Playoff Positioning

To be honest, being the 2 seed is probably the best spot for us, especially if Washington/Chicago take spots 4-5. Atlanta will have to deal with one of them before getting to us.

brownsbuck6 said:

Second seed is where it's at for our team.. it would probably mean we only see one of Chicago/Atlanta and not until the conference finals. Much, much easier road. I truly could care less about the one seed (even if it were remotely feasible). I lol at myself in the mid to late 2000's - I used to think getting that 1 seed was so important. It never really did any good. It doesn't matter. Champions will win playoff games on the road when they need to. Anyway, seeding matters from the standpoint of making the road easier. It doesn't matter in terms of home court advantages IMO.

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I haven't run the numbers but it almost seems like 1 seeds do worse than 2nd seeds in the playoffs, perhaps because they overextend themselves in the regular season.

See us over Detroit in 2007, Miami over rest of East in 06, us losing in 09 and 10, Chicago losing in 11 and 12 (and they would've lost the latter even with a healthy Rose,) Dallas/SA/Sac losing as 1 seeds, Miami over Indiana last year, etc.

Speaking of the West, if the playoffs started today, Spurs would face the Grizzlies. That would be one less monster team to deal with.

The Oi said:

Warriors will come out of the West. They'll probably have to play 50 playoff games to get out, but I think they have to be the pick.

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Spurs or Grizzlies. Book it.

Jack Brickman said:

Let's all cross our fingers that we somehow meet the Clippers in the Finals. They have no answer for us.

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They aren't getting out of the West for the same reason they couldn't fight with us tonight. Still have too many holes, especially defensively. Spurs, Grizzlies, Blazers, Thunder, and Mavericks WILL exploit that.

warddj86 said:

Here's to hoping that Atlanta channels their inner 2014 Indiana Pacers and lose a bunch and limp into the playoffs so we can catch them.

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Way too far behind. Race for the 1 seed is over.

I just want to avoid the 4th seed so we can hold off on playing Atlanta till the conference Finals.

Stark said:

Honestly, when we get to the playoffs, the only team I'd rather not face if possible is Chicago. All it takes is Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah to play like their old selves for a week and we could be in trouble.

I'm fully confident we can handle this entire conference in six games max sans Chicago.

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Well, to paraphrase Keys:

Old-self Derrick Rose and Old-self Joakim Noah don't exist. They are scrimmaging Motivated Derrick Coleman and Healthy Sam Bowie on Planet Bullshit.

Oh - and Healthy Nerlens Noel is on the sidelines, waiting to come in.

qaws23 said:

How long until Cleveland gets the 2nd seed? With the way the Cavs are rolling, they're well on their way. Toronto probably isn't holding on to the 2 seed much longer. Wizards are in a funk and same with the bulls. Raps have already dropped 2 in a row to teams below them in the standing and have a brutal schedule coming up with some tough games:

vs Clippers
vs Spurs
vs Wizards
@ Hawks
@ Rockets
@ Pelicans
@ Mavericks
vs Warriors

Wizards next 8 is:

vs Nets
vs Raptors
@ Magic
vs Cavs
@ Pistons
vs Warriors
@ Wolves
@ Sixers

Well Cleveland has:

@ Pacers
vs Lakers
vs Heat
@ Bulls
@ Wizards
@ Knicks
@ Pistons
vs Warriors

Hard to say when our next loss will come well I can definitely see a loss coming for both the Wizards and Raptors sooner than the Cavs.

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Cavs will lose in @ Chicago, on the second night of a back-to-back.

saws23, post: 2068756, member:raptors]How long until Cleveland gets the 2nd seed? With the way the Cavs are rolling, they're well on their way Toronto probably isn't holding on to the 2 seed much longer. Wizards are in a funk and same with the bulls. Raps have already dropped 2 in a row to teams below them in the standing and have a brutal schedule coming up with some tough games:

vs Clippers
vs Spurs
vs Wizards
@ Hawks
@ Rockets
@ Pelicans
@ Mavericks
vs Warriors

Wizards next 8 is:

vs Nets
vs Raptors
@ Magic
vs Cavs
@ Pistons
vs Warriors
@ Wolves
@ Sixers

Well Cleveland has:

@ Pacers
vs Lakers
vs Heat
@ Bulls
@ Wizards
@ Knicks
@ Pistons
vs Warriors

Hard to say when loss will come well I can definitely see a loss coming for both the Wizards and Raptors sooner than the Cavs.

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That is absolutely brutal for the raptors

So we have a good shot at 19 game winning streak going into a home against the Warriors: that would be easily the regular season game of the year right there.

Wizards falling hard..5 straight

Let's note that Atlanta is 28-6 in conference. Cavs are 19-9. That means that the Cavs have played 6 more games against the West remaining than Atlanta so far. There's a good chance that the Cavs can at least make up some of that ground where they have a more East-heavy schedule than Atlanta does. The Hawks better not start a slide at some point in there, because doing so and then having to hit a West-coast trip might be tough on them. That said, there's virtually no way the Cavs can catch them without a the Cavs having a similarly long streak and Atlanta hitting the skids at the same time. Getting the 2 seed would be great, though. One thing that was noted during a recent game broadcast was how the home team win percentage is down the past number of years compared to, say, a decade ago. Home court advantage isn't nearly what is was back then, and some of that was attributed to the replays the refs do now. So, I have a lot of hope the Cavs can steal some games in Atlanta should it come to that.

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Eyes on the prize fellas.

Wow the Raptors' next 8 games are crazy tough. They could honestly lose all of them.