The new changes to the NBA standings are still confusing... it appears that the division leaders no longer take the top three seeds, as announced after last year's debacle in the Atlantic division... but if you look at the Eastern Conference this year, Cleveland has the third seed at 10-6, NJ has the fourth seed a 6-9, and Indiana has the fifth seed at 9-8... meanwhile, Atlanta sits a half game above NJ at 6-8 (sixth seed),and chicago(7th), miami(8th) and washington(9th) are tied with NJ at 6-9... it still seems that we are rewarding mediocrity in the atlantic division...why give NJ the fourth seed if they arent going to be given #3 as the division leader? in the West, a similar situation... LA Lakers lead their division at 10-5, but own the 4th seed, while the Spurs, second in their division, own the third seed... if Houston has a better record than the Lakers, can the Rockets still take fourth seed? http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/standings;_ylt=Ah40y8ZX3A7xmo9IFpoLRty8vLYF
the seeding is pretty simple, but I find that the Standings at NBA.com and ESPN.com are not always accurrate and uptodate. The first 4 seeds are comprised of the 3 division leaders plus the team with the best record from the remaining teams (ie, the divisional 2nd place team with the best record). Of those 4 teams, the 1-4 seeds are given out by W/L record. The 5-8 seeds are given out as before. This guarantees the two best teams in a conference cannot face each other until the conf finals. bottomline: the best divisional 2nd place team can be seeded higher than a divisional leader, if they have a better record.
thanks heyp, that pretty much clears it up.. it's almost like the wild card setup in baseball with the first four seeds... so the only way for the Rockets to have third or fourth seed this year is if and only if they are second in their division... and it also makes sense, I forgot about how SA and DAL met up in the "western conference finals", only problem was that it was the second round...
you're right. It's probably simpler to just say, the 3 divisional leaders and a wild card make up the top 4 seeds, seeded in W/L order.
It would still cause problems if the texas triangle were the top 3 teams in the west. One of them would be shafted with the 5th spot despite the 3rd best record.
Yes, but oddly enough, they would not face each other in the first round. In fact, it is possible that it would be better to be 5th seed than 3rd seed. Imagine the overall rankings to be this: 1. San Antonio (60-22) 2. Phoenix (59-23) 3. Dallas (58 - 24) 4. Houston (56 - 26) 5. LA Lakers (55 - 27) 6. LA Clippers (52 - 30) 7. Utah (49 - 33) 8. Sacramento (48 - 34) The seeds would be: 1. SA (1st overall) vs. 8. Sac-town (8th overall) 2. Phoenix (2nd overall) vs. 7. LA Clippers (6th overall) 3. Dallas (3rd overall) vs. 6. LA Lakers (5th Overall) 4. Utah (7th Overall) vs. 5. Houston (4th Overall) In this scenerio, Houston would play the second worst playoff team as the 5th seed, while Dallas would play the 5th best team as the 3rd seed. Gotta love unbalanced conferences, hey?
That really makes no difference. In that scenario, we would still get home court advantage. Really, this new format makes it almost impossible for us to face Dallas or SA in the 1st round, unlike the previous format which pretty makes it a foregone conclusion, assuming we win 52+ games, or so
So does anyone know a major site that's been listing the standings correctly? I haven't been checking NBA.com but Yahoo! and ESPN seem to be giving the 3rd seed to the division winner (Lakers) even when a team coming in second in another division has a better record. Have they all just been lazy in updating their software (or whatever)?
does it really matter, if you have a better record than your opponent, independent of seeding you get home court against them..... surely home court is what counts
Oh yes, sir, seedings matter. Let's just say that T-Mac and Yao would have advanced past the first round had they 'positioned' themselves to avoid a matchup with Dallas in the first round. It makes a BIG difference...
