Getting it right: Playoff Tie-Break Procedures

Duiz · Post #1 » by **Duiz** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:29 am

For those of you wondering about the tiebreak problems, and who is right or wrong about whatever. Well here are the official rules.

Playoff Tie-Break Procedures
Ties for playoff positions (including division winners) will be broken utilizing the criteria set forth in subparagraph a. below (in the case of ties involving two teams) and subparagraph b. below (in the case of ties involving more than two teams), and the guidelines set forth in subparagraph c. below.

Two Teams Tied
In the case of a tie in regular-season records involving only two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:

1. Better winning percentage in games against each other.
2. Better winning percentage against teams in own division (only if tied teams are in same division).
3. Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.
4. Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
5. Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in opposite conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
6. Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents ("point differential").

More Than Two Teams Tied
In the case of a tie in regular season records involving more than two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:

1. Better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams.
2. Better winning percentage against teams in own division (only if all tied teams are in the same division).
3. Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.
4. Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
5. Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents ("point differential").

Guidelines For Applying Tie-Break Criteria
The following guidelines shall be used when applying the above criteria to break ties for playoff positions:

(1)

(a) The first four seeds in each conference will continue to be given to the three division winners and the team with the next best regular season record, but these four teams will now be seeded in order of their regular season records. Among other things, this change will ensure that the two teams with the best records in the conference will not meet earlier than the Conference Finals.

(b) When a tie must be broken to determine a division winner, the results of the tie-break shall be used to determine only the division winner and its playoff position, not any other playoff position(s).

(2)

If a tie involves more than two teams, the tie-break criteria in subparagraph b. shall be applied in the order set forth therein until the first to occur of the following:

(a) Each of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tiebreak criterion (a "complete" breaking of the tie). In this circumstance, the team with the best winning percentage or point differential under the criterion will be awarded the best playoff position, the team with the next-best winning percentage or point differential will be awarded the next-best playoff position, and so on, and no further application of the tie-break criteria will be required.

(b) One or more (but not all) of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a "partial" breaking of the tie). In this circumstance: (x) any team(s) that performed better under the applicable criterion than any other team(s) will be awarded a higher playoff position than such other team(s); and (y) teams that had equivalent performance under the applicable criterion will remain tied, and such remaining tie(s) will be broken by applying, from the beginning, the criteria in subparagraph

a.(1)-(6) above (for any remaining tie involving only two teams) or subparagraph
b.(1)-(5) above (for any remaining tie involving more than two teams) and the guidelines set forth in this subparagraph

(3)

If application of the criteria in subparagraph a. or b. does not result in the breaking of a tie, the playoff positions of the tied teams will be determined by a random drawing.

If the Suns and Houston win their last games, and Utah beats an injured San Antonio that means...

3rd Utah Jazz (7-2 or .714)
4th Houston Rockets (6-6 or .500) [Southwest Division, Not applicable] CONF 33-19
5th Phoenix Suns (6-6 or .500) [Pacific Division, Not applicable] CONF 31-21
6th San Antonio (4-8 .250)

I hope confusion is cleared.

Vindicater · Post #2 » by **Vindicater** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:11 am

Sportfan · Post #3 » by **Sportfan** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:40 am

Thanks Duiz. I always like reading your well researched post. Your a great contributor here.

Texas Longhorns · Post #4 » by **Texas Longhorns** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:52 am

This man speaks the truth. This thread is valuable to anyone who wants to know how tie breakers work. Thank you Duiz again.

Duiz · Post #5 » by **Duiz** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:56 pm

Could this thread be stickied only for tonight, so that if anyone has a question about the 4 way tie, then they know the rules and how it works in case the Jazz, Rockets, and Suns win tonight.

mtMD · Post #6 » by **rsavaj** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:24 pm

Paul Coro, Beat Writer for the Phoenix Suns says that he just got the official seedings from the NBA and he says the outcome of a Houston/Utah/Phoenix victory tonight is different than what you posted.

This is straight from the league so no more qualified projections.

The big news here is that Phoenix would not have home-court advantage in a No. 4 vs. No. 5 series against Houston. Even though the Suns would be slotted No. 4 out of a four-way tie with Utah, Houston and San Antonio, the league still reverts back to head-to-head matchups to decide home-court advantage in a particular series. In the case of this four-way tie, Utah is first taken out of the equation as a division champ and the next tiebreaker is cumulative head-to-head among Phoenix, Houston and San Antonio. The Suns win that to be the fourth seed but it is a moot victory because they still lose home-court advantage when the head-to-head is applied after the seeding is done. The Suns and Rockets split a four-game regular season series but Houston wins the tiebreaker based on a better record against Western Conference teams.

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