With the Pistons locked into the No. 2 seed, it’s clear that the only thing left to play for is guaranteeing home court advantage should they advance to the NBA Finals. This obviously entails finishing with a better record than any team in the West, which, for the moment, means the Pistons are watching the scoreboard every time the Hornets take the court. As things stand right now, both teams are tied with a 55-23 record.
What happens if things stay this way and they finish with identical records? I’ve already been asked this question a few times over email, so I figured I’d remind everyone what the NBA’s tie-breaker scenarios are: (Update: In hindsight, the more I dig, the more I think I whiffed on this explanation. Head to head is definitely the first tie-breaker, but the rest of these only apply to conference foes — and in the case of No. 2, division foes. So what’s the real answer? I’m working on it.)
- Head to head record.
- Division record.
- Conference record.
- Record against playoff teams in own conference.
- Record against playoff teams in the opposite conference.
- Point differential for the entire season.
So how do the Pistons stand against the Hornets? I could have stopped with the first tie-breaker: Detroit is 2-0 against the Hornets this year. There are three teams sitting just two games in back of the Hornets with four games left to play. It’s unlikely they’ll overtake the Hornets, but just in case they do, here’s where Detroit stands:
San Antonio Spurs: Pistons swept the season series, win the tie-breaker.
Los Angeles Lakers: Pistons and Lakers split the season series. Pistons have a .666 (10-5) winning percentage against division; Lakers, .714 (10-4). The Pistons have just one division game left (@ Cleveland in the season finale), while the Lakers have two (”@” Clippers tonight; Sacramento in the season finale). Conference record is also too close to call (Detroit is 34-15; Lakers, 33-15). This is one to watch.
Houston Rockets: Pistons and Rockets split the season series, but the Rockets are just 8-8 in their division, so the Pistons would win this tie-breaker.
Phoenix Suns: The Suns are 2.5 games behind the Hornets, but just to be thorough I’ll point out that the Pistons swept the season series, thus winning a hypothetical tie-breaker.
Utah Jazz: Sitting three games back, there’s almost no chance that the Jazz can pull ahead of the Hornets, which is good considering they swept the season series against Detroit.
So there it is: the Pistons still control their own destiny in terms of home court advantage.
To be honest, though, I’m not sure how important home court really is for the NBA Finals. While the first three rounds of the playoffs use a 2-2-1-1-1 format (with the better seed getting Games 1-2, 5 and 7), the Finals still use a 2-3-2 format. There are advantages and disadvantages to both scenarios, but I honestly think I’d prefer playing three straight at home, even if that means opening the series on the road.
I would like to see Detroit have a possible game 7 against San Antonio, Utah, or Los Angeles. The rest of the teams I feel are less of a danger. So as long as they tie almost every team in the Western for record, they got the tiebreaker?
agreed, though they’d have to show some serious mettle to make it to the finals, i still don’t think we’d need home court advantage to take the hornets.
The only teams that scare me are Los Angeles, Boston and maybe Utah and San Antonio (they look bad right now).
I think there’s one more thing to play for though. That’s determining our first round opponent. Which the games against Washington and Toronto will have a bearing on.
I think Toronto’s a sweep, whereas Philly and Washington should be able to win one game.
i want to keep washington in that 5 spot. let boston and cleveland deal with them. even with arenas not 100%, butler and jamison are both headaches.
and i don’t want to say eddie jordan would coach circles around flip, but, er, i guess i just said it.
Sorry, but this isn’t accurate. First, the best-record-in-the-division tiebreacker only applies if the two teams are in the same division. Second, there’s no indication that the tiebreakers listed above apply to the NBA finals. They are definitely for conference standings, but not necessarily between conferences. I’m sure the West winner will complain if the Pistons win due to a better conference record.
My guess is that if it’s Pistons-Lakers, they’ll use head-to-head point differential.
Matt: I think you’re probably right. Not 100% positive about the head-to-head point differential, but yeah, the more I look, the more I realize those other tie-breakers are just for conference stuff.
I believe that the Pistons are in a great spot in the East at #2, and will be in an even better spot if as many teams as possible overtake them in the West. And as of now, only Dallas and Denver can not do that.
Detroit needs that 3-game stand in the Finals. It worked in 2004, and if not for Big Shot Rob, it would have worked in 2005.
Being the 2nd seed in the East is wonderful for Detroit because it gives them a little bit easier road to the ECF, plus they’ll be major underdogs to Boston (or whoever magically beats Boston.) And we all know Detroit likes an underdog status.
The West is going to be such an awesome slug-fest. I can’t wait.
When did Elton Brand come back?
a few games ago. can’t figure out why they’d want to play him for the last 10 games of a lost season. i sort of assume elton wants to show other teams he’s healthy in case he decides to opt out and become a FA. though i don’t know if i’d want to leave 16 million on the table. even if it meant playing for the clippers another year.
Celtics.
I’m OK with being the #2 seed, but I’d still rather be the #1 seed. The only reason the #2 seed is good is because we have a problem with being overconfident. That’s the players own fault. If you’re not mentally approaching the game the right way then who’s to blame?
Right now, the main thing for me is I really don’t want to have to beat the Celtics with them having home court THEN have to beat SA or LA where they have home court. At least we know that IF we get to the ECFs, the Celtics will grab our attention. There won’t be any excuses this year, unless Orlando or Philly beat us. Even then… what can you say?
It’d be nice to finish the season on a winning streak and not have to worry about home court against the West.
off the subject
watched alex aker play against maccabi tel aviv
in short - we don’t need him and he has nothing to offer
he plays for barca and was basically a non factor
As to being the number 2 seed, I thought getting Orlando as opposed to the Cavs was a bigger plus than “not being overconfident.” Although Orlando is playing well, and the Cavs seem a bit banged up.
I would like to have home court advantage in a possible Finals matchup, but I would rather (i) have everyone healthy, especially Rip; (ii) have Flip come up with some good ideas for a playoff rotation; and (iii) most importantly, get through the first two rounds of the playoffs relatively quickly (4-0, 4-1).
Ya, I don’t want to see Cleveland any time soon… but I’m thinking the Bullets will beat Cleveland. Cleveland is pretty beat up, and Washington is looking for revenge. This goes back to their series 2 years ago where Washington choked away 2 overtime games. Since then Cleveland has been pretty smug against the Bullets and it irritates the hell out of any Bullet that played in that series. I would LOVE to see the Cavs bounced in round 1. With everyone healthy Washington is a major threat and could give Boston more a run for their money than Cleveland.
AH, MCCRAPSTICKS.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3341664
Rot in hell, Milwaukee!
It doesn’t matter who Boston faces. They are going to sweep their way into the ECF the way the Heat did the year the Pistons beat them.