Playoff setup question

[mvpshaq32]

If two teams are tied for a spot in the playoffs, how is the tiebreaker broken? And how is home court advantage decided?

[Indy]

Tiebreaker is the season series against that team. Home court is the team with the better regular season record.

[Matt]

Two-Team Tiebreaker
1. Better record in head-to-head games
2. Higher winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division)
3. Higher winning percentage in conference games
4. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference
5. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in opposite conference
6. Higher point differential between points scored and points allowed

Three-Team Tiebreaker
1. Best head-to-head winning percentage among all teams tied
2. Highest winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division)
3. Highest winning percentage in conference games
4. Highest winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference
5. Highest point differential between points scored and points allowed

[ultimateplaya]

Another Question: Why do either the Cavs or Bulls have to be in the 5th spot for the playoffs if they have better records than Miami or Toronto?

[Amphatoast]

because Miami and Toronto are division champions. Division champions are guaranteed a top 4 seed.

However even though cavs/bulls will be 5th seed, they'll have home court advantage since they'll have a better record than the 4th seed

[maes]

Yeah, the top 4 seeds are automatically the 3 division leaders and then the team w/ the best record out of the remaining playoff teams for that conference.

So you could potentially have a terrible team be a high seed if the entire division is terrible, which is almost the case this year.

They refuse to let that division leader thing go, even though most NBA fans i know (much less casual NBA watchers) have no idea what the divisions are or who's in them.

[Slizz]

Yeah, the top 4 seeds are automatically the 3 division leaders and then the team w/ the best record out of the remaining playoff teams for that conference.

So you could potentially have a terrible team be a high seed if the entire division is terrible, which is almost the case this year.

They refuse to let that division leader thing go, even though most NBA fans i know (much less casual NBA watchers) have no idea what the divisions are or who's in them.

Now I get it that's why Spurs is in third place thx alot

[Andrew]

The rule wasn't so bad when the NBA was only split into four divisions but now that there's three guaranteed playoff berths in each conference and a couple of divisions that boast two or three of the best records in their respective conference, perhaps it is worth considering another revision to the seeding format whereby the six division winners and the five other qualifying teams in each conference are simply seeded by record, first to eighth. I think there still needs to be some sort of incentive for winning the division title and a guaranteed playoff berth without a guaranteed seed seems like a fair compromise.