The playoff race in the East is too complicated for me to understand. Even though there’s only two or one games left for all teams involved (and it’s only, like, two teams – the Hornets and the Pistons), keeping track of all the scenarios and possibilities is too much for my fragile little brain to handle. I can, however, distill it all down into one main point: winning is good. Ancillary to that is another point: losing is bad.
“Jeremy Lamb” and “Winning Games” are a match made in heaven because Lamb has shown a recent propensity for hitting game-winners. He didn’t hit a game-winner in this game, but that doesn’t change the obvious trend of him being clutch on shots taken in the final three seconds of a game. That’s the kind of player that any team making a playoff push would want to have. All you have to do is get the score within three points, contrive things so that you’ve got the final possession, and then give the ball to Lamb. That’s honestly a trait that is not just useful in the regular season, but the postseason as well.
Lamb’s game-winning abilities were unneeded in this game; the Hornets blew the Cavaliers out. In fact, you could take all of Lamb’s points (but not his assists) off the Hornets’ score and they still would have won. In that sense, none of the shots he made tonight were game-winners, because none of them affected the outcome of the game.
I still don’t know if the Hornets are making the playoffs, or if they’re not, or if their game tomorrow against the Magic is the decider. Again, it’s too complex for me. I’m gonna go ahead and propose that playoff seedings are decided solely on which team scores the most cumulative points over the course of the season.