Still a lot of jockeying for CCS playoff spots

The top five teams in the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division receive automatic bids to the Central Coast Section playoffs. Going into today’s games, those five teams are: Sacred Heart Prep, Carlmont, Hillsdale, Terra Nova, with Burlingame at Capuchino tied for fifth.

Only the top two teams from the Ocean Division receive automatic bids. King’s Academy has won the division title, while Woodside and Half Moon Bay will battle for second place, with the third-place finisher facing the Lake Division champion in Saturday’s CCS play-in game.

While the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division gets most of the baseball publicity, this week, the Ocean and Lake divisions will take center stage as the PAL’s final Central Coast Section playoff berth will be decided Saturday.

The PAL receives eight automatic CCS bids, with the top four from the Bay Division all making the cut. The top three teams from the Ocean Division also are in, but that eighth and final spot will be determined by a play-in game between the fourth-place team from the Ocean and the Lake Division champion.

In the past, the Lake Division champ was extended an automatic bid, which caused grousing from many other teams in many other leagues. This year, that final bid is being decided in what is essentially a playoff game. Win and you’re in.

And this is where the excitement comes in. Jefferson, with a win over Mills Tuesday, can wrap up the Lake Division title. The Grizzlies are currently 9-0 and lead the second-place Vikings by two games. Essentially, Jefferson needs to win one of its final three games to take the title.

There are a lot more moving parts in the Ocean Division. King’s Academy (10-1) already has clinched at least a share of the Ocean Division crown with Woodside (9-3) two games back with two to go. Half Moon Bay (8-4) is clinging to that third-place spot going into the final week. Menlo-Atherton currently sits in fourth place in the PAL’s middle division with a 7-5 record. Aragon is in fifth, two games behind the Bears.

The best part? Both M-A and Aragon control their own destinies as they face each other in the regular-season series finale. Aragon, which will host M-A Tuesday and be on the road in Atherton Thursday, needs a sweep to tie the Bears for that fourth-place spot. The Dons would then win the head-to-head tiebreaker with M-A and be the Ocean representative in the PAL CCS Play-in game.

M-A, on the other hand, could move up to third with a sweep of the Dons and one loss by Half Moon Bay to Woodside.

Adding even a little more drama is the fact that Saturday’s game will start at 10 a.m. at the home of the Ocean Division representative. The CCS selection and seeding meeting is slated for 2:30 p.m. that same afternoon.

Both those division winners, whichever they might be, better have all their CCS paperwork filled out before they get to the ballpark Saturday morning, because there will be a real short turnaround from the end of the game and the beginning of the CCS meeting.

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There is still some question as to which four teams will get automatic transfer berths out of the Bay Division.

Coming into this week, Sacred Heart Prep (9-3) and Carlmont (8-3) would appear to be the only two teams free and clear. The Gators wrap up the season with a pair against Sequoia (1-9), while the Scots have two with Menlo School (3-8).

Hillsdale (8-4) still has a shot at winning a share of the division title, but there is also the possibility that they fall all the way to fifth in the standings if everything breaks the wrong way for them.

That’s because the Knights hold only a two-game lead in the loss column over Terra Nova (6-6), Burlingame (5-6) and Capuchino (5-6). Hillsdale would hold the tie-break advantage over Terra Nova by virtue of sweeping the Tigers in a pair of games this season. The Knights wrap up the regular season with a pair against Capuchino this week after splitting a pair with Burlingame last week.

Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that Hillsdale, with one more win, clinches that third spot. That still leaves a scramble for that fourth automatic CCS berth out of the Bay Division between Burlingame, Terra Nova and Capuchino.

Both the Panthers and Mustangs have one game to make up, however. Burlingame, which takes on Terra Nova in two regularly scheduled games, finishes up its rain-delayed series with Sequoia 10 a.m. Saturday. Capuchino is sandwiching a makeup game with Carlmont Thursday between its set with Hillsdale Wednesday and Friday.

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I always knew Kevin Durant was good. A superstar even. He was a star his first and only year at the University of Texas and I’d see him occasionally when he played for Oklahoma City — a few highlights here and there.

But I never fully appreciated his scoring brilliance until he came to Golden State. And even though this is his second year with the Warriors, I still am dumbfounded at how great he truly is.

He absolutely crushed the New Orleans Pelicans in Game 3 Sunday, dropping 38 on 15 of 27 shooting, with 20 coming in the first half. Face-up jumpers. Turnaround jumpers. Pull-up and fade-away Js. The jab step, drives to the bucket. Defenders in his face or not. Bumped off his spot. Didn’t matter. Durant is a stone-cold scorer.

It got to the point where I was yelling at my television, almost feeling sorry for the Pelicans. “How are you supposed to stop that?” I’d cry as Durant floated a shot over a closing Anthony Davis. When poor Jrue Holiday was trying to defend Durant, about a six-inch mismatch in KD’s favor, Durant would post him up on the high block and simply spin and shoot right over the top. ABC announcer Mark Jackson said something to the effect of, Durant was shooting over Holiday as if he wasn’t there.

Many say Steph Curry is the greatest shooter of all time, but Durant is quickly climbing the ladder of best scorers of all time.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.