Some NBA players might suggest they don't look at scores or watch other games when the season is coming down to the wire. It's a noble perspective to claim that the only thing that matters is your own performance. And in the end, yes, if you can win games, you generally don't have to worry as much about what your opponents are doing.
But let's be real: Scoreboard and standings watching is part of the strategy when the season's schedule is coming closer to its conclusion.
Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac admitted he watches it all, and described himself as a "hater" when he's looking at other teams vying for some of the final postseason slots in the Western Conference.
Here's video of him talking about that, shared by Joey Linn who covers the Clippers for On SI.
Los Angeles is currently a game out of skipping the play-in tournament, but if the season were to end today, the Clippers would have the best positioning in the tournament as the seventh seed (the seven- and eight-seed needs to win just one game to advance to the playoffs, and can lose once and still have a chance to get in). They're 6.5 games ahead of the last team that would make the play-in tournament, the 10th-seeded Phoenix Suns.
Hate-watch away, Zubac.
