For those folks still wondering about the NBA’s new playoff format, here’s a postseason primer.
In both conferences, the three division champions receive playoff spots Nos. 1, 2 and 3 based on regular-season records. The remaining five playoff teams in each conference get spots 4-8, also ordered by regular-season records.
As when the league had four divisions instead of the current six, first-round series match No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6, and No. 4 vs. No. 5.
All series are best-of-seven and homecourt advantage is based on regular-season records, regardless of the playoff seeding.
All ties, whether to determine positions or homecourt advantage, are decided by the league’s tiebreaker formula. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head record, followed by conference winning percentage, division winning percentage (if the tied teams are from the same division), winning percentage against conference playoff teams, winning percentage against opposing conference playoff teams, and points differential between offense and defense.
Pick your poison: Assuming the Sonics clinch the Northwest Division in the coming days, their first-round playoff opponent would be either Memphis, Denver, Dallas, Houston or Sacramento. And coach Nate McMillan says he has no preference.
“Who’s weak out of that group?” he said. “Every team is going to be tough.”
Trivia question: The Rockets have retired five numbers in franchise history. Which players have been honored (Hint: the numbers are 22, 23, 24, 34 and 45).
Big on the big man: Hardly a surprise, but McMillan is a fan of 7-6 Houston center Yao Ming. The third-year player from China averages 18.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.93 blocked shots and shoots .549 from the field (third-best in the NBA), despite playing a modest 30.8 minutes a game.
“Yao has really improved,” McMillan said. “Last year you could tell his conditioning was a problem. He also didn’t understand post position and how to get there, but now he has all of that. He’s in better shape, his post position is better and he now knows how to get deep.
“He also has the best footwork of a 7-foot guy that I’ve ever seen.”
Sunday sermon: The Sonics went through a walk-through workout on Sunday, but that did not keep McMillan from halting the session for some well-chosen words.
Seems one of his players was talking and smiling when he should have been listening to the coach, and McMillan wasn’t happy.
“You guys need to get this stuff,” he barked. “You should be listening. We’ve lost four games in a row. That’s not one, that’s not two, that’s not three, it’s four. You need to pay attention.”
Then, after some final few remarks, he called practice to a close.
Fortson update: Forward Danny Fortson did not travel to Denver for Saturday’s game because of a nagging shoulder injury and does not expect to play against Houston tonight.
His status is even questionable for Wednesday’s game against Dallas, his former team.
“Of course I want to play against Dallas,” he said Sunday, “but at the same time, I’ve got to be smart about it. If it isn’t feeling good by Wednesday, then I’ll take it from there. … The bottom line is I want to be smart. We’ve got big plans coming up (in the playoffs) and I want to be healthy so I can play the best I can. The best way to do that is just being smart, I guess you could say.”
Heading into tonight’s game, Fortson has missed 18 of Seattle’s 76 games. He has been suspended for four games (three by the NBA, one by Seattle), missed four games for other disciplinary reasons, missed four games due to a family illness, and missed six games because of injury.
Trivia answer: Clyde Drexler (22), Calvin Murphy (23), Moses Malone (24), Hakeem Olajuwon (34) and Rudy Tomjanovich (45).
Rich Myhre
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