NBA Western Conference Seeding: More Ridiculous Than It Seems

The Western Conference playoff race may be even more ridiculous than you thought. John Flinchbaugh investigates the issue.

by John Flinchbaugh (Scribe)

5

920 reads

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April 14, 2008

NBA, NBA Northwest, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, NBA Playoffs, Arizona Sports, NBA Playoff Push, Breaking News

With two calendar days left in the regular season, most teams only have one game remaining on the schedule. 

Nevertheless, there are a countless number of scenarios that emerge in the Western Conference playoff seeding if certain outcomes in the remaining games took place.  

To minimize confusion, I will first point out the possible ties and the winner of each tiebreaker.  

Lakers > Hornets

Hornets > Spurs, Rockets

Hornets < Jazz

Spurs > Rockets

Jazz/Suns > Spurs 

Rockets > Suns 

Nuggets > Mavericks 

The most eye-catching tiebreak is the one that shows Utah AND Phoenix would each own the tiebreaker over San Antonio.

Consider this scenario: If Utah beats San Antonio Wednesday, Utah would finish ahead of San Antonio.  If this occurs AND Phoenix beats Portland, Phoenix would finish ahead of San Antonio.  If these two outcomes occur AND New Orleans loses their 2 remaining games (to the Clippers and Mavs - I understand, them losing both is very unlikely), then Utah would finish ahead of Phoenix, New Orleans, and San Antonio.  

Thus, it is still possible for the Utah Jazz to finish 2nd.  

A more reasonable scenario would be one that doesn't include New Orleans miraculously losing their last two games.  With Utah and Phoenix victories on Wednesday, the following would occur: 

1) Lakers/Hornets

2) Lakers/Hornets

3) Utah

4) Phoenix

5) San Antonio

6)  Houston

7) Dallas/Denver

8) Dallas/Denver

To see what happens will be very interesting to say the least.  Tomorrow, we will have to see if the Lakers and Hornets take care of business.  If either one slips up, the race becomes even more interesting.  

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comments (5) write a comment »

  1. reply to comment by Robert
    5 months ago

    Oh how the west is wild.

  2. reply to comment by Steve
    5 months ago

    this year will be fun in the west

  3. reply to comment by Matt
    5 months ago

    is there any way Phx could play Houston in the opening round

  4. reply to comment by John
    5 months ago

    i dont believe so...phoenix can't finish higher than utah

  5. reply to comment by Greg
    5 months ago

    I tried figuring this all out too and my brain almost exploded. Turns out San Antonio stomped a mud hole in Utah and all was left moot. Read my article to find out what happens the rest of the way!

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