1) if top 3 seeds stay same as the current structure, and 2) no one wants to meet lakers in round one of playoff; what would you do if you were GM of dallas? I would try to make my team record closer to rockets. How interesting that dallas face rockets in the very last battle on the last day of regular season. That game could switch no.6 and no.7 team.
I don't think any team will lose on purpose, it's something that can't be kept a secret and would piss of a lot of fans and the commisioner. Plus, they're not the Spurs.
You are going to have to beat 3 good teams to get to the finals, so those in the bottom 4 shouldn't worry too much about what order they play them.
You'd have the first 1-0 eight overtime game in league history with one of the teams winning on an accidentally made free throw.
