Official Seedings Thread

[TampaDude]

Let's have New Orleans lose their last 2 games and make it a 5 way tie! Figure that one out!

[DarrinS]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slu...yhoo&type=lgns



WESTERN CONFERENCE

1. Lakers – Have clinched Pacific Division le and will be No. 1 or 2 seed.
• Clinch No. 1 seed with win or Hornets loss.


2. Hornets – Will be No. 1 through 3 seed.
• Clinch No. 1 seed with two wins and Lakers loss.
• Clinch No. 2 seed and Southwest Division le with win or Spurs loss.


3. Spurs – Will be No. 2 through 6 seed.
• Clinch No. 2 seed and Southwest Division le with win and two Hornets losses.
• Clinch No. 3 seed with win.
• Clinch No. 4 seed with Suns loss.
• Clinch No. 5 seed with Rockets loss.

4. Jazz – Have clinched Northwest Division le and will be No. 2, 3, or 4 seed.
• Clinch No. 2 seed with win and two Hornets losses.
• Clinch No. 3 seed with win.

5. Rockets – Will be No. 5 or 6 seed.
• Clinch No. 5 seed and home-court advantage in first round with win and Jazz loss.
• Clinch No. 5 seed with win or Suns loss.

6. Suns – Will be No. 4 through 6 seed.
• Clinch No. 4 seed with win and Spurs loss.
• Clinch No. 5 seed with win and Rockets loss.

7. Mavericks – Will be No. 7 or 8 seed.
• Clinch No. 7 seed with win or Nuggets loss.

8. Nuggets – Will be No. 7 or 8 seed.
• Clinch No. 7 seed with win and Mavericks loss

[Spuradicator]

Screw it, we'll play who we play AND win!

[TampaDude]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slu...yhoo&type=lgns



WESTERN CONFERENCE

1. Lakers – Have clinched Pacific Division le and will be No. 1 or 2 seed.
• Clinch No. 1 seed with win or Hornets loss.


2. Hornets – Will be No. 1 through 3 seed.
• Clinch No. 1 seed with two wins and Lakers loss.
• Clinch No. 2 seed and Southwest Division le with win or Spurs loss.


3. Spurs – Will be No. 2 through 6 seed.
• Clinch No. 2 seed and Southwest Division le with win and two Hornets losses.
• Clinch No. 3 seed with win.
• Clinch No. 4 seed with Suns loss.
• Clinch No. 5 seed with Rockets loss.

4. Jazz – Have clinched Northwest Division le and will be No. 2, 3, or 4 seed.
• Clinch No. 2 seed with win and two Hornets losses.
• Clinch No. 3 seed with win.

5. Rockets – Will be No. 5 or 6 seed.
• Clinch No. 5 seed and home-court advantage in first round with win and Jazz loss.
• Clinch No. 5 seed with win or Suns loss.

6. Suns – Will be No. 4 through 6 seed.
• Clinch No. 4 seed with win and Spurs loss.
• Clinch No. 5 seed with win and Rockets loss.

7. Mavericks – Will be No. 7 or 8 seed.
• Clinch No. 7 seed with win or Nuggets loss.

8. Nuggets – Will be No. 7 or 8 seed.
• Clinch No. 7 seed with win and Mavericks loss

LMFAO...the Spurs could still be 2nd seed and face the Nuggets in the first round...again...not likely, but still mathematically possible...

[Mitch Cumsteen]

The Jazz are going to tank the last game to draw Houston. Even as ty as the Spurs have been playing and even though they would give up home court advantage in the first round, there is no way in Utah would rather face the Spurs than the Rockets without Yao. EVERYBODY in the West has been trying to figure out a way to play Houston in the first round, and Utah can clinch it by tanking against the Spurs. Utah hasn't won in SA in a hundred years. The Spurs and Jazz both know the Spurs can win in Salt Lake in the playoffs -- they did it last year. If there is any team that won't be phased by having to play in Utah on the road, it's the Spurs. Figure it out -- would you like to play the defending champs when you have no answer for Tim Duncan (who has owned your ass for over a decade) or play the Rockets with no inside presence.

Why on earth would the Jazz want to play the Spurs instead of the Rockets, regardless of homecourt advantage?

[YoMamaIsCallin]

Here is raw data.

Team	Seed	W	L	Lft	Magic	TB	H2H	H2H lft	Div W	Div L	Conf W	Conf L	Remaining Games
Lakers	1	56	25	1	0	Lost	2 - 2	0			36	15	SAC
Hornets	2	55	25	2	-1	Lost	2 - 2	0	10	5	33	17	LAC, @DAL
Spurs	3	55	26	1	n/a	n/a		0	10	6	32	19	UTA
Jazz	4	54	27	1	1	Lost	1 - 2	1			33	18	@SAS
Rockets	5	54	27	1	0	Won	2 - 2	0	8	8	32	19	LAC
Suns	6	54	27	1	1	Lost	1 - 3	0			30	21	POR
Mavs	7	50	31	1	0	Won	3 - 1	0	9	6	32	19	NOH
notes:
TB:  tiebreak vs. Spurs.  "Lost" means Spurs have lost tiebreak, "Won" means Spurs have won tiebreak.  
Note:  this is only 2-way tiebreak, 3-way and greater tiebreaks are different.
H2H:  head-to-head record.  H2H lft:  H2H games left.
updated through 4/14 games
Jazz have clinched the NW division and no worse than a 4 seed.  
Lakers own the tiebreak against the Hornets.

Head-to-head records for teams that could be in a tiebreak together:

Lakers vs:
NOH 3-1
SAS 2-2

Hornets vs:
SAS 2-2
UTA 1-3
HOU 2-2
PHO 4-0

Spurs vs:
UTA 1-2 with 1 game left
HOU 2-2
PHO 1-3

Jazz vs:
HOU 2-1
PHO 2-1

Rockets vs:
PHO 2-2

[xtremesteven33]

The Jazz are going to tank the last game to draw Houston. Even as ty as the Spurs have been playing and even though they would give up home court advantage in the first round, there is no way in Utah would rather face the Spurs than the Rockets without Yao. EVERYBODY in the West has been trying to figure out a way to play Houston in the first round, and Utah can clinch it by tanking against the Spurs. Utah hasn't won in SA in a hundred years. The Spurs and Jazz both know the Spurs can win in Salt Lake in the playoffs -- they did it last year. If there is any team that won't be phased by having to play in Utah on the road, it's the Spurs. Figure it out -- would you like to play the defending champs when you have no answer for Tim Duncan (who has owned your ass for over a decade) or play the Rockets with no inside presence.

Why on earth would the Jazz want to play the Spurs instead of the Rockets, regardless of homecourt advantage?

i bet no one can tank a game like pop, pull another vaughn and satudemire duo haha.....wednesday night will not be fight to win but a fight to tank....should be fun either way haha...

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

awesome to know the Nuggets wont see the Spurs in the 1st round. Lakers/Hornets or Spurs would beatdown the Nuggets, but its nice for a change of scenery lol

[td4mvp21]

I'm hoping the Spurs win on Wednesday, the Suns win, and the Rockets lose. The Rockets probably won't lose but that's the best case scenario for the Spurs IMO.

[td4mvp21]

All other teams aside, the Spurs just need to win Wednesday. Get the third seed and play whoever with homecourt advantage. We may end up playing the Suns but its better than playing the Suns or Jazz without homecourt advantage.

[YoMamaIsCallin]

I don't think Utah (who win its division) could be a part of a three of four teams tie. If jazz, Spurs, Suns and Rockets are tied, a first tie breaker will happen between Spurs, Suns and Rockets. The winner of this tiebreaker (Suns) will have a head to head tie breaker with Utah to decide who will be third and who will be fourth. Utah has the Tie breaker over Phoenix and will be third.

I think that's an incorrect interpretation of the tiebreak rules. It never says anything about division winners getting special tiebreak treatment like this. It does say that IF a tiebreak is needed to resolve a division winner, THEN that tiebreak occurs first, BUT it is not otherwise applied. In this case (Jazz/Spurs/Suns/Rockets all finish with identical records) the Hornets would have won the division thus it doesn't enter in. No division les to contest.

It would go like this: look at the ulative head-to-head records among the four teams. This completely breaks the tie, and it would be:

UTA #3 (7-3 in ulative record)
PHO #4 (6-5)
HOU #5 (5-6)
SAS #6 (4-8)

However, Houston would have HCA against Phoenix because they own the head-to-head tiebreak, even though they finish behind in the 4-way tiebreak. Bizarre but true.

Now you want a really crazy one? Five-way tie among NOH (loses 2 games), SAS (loses to UTA), UTA, HOU (wins 1 game) and PHO (wins 1 game). ALl have identical 55-27 records. What happens here?

First we figure out who won the Southwest Division, among Hornets, Spurs, and Rockets. This is a three-way tiebreak so we check ulative head-to-head. This is completely tied, so next check is division record. Hornets and Spurs tie (because Hornets lost to Dallas). Next is conference record and Hornets win that. So Hornets win the division.

Next we do the 5-way tiebreak with ulative scores. That, amazingly, completely breaks the tie as follows:

UTA #2 10-4
NOH #3 9-7
HOU #4 7-8
PHO #5 6-9
SAS #6 6-10

So the Spurs get to play the Hornets in the first round. And Utah actually gets the #2 spot and plays Dallas.

Is any media out there reporting that Utah could still get #2?

[Bruno]

I think that's an incorrect interpretation of the tiebreak rules. It never says anything about division winners getting special tiebreak treatment like this.

What would you've done if the tie-breaker between Spurs, Suns, jazz and rockets had put Utah in the 5th or 6th seed ?

It's not logical at all to do a tie-breaker with Utah that could put them 5th or 6th.

[adidas11]

I think I get it now. You have to go with a "overall record against the other multiple teams that you're tied record-wise with" approach, in order to avoid a circular logic in determining the seedings. That actually makes perfect sense.

You can't have a 'Team A won head to head vs Team B', then 'Team B won head to head against Team C', but then 'Team C won head to head vs Team A' kind of thing.

Sort of like A > B > C > A That doesn't work.

And then, as far as HCA is concerned, that's simple. Now you're down to the two individual teams, and you just look at each other's record. In the case of a tie, then you go with head to head (as at this point, you're only looking at the two teams in question)

Anyhow, this just goes to illustrate what kind of cluster the western conference is.

[YoMamaIsCallin]

What would you've done if the tie-breaker between Spurs, Suns, jazz and rockets had put Utah in the 5th or 6th seed ?

See here.

You may be right. I think you'd need a lawyer to read these rules.

You could certainly interpret it as "Even if Utah is in a N-way tie with other teams in other divisions, they don't participate in the N-way tiebreak equation, because they already have a 1-4 seed."

Or you could go the other way. I'm just not sure.

[FearDaFro]

You guys do realize you are debating semantics...

With or without the jazz in the tiebreaker, the result is exactly the same.

Hypothetically, I agree there could have a been a real problem. But by fate it won't be a problem this year.

[Budkin]

Go for the 3rd seed with HCA over the Suns. Why the is everyone afraid of the Suns?

[adidas11]

Go for the 3rd seed with HCA over the Suns. Why the is everyone afraid of the Suns?

Answer: Shaq

[Allanon]

Answer: Shaq

AND1

Answer: Shaq + Amare + Diaw

Defense:
Spurs can't defend one without getting killed by the other due to lack of size.


Offense:
Shaq stops Duncan from going down low
Manu gets contained by Raja (ala Kobe)
Tony is suicidal trying to drive in on Shaq and Amare

Spurs become a jumpshooting team whilst Barry is still questionable, Ime's 3 is inconsistent, Horry can't hit the game winner. KT doesn't bother Amare because he's on the outside shooting jumpshots.

Bowen defensively is wasted guarding Nash since he can't stop Nash from driving and Nash isn't looking to score 30.

ShaqSuns are the perfect answer to DuncanSpurs. There is no X-Factor that I know of.

Suns don't matchup well against other teams with multiple talented bigs like Hornets, Lakers, Utah.

[pad300]

Some nice fellow at truehoop worked through all the possible playoff scenarios:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/...musements.html

Here's SA's

SA:

2nd if 56-26 and NO loses both games (Play DAL or DEN)

3rd if 56-26 and NO wins at least 1 game (Play PHO or HOU)

4th if 55-27, since UTA would also be 55-27, but only if NO ends up 55-27 and both HOU and PHO lose (Play HOU)

5th if same as above, but HOU or PHO also go 55-27 (Play HOU or PHO)

6th if same as above, and both HOU and PHO go 55-27 (See Biggest Tie) (Play NO)

6th if 55-27 and NO wins at least one, and PHO and HOU win (Play UTA)

So long as we avoid the 6 spot (UTA/NO w/0 HCA), I'm happy with our 1st round match up ... Therefore, win against the Jazz if we can.

[Budkin]

Answer: Shaq

Shaq is nowhere near the monster he used to be and Timmy held his own against him even in his prime.

[Horry For 3!]

Hornets won today so they have the #2 seed for sure, have a chance at #1.

That means Spurs have to win tomorrow against the Jazz to be the #3 seed.

[Ice009]

my god, the Spurs must avoid the Suns

There's no place for pussy like this. You win and then play who you have to. If you're that scared you may as well go home now.

Whoever we have to play you PLAY ALL OUT AND LEAVE IT ALL ON THE FLOOR. If you leave it all out on the floor you can walk away knowing you did all that you could. That's the only way to do it.

[Horry For 3!]

Looks like Lakers fixin to lock up the #1 seed.

So we have...

1 Lakers
2 Hornets
3 ?
4 ?
5 ?
6 ?
7 Mavs/Nuggets
8 Nuggets/Mavs