Current playoff matchups

H

hornpharmd

5,000+ Posts
If season ended today:

1st round playoff matchups (projected)

SA vs. Suns is a very good 1st round matchups. I see LA cruising by Denver, NO knocking off Dallas, Houston/Utah going either way with winner losing next round. Suns have 3-1 regular season advantage and have twice beaten SA in SA....1-1 in Phoenix. Most of the games were close and I think this entire series would be very close as well. Hope we get to see this one.

In the East I see Boston cruising by Atl, Detroit easily by Phila, Cleve by Wash, and likely Orlando by Toronto. Boston vs. Cleveland would be a great 2nd round series. Detroit and Boston are a step above the rest of the East this year but I would not count out Lebron and the Cavs.
 
I was thinking about that while briefly watching the Rockets get hammered last night by Denver.

Had they won, they still had a good shot at third, but I'm not sure that the Suns were a better match for them than the Jazz, since they'll still have home court.

They most likely weren't going to get second anyway, since they would have had to get it outright. Jazz-Lakers, if that's the way it works out, probably is better for them than Suns-Hornets. Just thinking out loud, though.
 
Do "current playoff matchups" mean anything since every day the order of the teams in the West could potentially change?
 
The Lakers clinch #1 by beating Sac at home tonight or NO losing.

The Hornets are #2 if they win one of their last two games (play Clips in NO tonight, @Dal on last day of season); are #1 if they win them both and the Lakers lose. If they lose both, they could end up in the soup with SA, Hou, Utah, and Phx.

Barring a New Orleans meltdown, 3-6 is a clusterfuck between SA, HOU, UTAH, and PHX. Otherwise it's a clusterfuck between those four teams + the Hornets. Houston should beat the Clippers at home, and if they do they clinch #5. The Spurs play the Jazz tomorrow. If the Spurs win, they probably end up #3 and likely play Phoenix. The Suns play Portland at home, and if they win, they also need both the Spurs and Rockets to lose to move up to 4 or 5 respectively. If Utah beats the Spurs, they end up #3 and likely play the Spurs round 1. I think Utah is going to tank in order to play Houston in the first round, even though they would give up homecourt advantage.

#7 and #8 are Dallas and Denver. Dallas can clinch #7 by beating NO on last day of the season or if Denver loses to Memphis at home on Wednesday (not likely, unless Carmello is still hungover). Most likely, you figure the Hornets beat the Clips at home and rest their stars against Dallas. If the Lakers lose to Sacramento, then NO/Dallas becomes pretty interesting -- the Hornets could end up being #1 and would then re-play Dallas in round 1. Of course, it looks like they are going to play Dallas regardless at the 2-7 matchup, unless the Hornets lose both of their last two games.

My head is officially swimming now, but I predict that it stays the way it is now:
1.LA vs. 8.Den
2.NO vs. 7.Dal
3.SA vs. 6.Phx
4.Hou vs. 5.Utah
 
It is really crazy how the 3-6 teams are so closely bunched. I think you have to assume that Phoenix beats Portland at home and Houston beats the Clippers at home. It comes down to the Utah/SA game. If Utah wins, you have a four way tie for 3rd in the conference.

The first tie breaker if more than two teams are tied is the winning percentage against all the teams that are tied. The seeds would break down

3. Utah (7-3)
4. Phoenix (6-5)
5. Houston (5-6)
6. San Antonio (4-8)

Houston would have home court against Phoenix due to superior conference record (series is tied at 2-2). Utah would have home court against SA with 3-1 head to head record.

If San Antonio wins, San Antonio is the three seed and Utah is the four seed despite Phoenix and Houston having better records. Houston has the tie breaker over Phoenix, so they would get the five seed and have home court against Utah.

If Phoenix does manage to lose at home against Portland, and Utah beats SA, Utah, SA and Houston would be tied for third. Utah would be the third seed, Houston would be the fourth seed and SA would be the fifth seed, but SA would have home court advantage by virtue of the superior division record. This is the dream scenario for the Spurs I would think. And yes, my head hurts.
 
Remember Utah is assured at least the 4th seed because they are going to win their division. This has no effect on home court, but just on seedings.
 
so in other words, both utah and sa will tank it tomorrow night in order to avoid the suns in round 1. just depends on who is better at tanking.

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Kind of odd that the Spurs' best scenario is probably falling to 5th place. Unfortunately I don't want them to go into the playoffs playing the crappy basketball required for them to fall to 5th place.
 
Absolutely, wadster. There's no way Utah wants to give up home court. If for some reason Houston loses to the Clips (very unlikely) and SA beats Utah then Spurs-Rockets will be first round. Otherwise Rockets play loser of SA-Utah; winner would get Phoenix.

If Lakers beat Sac tonight then they nail down 1st seed. At that point you wouldn't really expect NO to beat Dallas tomorrow, which would give Mavs 7th and Denver 8th.

If Lakers lose tonight, then NO can gain 1st seed with win over Dallas. Either way Denver beats the Griz and forces Dallas to beat NO as Denver has the tie-breaker.

My head is spinning. More Blue Sapphire, barkeep.

Hook'em!!!
texasflag.gif
 
Lakers beat Sac to nail down #1 seed. NO has tiebreaker on SA to ensure #2. Will be interesting to see how NO and Dallas play tomorrow. A Dallas win willl mean they play each other in Round 1. Sorta like last year when Mavs "rested" against GS in last week of season and ultimately payed for it. Would think Mavs will treat Wed game like it's first game of playoffs...but one never knows...

Hook'em!!!
texasflag.gif
 
LA wins #1 seed. Same matchups and same predictions still hold for now...on both sides.

For West Lakers could end up playing winner or Jazz/Rockets. SA's path could end up being Suns, then NO's, then LA. Good luck with that one. There are no gimme 1st and 2nd round matchups in the west anymore (well except for LA over Nuggets this year).

Boston vs. Cleveland in 2nd round in East as well as Detroit vs. Orlando are very good matchups as well if it plays out that way.
 
I know the Jazz are great at home, but I still think they would rather face the Yao-less Rockets without homecourt than the Spurs with it -- no offense to the Rocket fans. The Spurs waxed them 4-1 last year in the playoffs, including winning Game 2 at SLC. Plus Utah hasn't won in SA since 1999. They have no answer for Duncan. Utah's road woes are exaggerated. They played poorly against the bad teams and lost a bunch of games they shouldn't have lost, but they've played great against the good teams.

On a separate note... Dallas/NO is interesting tonight. If the Hornets win, they likely (pending Denver beating Memphis in Denver) send Dallas to the 8th seed to play the Lakers. NO would play the Nugz in the first round.
 
Houston has no chance against the Jazz if Utah has homecourt advantage. Utah will win a game in Houston and the Rockets won't get within 8 pts at any game end @SLC.

Tmac goes out in Rd 1 again.
 
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