Lakers hold tiebreaker against Celtics
As the playoffs come closer, scoreboard watching now makes sense. At the current time, the Boston Celtics (50-19) are in second place in the Eastern Conference, 1/2 game behind the Chicago Bulls (51-19). The Celtics are also third in the NBA, behind only the Bulls and the NBA-leading San Antonio Spurs (57-13), mere percentage points ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers (51-20).
A win over the Bulls in the teams’ final meeting (Thursday, April 7) would give the Celtics a 3-1 series advantage and clinch the tiebreaker should the two teams meet in the playoffs. But the Celtics have already lost the tiebreaker against the Lakers. (OC Register)
Because the Lakers split the regular-season series with both Chicago and Boston, the next tiebreaker for NBA Finals home-court advantage is each team’s record against the opposing conference.
The Lakers are done facing Eastern Conference teams and are 21-9 against them. The Celtics are 17-10 so far against the West, which means they can’t catch the Lakers. But the Bulls are 20-7 with three likely victories still left against West teams: vs. Memphis on Friday, at Minnesota on March 30 and vs. Phoenix on April 5.
If the Lakers and Bulls both finish with 21-9 records against the opposing conference, the next tiebreaker would be … a random drawing! Crazy.
If the Lakers tie with Miami, which is 2 1/2 games behind the Lakers, the Heat would have home-court advantage in that NBA Finals matchup as a result of winning both head-to-head games with the Lakers.
For the East-West tiebreaker to be relevant (and for the Lakers really to lament that three-game pre-All-Star skid in Orlando, Charlotte and Cleveland), the Lakers would obviously have to finish the regular season tied with Chicago or Boston. Both the Bulls and Celtics have relatively balanced remaining schedules with regard to home-road and winning-losing teams. The Lakers have a home-heavy schedule (seven of 11 remaining games) but face mostly winning teams (eight of 11 remaining games).
To earn home-court advantage against the Lakers in a possible Finals rematch, the Celtics will need to beat them by at least one game. How important is that one game? Well, you remember last year, don’t you? And you see the Lakers resembling a bulldozer while surging through the Western Conference, right? And you saw the news of Tim Duncan’s injury, no? The Lakers are the clear-cut favorites to win the Western Conference, at least in “the NBA world according to me.” Which means home-court advantage against them could mean the difference between life and death–err, winning and losing an NBA championship.
Earning home-court advantage against the Bulls is obviously crucial. But let’s not forget, doing the same against the Lakers could prove just as important.
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Celtics Blog | Jay King | March 23, 2011
See why showing up every night, especially vs the sub .500 teams, means so much and why I bitch about it so much. Just going to have to run the table or at least win one more than the Lakers. Go Cs…
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James: I just got on here to say the same exact thing. The recent losses to New Jersey and the Clippers are inexcusable. Earlier in the season, I can forgive a letdown now and then, but by now, they should have been taking every game seriously.
The Bulls are destroying opponents right now. The C’s are still coming out half asleep.
It’s very frustrating.
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Jay: On another topic, I was watching NBA TV earlier this week. I don’t know who the announcers were (ex-jocks) but they were saying the C’s have lost their swagger and confidence since they lost KP. “Supposedly” there are scouts in the league who know this.
Do you believe this to be true? I caught the tail end of the segment. Have you heard anything similar?
If we face the Lakers, we will miss KP. Krystic is horrible on defense defending the lane. Let’s be honest. I’m 5-10, 42 years old, with white man’s disease, and I’m confident that I could score a layup on him. Plus I have far more hair and actually look younger than that poor bastard (but he’s got far more money and a much better looking wife I’m sure)
But seriously, what has the loss of KP done to the team’s psyche? Rondo finally admitted it’s been hard on him. As much as I want to move on beyond the trade, I still believe it was a mistake, as much as I’ve tried to believe otherwise.
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@Chris H
I thought Bill Simmons and Steve Kerr had a great take on the trade. Fast forward to about the 50-minute mark. They miss him, but it will be tough to tell if the trade’s right until the season’s over.
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/player?rd=1#/podcenter/?callsign=ESPNRADIO&autoplay=1&id=6244586
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