The playoffs are just a little over a week from today and teams are fighting for positioning. A lot of questions have been asked about the Cavaliers dropping to fifth spot when they are tied with Chicago and have better record than Miami who are in the fourth spot.
The playoff seeding system has been revised this season.
Now, the three division winners and top non-division winner are the recipients of the top four seeds based solely upon record. That assures a division winner will be no lower than a fourth seed.
Chicago own the tie breaker because they have better division record.
Can the Cavs get back to the number 2 spot?
This can happen in two ways:
1- We need to win the rest of the games and Chicago need to loose 1 game. That would earn us the second seed. Chicago have two road games and one of them with New Jersey who are fighting for a spot in the playoffs race. New Jersey are 2-1 against Chicago. They are also playing the Knicks tonight. Chicago lead the series 2-1.
2- The other way we can get back to the second seed is by piggybacking on Toronto. If there is 3 way tie (Chicago, Cleveland, and Toronto) according to the three-team tiebreaker we would get the second seed because we are 5-3 against Toronto and Chicago, while Chicago is 4-4 and Toronto is 3-5.
I would rather see the first scenario happen. We need to take care of our own business rather than piggybacking one other teams.
However, the best record will still determine home court. So if we are the number 5 seed and have better record than Miami, we will have home court.