I undesrstand who plays who in the first Round 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 4v5 But which winners of the first round play which winners? Thanks!
i dont know if this is a joke or not its been a long day so my sarcasm meter is probably not working but the second round matchups are: 1/8 winner plays the winner of 4/5 2/7 winner plays the winner of 3/6 the winners of the second round meet each other in the conference finals also this should be in the nba dish
So Rockets have the best chance to make conference finals if they r no.2 or no.3 seed n face the Lakers for conference title.
I don't like the way the playoff brackets work. A lesser ranked team might have an easier schedule than a higher ranked team. If, for example, all the higher seeded teams win their series except that 8 upsets 1, then 2 would play 3 and then 4 would play 8 in the second round. Team 4 has an easier opponent than team 2. I don't think it's fair for team 2 to play team 3. The NBA should reset the pairings after each round. The highest ranked team left should play the lowest ranked team left. Then the second highest ranked team would get the next lowest ranked team. The NFL does its playoffs this way. Teams 1 and 2 have a bye week for the Wild Card games, but Team 1 plays the lowest ranked remaining team in the Divisional games and Team 2 gets the second lowest ranked team. I think rewarding a higher ranked team with an easier opponent is better than using brackets where a team might have a more difficult opponent.
When it comes down to it, it's all about matchups. If we were going into the playoffs right now, I'd rather play number 2-7 seed, than number 8. Meaning, I'd rather play number 2 ranked Denver than 8 Utah.
That's what it does though. In the worst case, a #1 seed has to play a #8, then a #4, then a #2. That's the easiest worst case you can come up with: play the worst team of the first 8, then play the worst team of the top 4. The goal is to make #1 play #2 in the finals (should the chips fall in such a way). The problem is that in the West, EVERYONE is good.
How does it get any easier than 1 playing 8? Like another poster said, upsets are very rare. The number 1 team should find a way to beat a number 8 if they have a matchup problem. Ex: Boston and Atlanta last year. Atlanta matches up very well with Boston but Boston found a way to win the series. And lucky for Boston they were 1 and had home court advantage or they more than likely would NOT have gotten past any round.
