After tonight, Rox can do no worse than #5 seed. If we win out, we need to root for Portland over Denver to get the #2 seed, otherwise we are the #3 seed. If we lose 1 game, we should root for Denver over Portland and NOH over SAS, in which instance we would get the #3 seed. I am assuming of course that Den will win at home against Sac, that SAS will win @ Sac and @ GS and that Portland will win @ LAC and home against OKC.
Yup I have a sinking feeling this will happen too I can see the Spurs and Blazers winning out now. As for us, i'm really worried about the last road game at Dallas
Now a four way tie is very much possible if Portland beats Denver. Rockets can't lose another game to secure Home Court.
Well, whatever seeding we get, I just hope the Blazers will meet the Lakers in the second round, then we'll have a better chance to win the western conference.
If there were a 4 way tie, assuming HOU, SA, and POR finish 3-0 (making DEN finish 1-1), then it would be: Houston Denver Portland San Antonio Division winners win tiebreaks against non-division winners. In this scenario Houston wins the Southwest and Denver wins the Northwest (better division record than Portland). So then you do a tiebreak between Houston and Denver, Houston wins and is #2. Denver still finishes above Portland and San Antonio because they're a division winner so they're #3. Portland wins the tiebreaker over San Antonio due to head to head record so they're #4 and San Antonio is #5.
That is correct, #3 would go to the SW division winner, which would be either Hou or SAS. If Hou wins the division they would be #3, if Hou does not win the division, they would be #4 by virtue of their H2H againast Portland. If both Port and SAS win out and Hou loses 1 more gamee, Hou would end up #5.
If Utah can't do better than get a #7 seed, we will very likely avoid playing them in the 1st round. Is this true?
In that case,the likelihood of not having to face them is high. Ending up at 2 will be harder than 3.
Utah can still finish 6th or 7th. There's still a slim chance of them finishing 8th but it's highly unlikely. It basically boils down to this. However many wins Utah gets in their last 3, Dallas and New Orleans have to match it in order to stay ahead of them. If both do it then Utah finished 8th. If only one of them does it then Utah finishes 7th. If neither of them can do it then Utah finishes 6th. If Utah finished 3-0 then they're at least 7th. It's not possible for both Dallas and New Orleans to get 3 wins because they play each other. But we'll likely finish 2nd or 3rd and Utah will likely finish 6th or 7th. So it's still possible to play the Jazz from either position. You have to keep winning though because if we drop 1 game and Portland and San Antonio win out, then we're 5th and we don't have home court advantage.
UT could still finish 6, 7 or 8 seed. The only way to insure no UT in the first round is to drop to the 4 or 5 seed. A better plan is to just try to get the 2 or seed. Which keeps us out of the LAL bracket until the WCF. Even if we do play UT, we would have HCA. With a healthy Artest and Yao, we would be favored against UT since they are so bad on the road.
The rockets can easily avoid the jazz by losing both games, the problem is that we will be 5th seed and no homecourt. I really wish la could have beaten Portland.
it seems most likely that utah will end up as the 6 seed, because i think they will go 3-0 and dallas will lose to us. the way to avoid playing 6 seed utah is hope that portland beats denver so houston can get the 2 seed.
This is very true. Even if the Lakers rest say Kobe and limit Odom and Gasol, the Lakers bench is playing well enough to beat a Jazz team that has played unfocused on the road.
