Sure, rub salt in the wounds why don't you. Most of us are watching the Rockets to forget about the Astros, not to be reminded of their World Series futility at every opportunity! lol
Unfortunately, this means we will face the Spurs in the second round of the playoffs, even if we win the division. So it looks like we will either win the title, or make a second round exit.
I hate the new playoff seeding structure. It clearly penalizes a strong second place team (i.e. us), making us play harder teams earlier on in the playoffs than we should be.
guys here are so overates the Heats. they might look good on the paper but defense and chemstry win games in the postseason. i think last season's Heats is actually better than this year's; J. Williams & Walker maybe more talanted but Damon Jones & Haslem played perfectly last season alongside Shaq & DWade, and Posey is a downgrade from Eddie Jones. this season's Heats would be last season's Suns: high scores/wins in regular season but the Pistons still beats them in the postseason.
yeah but if we're thinking the big prize we have to beat the Spurs anyway, 2nd round or conferance finals doesn't matter.
It's totally a money thing w/ the nba. The nba thinks that people root for their team first and then the teams in their division. If Boston wasn't guaranteed a playoff spot last year b/c they were at the top of a bad division then the nba thinks they would've lost the whole northeastern market. So they make sure that someone from every division is represented in the playoffs and keep the interest going...If not for this then nobody would pay attention (baseball before the wild card w/ the divisional leader 20+ games ahead of your team)...i agree it sucks though, i wish the nba guaranteed them a playoff spot but not necessarily a top 3 spot.
Everybody thinks the playoff format stinks. I'm pretty sure they will change it in a year or two. The rationale behind the "division champ" concept is to create regional rivalry. It's fine with me except that the schedule doesn't reflect divisional significance. In football, they play teams in the same division much more than any other teams. That should be the way to go. And in the playoffs, they should re-align the pairing in each round (again, like the NFL) to make sure you don't have two strong teams fighting each other in an early round.
Mark Stein is from Dallas so him making a quote like that doesn't surprise me. I think he's one of the worst sports writers ever.
