Analysis The Race for Home-Court Advantage - 25/26 Playoffs Seed Tracker

Will the Spurs get HCA in the '25-26 Playoffs?

  • Total voters
    68
NotRobDiaz21 said:
Yeah, we're getting Denver in the 2nd round :st-lol:
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On the flip side… Utah absolutely wants to try to land top 4, and since SAC will almost certainly lose to POR (who will be trying to win) they need to lose to stay tied and split the #4 odds with SAC.

They did try to tank against MEM, but still managed to win by 46 :st-lol:

Here are our tank heroes for tomorrow versus the Lakers. I believe in Spurs Legend Kennedy Chandler.

1775965716272.webp
 
scott said:
On the flip side… Utah absolutely wants to try to land top 4, and since SAC will almost certainly lose to POR (who will be trying to win) they need to lose to stay tied and split the #4 odds with SAC.

They did try to tank against MEM, but still managed to win by 46 :st-lol:

Here are our tank heroes for tomorrow versus the Lakers. I believe in Spurs Legend Kennedy Chandler.

View attachment 1622
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Hopefully he comes in clutch...or not clutch :st-lol:
 
scott said:
On the flip side… Utah absolutely wants to try to land top 4, and since SAC will almost certainly lose to POR (who will be trying to win) they need to lose to stay tied and split the #4 odds with SAC.

They did try to tank against MEM, but still managed to win by 46 :st-lol:

Here are our tank heroes for tomorrow versus the Lakers. I believe in Spurs Legend Kennedy Chandler.

View attachment 1622
Click to expand...
Ace Bailey bout to go for 50 tbh.
 
Seventyniner said:
Then why did the Lakers try so hard to beat the Suns? Was it a case of one team had to win the game?
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Lakers have a slightly better chance against the T'Pups than the Rockets imo (they still get swept by either without Doncic). Marcus Smart in theory could limit Ant a bit.
 
scott said:
At this point, I think that DEN and LAL have both made the obvious decision that they’d rather take on HOU than MIN
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I doubt it. I think Denver is prioritising health after suffering all season. And so wants to let the chips fall as it may in game 82. Not wanting to risk injury to any of its players. They rested Jokic for the same reason in Game 81 and I suspect will field him for 15 or 20 min in Game 82 for qualifying for the awards.

Lakers will prefer to go 3rd as well as Minny is also somewhat banged up (McDaniels and a gimpy Edwards) giving them a better chance than a healthy but flawed Rockets. But even they might rest LeBron as they don't want any complication for their only remaining playmaker.

Utah showed it's hand in the Memphis tank battle, I think. They are going to field an absolutely tanktastic lineup in Game 82. I expect the Lakers to win this.

The Spurs should rest Wemby, Vassell and Kornet, methinks. Too dangerous to trot Wemby with a bruised rib. With Castle, Harper and Fox in ..they will still be with a good chance to win against the Nugs without Murray, Gordon, Cam, Spencer, Watson and Braun.
 
scott said:
On the flip side… Utah absolutely wants to try to land top 4, and since SAC will almost certainly lose to POR (who will be trying to win) they need to lose to stay tied and split the #4 odds with SAC.

They did try to tank against MEM, but still managed to win by 46 :st-lol:

Here are our tank heroes for tomorrow versus the Lakers. I believe in Spurs Legend Kennedy Chandler.

View attachment 1622
Click to expand...
Full on tanking Memphis is still worse than this iteration of the lakers even if LeBron sits tbh
 
Seventyniner said:
Then why did the Lakers try so hard to beat the Suns? Was it a case of one team had to win the game?
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It’s a great question… but I think the answer is optionality. There was also a possibility going into the previous game that Houston could still jump up to #3 and the Lakers could drop all the way to 5 (which may cost them an extra home game worth of revenue in game 5 in a R1 playoff series?)… by winning against the Suns, the Lakers kept their options open to see what other teams would do before making a decision. At this point, they now have a closer control over their own destiny (and they at least have HCA in R1 locked up) if they assume the Spurs will win.

But this all just speculation and it could just be as simple as “we don’t care who we play, we just want to be as healthy as possible”. There is a rational justification to convince me of all of the possibilities if I’m so inclined.
 
Lakers pushing the Nuggets over to the OKC side would be fantastic in terms of increasing Spurs chances of a championship, but the basketball lover in me wants Wemby vs Jokic as it (should) be an all-time great series and matchup. While it's thinking ahead, either way, good basketball for Spurs fans would be the result: we're either spanking the Lakers or watching two all-time greats duke it out for a likely 6-7 game series.
 
z0sa said:
Lakers pushing the Nuggets over to the OKC side would be fantastic in terms of increasing Spurs chances of a championship, but the basketball lover in me wants Wemby vs Jokic as it (should) be an all-time great series and matchup. While it's thinking ahead, either way, good basketball for Spurs fans would be the result: we're either spanking the Lakers or watching two all-time greats duke it out for a likely 6-7 game series.
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We won’t get this opportunity, tbh. Lakers are going down in the first round no matter who they play.
 
scott said:
We won’t get this opportunity, tbh. Lakers are going down in the first round no matter who they play.
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Yeah, that's true. Forgive my lack of NBA general knowledge for the time being, I've been out of the loop for some time (still watching every Spurs game, though, even if it's 2-3 days after the fact).
 
Last game of the year.
Some important things to watch:
1. Beat DEN and hope LAL beat UTAH. Denver wants to lose. They want to avoid MIN. For us, it would be great to make OKC's path to the Finals a little more difficult. (And it would be a great wink and a middle finger to these cowards for throwing the last game against the Nuggets). I don't know if LAL will want to win, but the Jazz will definitely want to lose.

2. POR beat SAC and the Clippers' result doesn't matter. Sacramento also wants to lose. Hopefully, POR can then beat PHO in the play-in.

3. TOR and ATL.
Toronto has the tiebreaker against Atlanta. With a win against BRO and respecting Atlanta's loss against the always tough Heat. It could mean moving us from 20th to 19th.
PS: If those results happen, and if Orlando were to somehow beat Boston, there would be a three-way tie. The loser of the three would go to the play-in tournament. How would that be resolved?
 
FTL and all that stuff. But if their FO/coaching staff doesnt protect Doncic from himself and he comes back way earlier than he should be, they should all be immediately fired tbh.

If this was Wemby coming back from a Grade 2 hamstring, I’d hope MATFO would tell him to heal up because offseason starts early this year.
 
plateado said:
3. TOR and ATL.
Toronto has the tiebreaker against Atlanta. With a win against BRO and respecting Atlanta's loss against the always tough Heat. It could mean moving us from 20th to 19th.
PS: If those results happen, and if Orlando were to somehow beat Boston, there would be a three-way tie. The loser of the three would go to the play-in tournament. How would that be resolved?
Click to expand...
Magic -12.5 favs today
 
plateado said:
3. TOR and ATL.
Toronto has the tiebreaker against Atlanta. With a win against BRO and respecting Atlanta's loss against the always tough Heat. It could mean moving us from 20th to 19th.
PS: If those results happen, and if Orlando were to somehow beat Boston, there would be a three-way tie. The loser of the three would go to the play-in tournament. How would that be resolved?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it looks like:

Three-Way Tie Scenarios (ATL/TOR/ORL):
  • 5th Seed: Atlanta Hawks (due to division winner)
  • 6th Seed: Toronto Raptors
  • 7th Seed: Orlando Magic
 
spurraider21 said:
Tiebreakers come into play for seeding but not draft order. Teams with same record flip coins
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So the tiebreaker eliminates any tiny possibility that the Spurs might have gotten a lottery pick if Atl was in the play-in at #7, but they could still get two picks higher than the Hawks are now if they get lucky on the coin flip.
 
lol @ Orlando starters getting their shit pushed by Celtics scrubs. They’ve got to blow this thing up this offseason. Magic front office needs to be on the phones to media members to make sure Paolo doesn’t backdoor into 3rd Team All NBA and qualify for supermax
:st-lol:
 
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