Los Angeles (AFP)

The epilogue of the regular season of the NBA Championship is approaching: the evening of Wednesday allowed to define seven of the eight duels of the first round of the play-offs, including a sulphurous Houston-Oklahoma City who could compete without Russell Westbrook, injured.

. Houston, beaten, has (maybe) a problem

Dirty night for the Rockets: they lost 108 to 104 against Indiana who still had five losses in a row.

James Harden has yet scored 45 points and passed the 40-point threshold for the 21st time this season. "The Beard" (literally the beard) struggled and allowed his team, behind (104-90), to come back to two lengths (106-104) at 27 seconds of the siren.

But the MVP of the 2017-18 season could not completely forget the absence of Russell Westbrook, the other trigger of the Rockets.

Westbrook (27.2 points per game) suffered a quadriceps injury in his right leg and will not play his team's last regular season game on Friday either.

His absence could be even longer and spill over into the 1st round of the play-offs which begins next week.

"We will see how he will respond to treatment, we just have to hope and wait for what will happen next week. I do not know more," admitted his coach Mike D'Antoni.

Without Westbrook, the clash between Houston and OKC, winner Wednesday of Miami (116-115), would not have the same flavor at all.

The point guard has spent his entire NBA career in the Thunder jersey before joining Houston last summer following a trade with Chris Paul who has some scores to settle with the Rockets, in particular with Harden.

. Freewheeling Toronto and Philadelphia

Already guaranteed to participate in the play-offs, the reigning champion Toronto and Philadelphia have rotated their workforce, on and off the pitch.

Raptors coach Nick Nurse left his assistant Adrian Griffin in charge of the Canadian team, while the Sixers only lined up substitutes late in the game.

Result, a match removed and unbridled, won 125 to 121 by Toronto with 19 points, each, from Kyle Lowry and Chris Boucher.

Philadelphia has seen another scare because of Joel Embiid. The Cameroonian pivot, returning from a left ankle injury, received a blow to the right wrist and left his teammates after spending only 14 minutes on the floor.

But the Sixers wanted to be reassuring and can count on Embiid to challenge Boston in the first round.

. The Clippers as N.1 outsiders

The Clippers are now guaranteed to finish in 2nd place in the Western Conference, behind the Lakers who still have to wait to know the name of the team they will face in the first round.

Worn by Paul George (27 pts) and Kawhi Leonard (26 pts), the Clippers dominated the Denver Nuggets (124-11) and made an appointment with Dallas and the impressive Luka Doncic.

The Californian franchise coach Doc Rivers did not however have the heart to celebrate this status of seed N.2, since he still does not know if he will be able to count on Patrick Beverly and Landry Shamet, injured.

"With all the injuries we've had, it's good to finish 2nd (in the Western Conference), but he's now starting from scratch and especially hoping to have a healthy group," he warned.

© 2020 AFP