Playoff contenders collide Thursday night

The games are becoming increasingly important in the NBA as, with just 20 games or so to go, teams scrap for playoff spots and seedings. And this week's edition of Thursday night Association TV consists of four teams doing just that.

Down in South Beach the Miami Heat continue a tough stretch of games when they host the Orlando Magic (8 pm Eastern, TNT). And out West the Denver Nuggets, playing surprisingly well after their big trade of last week, visit the struggling Utah Jazz (10:30 pm, TNT).

Miami blew a couple of leads and lost at home to the Knicks on Sunday 91-86. So the Heat have lost two of their last three games, and are just 4-3 over the last couple of weeks. And now they're in a stretch of 11 straight games vs. teams with winning records. Through Tuesday Miami sits in the two spot in the East, one game behind the conference-leading Boston Celtics and one game up on the third-seeded Chicago Bulls - whom the Heat host Sunday.

Orlando, meanwhile, knocked off New York on Tuesday night 116-110. The Magic grabbed an early 12-point lead, fell behind by 11 at the half, came back to take the lead with nine minutes to go, and held on from there. But the Knicks got a meaningless dunk from Amare Stoudemire in the final seconds to hang on for the cover as seven-point underdogs at oddsmaker.ag.

So the Magic have won three in a row and five of their last six, and through Tuesday sit in the four spot in the East, 2.5 games ahead of fifth-place Atlanta.

Miami has taken two of three games from Orlando so far this season. The Heat won 96-70 back in October; Orlando then won 104-95 in November; and Miami then won in O-Town 104-100 one month ago.

Denver, going into a home game with Charlotte on Wednesday night, is 3-1 straight-up and 4-0 vs. the oddsmaker.ag pointspreads since trading 'Melo and Chauncey. And that one outright loss came in overtime at Portland. The Nuggets bounced back to beat Atlanta Sunday night 100-90, covering the spread as 6.5-point favorites.

So Denver holds down the five spot in the West, although they're only 2.5 games ahead of ninth-place Phoenix.

Utah, meanwhile, continues to struggle in the wake of the Deron Williams trade. After losing at home to Boston on Monday night 107-102 the Jazz have lost two in a row, seven of their last eight, and 16 of their last 21. So Utah now sits in 10th place in the West, a game and a half out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

The Jazz and Nuggets have split two games so far this season, but those were different teams to varying degrees, before the big trades both teams made last week.

On the futures boards at oddsmaker.ag the Heat are priced at even-money to win the Eastern Conference championship, the Magic at +600. On the other side of the bracket the Nuggets are getting +4,000 (40-1) to win the Western Conference, Utah +25,000. And Miami is listed at +200 to win the NBA championship, with Orlando at +1,000, Denver at +10,000, and Utah at 50,000.