the Western Conference race features heavily in the action tonight also. Utah can pull back into a tie with the Lakers with a win tonight over the Pistons -- a win they should get pretty easily if what we saw last night is any sort of indication of how where the Pistons are right now.
The Nuggets have to venture down to sea level where they are not nearly as good, but they still should be able to beat the Suns, even in the desert. If Denver wins, they'll move within a game of Memphis.
Finally, the Warriors host the Knicks in the last game of the evening. The Warriors could easily fall behind the Lakers or even all the way out of the playoffs if they don't start playing better. Amare Stoudemire is definitely out of this game, but Carmelo Anthony and David Lee are both possibilities. The last time Stephen Curry played the Knicks he scored 54, so you can bet he's looking forward to playing them again.