Lots of players rest, lots of playoff seeds are locked up in NBA

The Oklahoma City-Denver game could have starred the NBA's two most recent MVPs: the reigning one in Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a three-time winner in Nuggets forward Nikola Jokic. Except they both sat out. They weren't alone. All the other regular starters for the Thunder and Nuggets were ruled out, too. And around the league, no fewer than 168 players — including 14 members of the Memphis Grizzlies — were held out on Friday night because of injuries or illnesses. Every team in the league was playing game 81 — the next-to-last game — of their seasons on Friday night. They're all off Saturday, and then all teams play again Sunday to close the regular season. Some teams had something to play for Friday. Some did not. Sometimes, that didn't seem to matter. "If we didn't clinch (the No. 1 overall seed) coming into tonight, everybody would be playing," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told reporters before the game. "We've earned the right through 80 games to manage their bodies and stuff like that." Oklahoma City already had the No. 1 seed for the entirety of the postseason wrapped up, so rest and health appear to be the priority for the Thunder. The Nuggets entered Friday still having seeding to play for, and in Jokic's case, there's still award eligibility to obtain. He needs to play in one more game, so it would seem likely that the Nuggets will play him on Sunday so he can get on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and other awards. "We're all aware of that," Nuggets coach David Adelman told reporters. Some players got to award eligibility with a few extra minutes to spare. San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, needing to play 20 minutes to reach the 65-game standard and be eligible for postseason awards, was taken out after hitting exactly that number of minutes — then went back into the game, evidently having persuaded the Spurs that he needed a bit more on-court work. He finished with 40 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in 26 minutes. "If I had 65 (games) before, I for sure wouldn't have played," Wembanyama said. Said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson: "We need as much on-the-job training, on-the-court experience together as we can. That's what we're trying to do without overdoing it." There was also a record shooting effort on Friday. Boston made 29 3-pointers, tying the record for 3s in a game. It was the fourth time in NBA history a team made 29, and the second time this week after Memphis did it on Monday in a loss to Cleveland. "Hopefully, we didn't use them all up in one game," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. Play-in dress rehearsal for Warriors? Not everybody was resting for the playoffs. Golden State was building for the postseason — or, at least, what it hopes will be a playoff run. The Warriors are going to the play-in tournament and tuned up by getting Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kristaps Porzingis in the starting lineup together for the first time this season. "We'll just take a look at that tonight," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "We have a season full of data and film on some of the combinations. But some of decisions we have to make, there's no data. It's just kind of a hunch so we have give some of that a look tonight." Playoff picture becomes clearer Atlanta became the 11th team to grab one of the 12 guaranteed playoff spots, rolling past a Cleveland team that sat Donovan Mitchell. "It feels great," guard CJ McCollum said after the Hawks clinched either the No. 5 or No. 6 spot in the East. "The guys did a great job of rallying together." In other playoff-related news: — Boston secured No. 2 in the East, behind No. 1 Detroit (which had previously clinched). — New York locked up No. 3 in the East. — Cleveland is certain to be No. 4 in the East after that loss to the Hawks. — Atlanta knows it will be in the playoffs, either as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed. — Charlotte will be in the play-in tournament after falling to Detroit. — Orlando will be in no worse than the 7-vs.-8 play-in game in the East. — Miami is locked into the 9-vs.-10 play-in game in the East. ___ AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in San Francisco contributed to this report. ___ AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba