If Rocks lose and Portland wins 2 games where they're favored, then Rockets will host the Jazz. If Rockets win, they'll most likely put OKC into the 8th spot. I don't know what the probabilities are, and at this point there are still too many scenarios to make dependable assumptions (like the Lakers not beating LAC and Utah back to back).
Using these tiebreaker procedures, here is the outcome of a 3 way tie between OKC/SA/LAC: 1. No Teams are Division Leaders. 2. Winning % In all games amongst tied teams: SA (4-3) LAC (4-4) OKC (3-4) Looks like it would be #6 SA, #7 LAC, #8 OKC.
Utah is in an interesting spot: They have an outside shot at moving up to the #4 seed, but they still need to win one of their last 2 games to lock up that #5 seed. OKC is the only team that could pass them up and would need to win their last 2 games while Utah loses 2 games. UTH/DEN starts at 8pm on Tuesday, while OKC/HOU starts at 8:30pm, so Utah will have to play under the assumption that they need to win. Utah is 2-1 against Denver so far this year. Will that be enough motivation to beat Denver at home on Tuesday night? We'll see... Edited: Utah CAN get to #4, they own the tiebreaker with Portland (thx @heypartner), so there's plenty of incentive for Utah to win on Tuesday against Denver.
Putting this here, too. Utah holds tiebreaker over Portland, but obviously requires 2-0 and 0-2 finishes to get 4th seed...unlikely.
Pretty much. We still wont know who we will face probably until the last game with how the bottom 3 are so close.
Putting this in two spots... We're having the same convo in two threads lol. Head to head is 2-2 and Portland has a better division record by 3 games. Portland has the tiebreaker I think. Edit: Sorry, was looking at the wrong column. heyp is right, Utah has the better division record and owns the tiebreaker.
Utah is losing on purpose. They don't necessarily want the No.4 seed, they just want to play Portland in first round, homecourt advantage or not, it doesn't matter. They need one more win to lock an at least No.5 seed, which is unfavorable for them given there is still a small chance that the Rockets will fall to the No.4 seed. So they lost to the Lakers purposely to maintain the flexibility to choose No.5 or No. 6 seed depending on the result of the Rockets-Thunder game. If Rockets lose to Thunder, they will lose the next two games and go to No. 6 seed, this is actually their best scenario because they can avoid the two best teams in the NBA before WCF(Thunder will need to win the game against the Bucks, because otherwise they will go to No.8 seed. And since Bucks already locked No.1 seed in the NBA, there is a good chance they rest their main guys in that game). Since their next game against the Nugget starts earlier than the Rockets-Thunder game, I believe they are going to lose on purpose to the Nuggets. If the Rockets win, they'll need to beat the Clippers. When Denver decided to rest their main players and lose to Portland on purpose, I didn't realize that they already knew that if they do that, Jazz would start losing on purpose as well. So Denver isn't really taking any risks at all. I must say this is a smart move.
From the odds, the most likely scenario is Rockets #3 seed, and plays #6 seed Spurs in the first round. http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/rocketsstandings.html
I made a mistake. If Rockets beat Thunder, Jazz will be 5th seed whether they beat Clippers or not. So that's even better for them.
Denver's ideal scenario would be them holding the #2 and Houston falling to #4. To achieve that they will try to (and should) defeat Utah and Wolves. Utah wants Portland, so want to stay #5 or drop to #6 depending on Houston/Portland. To achieve this, they would lose their last 2 games. Ideally, they want Portland #3, so if Rockets lose, Utah will drop to #6 (putting GSW, OKC and Rockets in same bracket unless OKC loses last game)and if Rockets win they stay #5 and get Portland (and OKC likely drops to #8).
ain’t worried about any of the teams below us in the West or Denver OKC has the most high-end talent and is the most bipolar, but they have their record for a reason...can’t shoot, not an efficient offense, defense been slipping...they’re not hard to scout...their reputation exceeds their actual playoff performance I remember many on CF being scared of them in 16-17, and we beat them in 5...they lost to a rookie led Utah last year this year we beat them at home without CP3, and then even tho we lost our last game against them, let’s not forget that we were up by 26 at 1 point without Capela...Paul George is no longer that dude who is dropping 45 points as a legitimate MVP candidate, and Russ is just a brick layer
OKC is going to lose to HOU and MIL and drop down where they belong as the bottom feeders of the playoffs. There theym will soon realize they aren't big enough to rise up and gulp down the Warriors, who are too much to chew. They will only be able to leave a few marks at best as they nibble and nip to no avail.
This is how I see it happening. Denver isn't giving Utah that win and take a chance facing the Spurs instead of the Clippers. OKC isn't going to beat Houston or Milwaukee, but are going to give it their all to avoid playing the Warriors first round. GSW 58-24 DEN 55-27 HOU 54-28 POR 53-29 UTA 50-32 SAS 48-34 LAC 47-35 OKC 47-35 I actually thought SAS would climb up to 5th spot a month ago, and Utah take 6th, but predicted the rest seeded like this just because of the strength of schedules toward the end. I still believe it will be a Texas shoot-out at the H-Town Corral first round and the Spurs will dig into our butts, but they won't have the firepower as our 6 shooters take them down.
Let's beat OKC because winning is fun, and beating Westbrook is especially fun. Let all these bastids collude to get the seeding they want, they can't run away from us forever.
This OKC game will tell us a lot about the season. It will determine if we are the 2/3 seed or the 4 seed.
We are the better team. Knock em down and ensure we don't serve Golden State the Clippers on a silver platter to chew up and spit out. OKC would be better served to at least make them have to chew their food a little longer before making a meal of them
We need to beat OKC and get hope clippers and spurs handle their business to push OKC down to the 8th seed.
One thing that kind of worries me is there were times when James was doubled at the top, and it kind of made the whole offense appear in a bit of a panic mode.. multiple players running to the same spot.. PJ tucker running towards Harden away from the three point line to bail him out and get ball out of his hands.. almost as him there is no planned strategy for a hard double on Harden... I am surprised because we should have schemes for this scenario.. Don't get me wrong when we had CP3 and EG we were rolling, cause harden can pass it to them, and they have enough speed and creativity to get the 4 on 3 damage done.. But for the 8 minutes in the first and third quarter when both Paul and EG go out together for House and Shump, we didn't look in sync. Especially Tucker running towards the mid court line to get the ball, obviously defense would easily be able to get back in place. we need to limit the amount of minutes that Harden has alone and some how ensure we have two ball handlers on the court at all times... We also need to make sure we either have House or PJ, if not both as they are the only 40-42% 3 point shooters we have. Also PJ needs to just take corner shots..
