WC 8th place is probably going to be a battle between MIN, HOU, LAL:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/standi...l&seasontype=2

And season records, on average, DO mean very big for the playoffs. Somebody could look it up, but I would say that the NBA champion comes from the Top4 seeds in either conference much more often than not.

It's a Cinderella myth that the players and fans fool themselves with, aided by NBA marketing buzz interested in filling seats and selling ads, that "getting into the playoffs" in 5-8 position means you have as good a chance as seeds 1-4 of winning the le.

"anything can happen" in the playoffs, but it rarely does for seeds 5-8, in the NBA. 4 series of 7 games make it very difficult for Cinderella teams to win the le, compared with the NFL where 1 mistake in one game can take you out.

Does anybody know of a histogram of NBA les won by 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 seeds?