On Tuesday, the Denver Nuggets almost secured the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference. Although they didn’t completely secure it with their big win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they now have a one-game lead over both the Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The defending champs were expected to win their last two games against the Spurs and Grizzlies. But on Friday, things went differently. They were leading against the Spurs but got outscored in the final minutes and lost. This made the Western Conference standings uncertain.

After playing 81 games, the Thunder, Timberwolves, and Nuggets all have the same record of 56-25. This has never happened before in the NBA. On Sunday, the Nuggets will play the Grizzlies, the Timberwolves will face the Suns, and the Thunder will take on the Mavericks. All games start at the same time. If all three teams either win or lose, there will be a tie for the No. 1 seed.

Now, let’s talk about what happens in these tiebreaker scenarios. There are seven possibilities we need to look at.

• If the Thunder, Nuggets, and Timberwolves all win or lose on Sunday, the Thunder will be No. 1, the Timberwolves will be No. 2, and the Nuggets will be No. 3. First, we look at their divisional records. Since all three are in the Northwest Division, we compare their records against each other. The Thunder have the best record in these matchups, so they get the top seed.
• If the Timberwolves and Thunder both win and the Nuggets lose, the Timberwolves will be No. 1, the Thunder will be No. 2, and the Nuggets will be No. 3. This is decided by their conference records.
• If the Timberwolves and Nuggets win and the Thunder lose, the Timberwolves will be No. 1, the Nuggets will be No. 2, and the Thunder will be No. 3. Here, the Timberwolves win based on their divisional record.
• If the Nuggets and Thunder win and the Timberwolves lose, the Thunder will be No. 1, the Nuggets will be No. 2, and the Timberwolves will be No. 3. The Thunder have a better head-to-head record against the Nuggets. To figure out the No. 2 seed when two teams lose and one wins, we use the same tiebreaker rules as before.

Now, let’s look at the matchups on Sunday:

• Dallas is already locked into the No. 5 seed, so they won’t have their best players against the Thunder.
• Memphis had many players injured on Friday but still put up a good fight. They won’t make it easy for the Nuggets.
• Phoenix is fighting to avoid the Play-In Tournament, so they’ll give their all against the Timberwolves.

After months of basketball, we still don’t know who will have home-court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs. Sunday’s games will be exciting!