Was wondering this myself...as I was glancing the standings on sundays as I usually do...think its the division record...that may be the cause...
as i said in my earlier post, you CAN get the 2nd seed without winning your division. and as others have said, seeding does not affect home court only match ups.
It used to be where the division winners were seeded 1,2, and 3. They stopped doing that. They'll only guarantee you a top 4 seeding. The purpose was to avoid having the two best teams in the conference avoid playing each other in the second round. I believe this happened with San Antonio and Dallas. They had the top two records and so one was seeded 1 and one was seeded 4. They won their series and had to play each other in the next round. So they did away with that. I think it was San Antonio and Dallas. Could be wrong. Don't remember.
Its really stupid how they do this, hopefully we win the division (its unlikely, but you never know), they need to change this rule.
They don't get homecourt, they just get seeding. If #6 has 35 wins, and #3 from Atlantic has 30 wins. #6 has HC.
If the playoffs started today, the Rockets would have home court advantage. This happened in '07 when the Jazz won the division but the Rockets had a better record. Even though we had home court then, we know how that turned out. The Rockets need to be 3, 2 , or 1.
Unfortunately yes, for example if Toronto limps into the Atlantic Division title with say 33 wins, they will get one of the top 4 seeds in the East. Funny thing is that the East is so bad at the moment that there are only 2 teams with winning records! Minnesota who is 13th in the West would currently be the 5th seed in the East, but with the 4th best record...horrible. The Atlantic Div: Toronto 6-10 Boston 7-12 Philly 6-12 Brooklyn 5-12 New York 3-13 New York with a 3-13 record is only 3 games behind the Division Leader, Toronto, who is on pace for a 30 win season.
Well they are 4th best in my heart. Honestly though, the Rockets have just now started really figuring out how to play together, and if they have good luck with health (knock on wood) retaining a top 4 seed all season long shouldn't be an issue. As always, injuries make a huge difference in the overall competitive landscape, and the Clippers have taken a huge hit with the loss of Reddick for 2 months. They are a team that has a hard time stopping people, but can score with the best of them…. mostly because of their perimeter shooting. Losing Reddick means Crawford becomes their #1 perimeter scoring threat when CP3 isn't facilitating. The Warriors are another team that relies on getting hot from the outside to win games. They have 2 of the best shooters in the league, but here in the next couple months, they will have slumps in their shooting, and without very much perimeter defense, they could have trouble stopping teams on the other end. I just don't see the Blazers retaining the hot record with the talent they have. I think they are likely to drop down considerably in the next month. The Spurs and OKC will continue to win games as they always do, and right now I would say the Rockets very well could be looking like the 3rd best team in the West with a couple more wins here this week. They just need to A. Stay healthy, and B. Keep up the defensive intensity which really jump starts their offense. If Morey makes a trade also this month or next, it should make this team deeper and better off as his trades usually do.
Don't worry, it will play out that the Rockets are either the 1st seed or the 3rd. It depends if we overtake the Spurs at the end. cool how that works.
Division leader takes the at least the 4th spot. If I remember correctly, when the 5th spot has better record, they will get the home court advantage over the 4th spot during playoff.
The difference between getting the 4th and 5th seed is absolutely meaningless. The better record gets HC anyway, so us finishing 5th to the Clippers 4th while having a better record would be exactly the same thing as us finishing 4th and them 5th.
You guys are looking at this in a Rockets historical perspective. You have to look at this in a Dallas perspective. They made the rule so that Dallas/Spurs could avoid being 4th seed vs Spurs/Dallas getting 1st seed...to avoid them matching up in the 2nd round. The rule allows the Spurs to get 3rd seed, if not 2nd seed, when the Rockets get 1st seed
Question. If the Raptors(or any other team) wins that p-sspoor division, but finishes with the 9th(or worse) best record in the Leastern Conference, do they still make the playoffs? If so, the NBA needs to seriously revise the way they reward these division winners with seedings.
And the most apt example was 1992-93, where the Rockets were about to be the #2 seed, and with a better record than the #3 seed Sonics... but got jobbed in the final regular season game against San Antonio where the refs allowed a David Robinson shot after the buzzer sounded that forced the game into OT. Should have been a Rockets win in regulation. Instead, the Sonics ended up with Home court advantage, despite being the lower seed, and that series had all sorts of HCA implications as far as who the winner was (basically 6 blowouts, and 1 game 7 OT thriller that featured some awful home-favored calls by the refs). Divisions really are meaningless in the NBA. ESPN doesn't even default to them when showing the standings now.
I would like to see Atlantic winner, with a losing record, becoming the 11th best and got the 4th seed at the end of regular season.
