With less than 10 games to go in the regular season, the competitive nature of the NBA is being brought to full fruition. The 2009-2010 Play-offs are set to begin on April 21. Here is the latest on what has been happening around the league.

Crunch Time

Eastern Conference

Believe it or not, during the week while the Western Conference was being assured of who will be taking part in the play-offs, the Eastern Conference still failed to add to their official play-off roster. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks, and Orlando Magic are still the only teams certain that they will be in the play-offs.

In a keenly contested fixture, the Cavs defeated the Hawks 93-88 on Friday to secure their second consecutive season with 60-plus victories.

Thanks to a stretch of 8 unbeaten games, the Miami Heat are in pole position to claim their place in the final 8. Their most recent win was a 105-96 overtime win against the Indiana Pacers that saw captain Dwyane Wade scored 43 points to lead his team to victory.

The Bucks continue to disrupt order in the league after snapping the Suns winning streak and are still tipped by the analyst to create an upset in the first round of the play-offs. While too close to call, the Toronto Raptors are close to wrapping up the final play-off spot thanks to their three-game winning streak , determined to hold off the pressing run from the Chicago Bulls the Raptors dug deep to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 128-123 in overtime.

Rank Em Up

Western Conference

After months of preparation, struggle, heartbreak and joy, the teams that will make it through to the 2010 Western Conference Play-offs have officially been decided. We earlier informed you that the Los Angeles Lakers were the only team sure of its place but during the course of the week impressive results have seen 7 teams surge through and claim for themselves a chance of ultimate NBA glory.

With the top 8 teams certain of their places, the only thing left now is for them to know who they will be matched against in the play-offs. At present, there is a heated four-way battle between the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, and the Denver Nuggets for second through to fifth place. After last week’s results, all teams mentioned closed on a record of 50-27. The Phoenix Suns on Saturday saw their season-best, 10-game winning streak snapped by the raging Milwaukee Bucks in a 107-98 result.

The Mavericks also lost on Saturday, going down to the Oklahoma City Thunder 121-116. It should be noted that the Thunder are not too far off the pace in the race for second as they just have one more loss than the leading four. Their three-game winning streak was the conference best at the end of last week. The San Antonio Spurs backed by resurgence in Manu Ginobli powered to 2 impressive wins to close the week.

The Portland Trailblazers can now breathe a sigh of relief as they were made aware that the trailing Memphis Grizzlies has no chance of overtaking them in a race for a play-off spot. The Brandon – Roy-led team are tipped to play the Lakers in the first round though, so their joy may not last long.