Seeding
The playoffs are conducted in 4 rounds of best-of-7 series. The 3 division winners in each conference, along with the 5 best non-division winners in each conference, qualify for the playoffs. The division winners and top second-place team are seeded 1–4 based on record, with the remaining teams seeded 5–8 on record.
Up until 2006, the division champions were guaranteed no worse than the third seed, while the non-division winners could do no better than the fourth seed regardless of record. This was the source of controversy in the 2006 NBA Playoffs, when the 63-win Spurs and 60-win Dallas Mavericks--the teams with the second-best and third-best records in the entire league--met in the conference semifinals. In response, the NBA changed the seeding system so that the teams with the two best records in the conference are guaranteed the top two seeds even if the second-best team isn't a division champion. Meanwhile, the division champions are guaranteed no worse than the fourth seed. This ensures that the teams with the two best records in the conference cannot meet until the conference finals at the earliest.
Read more about this topic: 2007 NBA Playoffs
Famous quotes containing the word seeding:
“Propaganda has a bad name, but its root meaning is simply to disseminate through a medium, and all writing therefore is propaganda for something. It’s a seeding of the self in the consciousness of others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)