Right now we have the same record as both S.A. and LAL.. Im wondering, shouldnt we be #2 then?? Im pretty sure we have the head to head lead against LA and we are tied head to head with the Spurs but our conference record is better?? I know im missing something, so any help will be appreciated. heres a link to the standings http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/standings
SAS holds the tiebreaker over us right now. They have a better division record. We're not #3 because LA is its division leader. Just think how Utah is 4th with a worse record than Phoenix.
They're called tie-breakers! There is a thread that shows who's got tie-breakers over who. Please see this tie-breaker.
Spurs have better western conference record than rockets and LAL leads pacific division so they get a top 4 spot despite their record like the ****ty jazz
It makes perfect sense. The lakers will automatically when any tie-breaker between us because they lead their division. This should be changed, however, I can MAYBE see guaranteeing a division leader a playoff spot, MAYBE.
That's not true. See this for more details on Tie Breaks. As long at he Lakers have as many wins at the Suns, LA would be selected the Divsion winner first. Then it's a 2 team Tie Break between us and the Spurs for the a top 4 seed, and we lose that. If Phoenix winds up with a better record than LA, then the 3 team Tie Break comes into play with us, SA, and LA if we all wind up tied. The winner of that gets a top 4 seed. If SA beats LA on Friday though, they win the 3 team Tie Break. If LA wins, we would win that 3 team Tie Break. Things will be a lot clearer after the smoke clears on Friday night.
You mean to tell me it's too early to start a "Prediction Time - Fill out your Western bracket" thread?
It's never too early for speculation. We should, however, have a much better how seeds 2-6 look after Mavs-Jazz, Rockets-Suns, and Hornets-Lakers. A big advantage for the #8 seed will be on the line tonight with Warriors-Nuggets.
can this question be beaten to death any more? the division winners automatically get a spot in the top 4. thats Hornets, Lakers, and Utah. the next best team is San Antonio, by virtue of their better division record against Houston. the tiebreaker against LA is meaningles unless we meet them in the playoffs, in which we would host the series with homecourt advantage. or, the other scenario would be if we leapfrogged over Lakers and Spurs, in which we would get the #2 seed behind N.O. and I must add, surely David Stern didnt see this problem coming up when he changed the format a couple of years ago to accomodate the fact that the Spurs and Mavs played in the second round. he fixed one problem and created another massive one...
I don't care if we're #5 or #6, so long as we get homecourt advantage. Only thing that actually matters. If we can't leapfrog SA, than I hope SA and NO maintain the top 2 seeds and we maintain a higher record or tiebreaker over Utah and LA. Sure they do. The more divisions there are, the more division winners there will be. The more "------ Division Champion" banners teams will hang from their rafters, making their fans glow in the sense of (false) accomplishment. Fans feel better about their team being winners, and buy more tickets and merchandise. "Hey, we're the ------ Division champs the last couple of years!" Stern knows what he's doing. As many as 8 teams (out of 30) a year can claim they're some sort of champion. To be fair, I don't think anyone foresaw a season where 6 to 9 teams in the same conference were going to be 50 win teams or that a season would end with almost a 6-way tie for the top seed. Evan
You know last year was a bit of an issue as well... AND they could also hand out divisional championship banners, but not gift that team a top 4 seed, so that line of reasoning is redundant! Most times the divisional winners will qualify for the playoffs anyway, so why complicate the 2nd round by throwing a top 4 seed at an undeserving team? Look at the Jazz this year, they could lose all the rest of their games and finish with the 7th best record in the West. But then the team who did the hard work and finished 2nd would be deprived of playing them (the easier series) while the team with (potentially) the 3rd best record plays against them in the first round. Then in the second round, instead of having 2v3 (like any normal seeding system) you have 1v3 and 2v4 - which could be a serious disadvantage to team 1 having to play against the 3rd best team in the conference... Consider this hypothetical scenario: 1 (DW) 61-21 2 60-22 6 (DW) 46-36 7 (DW) 42-40 3 59-23 4 48-34 5 46-36 (TB against 6) 8 41-41 In the first round, team 1 gets rewarded with the easiest game (1-8) while team 2 gets to play a 50 win team. Teams 3 and 4 score homecourt against marginal teams. All the top 4 teams advance. Suddenly team 1 is playing team 3, a 59 win team, while team 2 gets the easy ride against a 48 win team. Hardly seems worthwhile winning the conference when the 2nd best team gets gifted the easier series... And before you start spouting off about 'that could never happen' the question must be asked, "why not??" It's not like the draft is set to enhance only teams in a certain division... Only 1 team in the southwest is NOT going to win 50 games this season, and what if the lottery falls there way and the pull off a FA coup by bringing in a big name? IF every team is trying to win, then it's entirely plausible that 1 division could be full of teams in the playoff hunt. Hoepfully Stern corrects the madness soon!
emjohn is correct in his assessment. I believe that you must also include the fact the scheduling is based on the divisions and conferences. I know that for teams outside of your conference you play two games (30 games total). For teams in your divisions you play a total of four games (16 games total). OK that was the easy part...here is where the math gets tricky. Assume that for teams in your conference but not in your division you play against them a total of three games (30 games). That will leave us with six games which are played with those 10 teams not in our division but in our conference. However, I am not sure how they pick these games. I wonder how fair it is? Here are those six games (with opponent in order of current rankings) for a few teams: (Also if the team has a currently a winning record they are in bold) Rockets: Phoenix, Denver, Golden State, Portland, Sacramento and Seattle Hornets: LA Lakers, Utah, Phoenix, Portland, LA Clippers, and Minnesota Spurs: LA Lakers, Utah, Phoenix, Denver, Sacramento, and Minnesota Seems pretty fair to me...
Yea, its sad how we get the toughest division with all but 1 team as a top playoff contender in the west and teams like the lakers get crappy people
