Who knows, but the head to head, tie breaker leaves room for interpretation when three teams or more are tied. It could be singular head to head to determine the tie breaker. or 3 teams or more finish with the same record. Therefore who ever has the better head to head record between the three teams is the higher seed. IMO second scenario makes more logic.
Why? You could look at every teams schedule and say the same thing. Over the course of the year teams lose to teams they shouldn't. Things like this happen.
If we lose at home to Utah, with HCA at stake, then we aren't ready to be a playoff team. Blazers will come out of this game confident, as they slaughter the hottest team in the NBA, or they will be gravely disappointed, which will hopefully lead to change. I just don't want them to sit in the middle.
It's really confusing. Let's say #8 seed actually won its season series vs the #1 seed. Would the #8 team have HCA in that series? Why does this reversion to h2h only apply to HCA in tiebreaker situations? Makes very little sense.
No, H2H only comes into play if teams have the same record. #1 would have home court even if they were 0-4 against #8.
But the Head to Head wouldn't matter with teams tied in further series. Lets say 3 teams tied with the same record. If those teams faced each other in round 2 or 3 the head to head doesn't matter, only the seed.
Not a single outcome tonight affects whether or not we would have HCA in round 2. If we are the 3 seed we'd need the 7th seed to beat the 2nd seed to have HCA in round 2. If we are the 4th or 5th seed we'd need the 8th seed to upset the 1st seed to have HCA in round 2.
The reason no one can find clarification is because the NBA made it so no clarification was needed. Seeding is determined by tiebreakers. HCA is determined by seeding. It really is that simple since the new seeding rules came into play.
I believe that the thinking goes that if the Blazers get the 3rd seed, with the Warriors banged up there's at least a fair chance that a team like the Thunder could take a series from them and end up facing the Blazers in the 2nd round. As crappy as the Blazers have been playing of late, I can't get worked up enough to even fantasize about that prospect.
That's what I'm saying, it is that way now. I don't know why everyone keeps referencing 3 years ago when the rules were different.
