標題: NBA Playoff Seeding Rule Changed [打印本頁] 作者: Chenjinnan 時間: 2006-8-10 03:05 PM 標題: NBA Playoff Seeding Rule Changed
Speaking of rules, the league officially changed its playoff seeding format last week, looking to avoid the controversy of a year ago when the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks met in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs despite having the conference's best records.
The new format awards the top four seeds in each conference to the three division winners plus the best overall second-place team, with each seed based on record. (Seeds five through eight are then given to the teams with the remaining four best records). In other words, Dallas would have been the two seed last season, ahead of the division-winning Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets, despite finishing second behind San Antonio in the Southwest Division.
The news comes a little late for the Spurs, who were knocked out by Dallas in an epic seven-game series when perhaps they should have been pitted against a weaker team. Still, the change is better late than never.
The new rule should avert most future controversies, although in theory there could be two second-place teams that win 50-plus games, relegating one of them to a fifth seed. The league felt it was important, though, to reward each division winner with at least a top four seed, and it would probably take an extraordinary set of circumstances to see the type of controversy we saw a year ago.
