After losses by the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs tonight, the Western Conference of the NBA just heated up:
| Team | W | L | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suns* | 25 | 11 | 0.694 |
| Mavericks* | 24 | 11 | 0.686 |
| Lakers | 23 | 11 | 0.676 |
| Blazers* | 22 | 13 | 0.629 |
| Spurs | 23 | 11 | 0.676 |
| Hornets | 23 | 12 | 0.657 |
| Nuggets | 21 | 13 | 0.618 |
| Warriors | 20 | 16 | 0.556 |
It’s quite a logjam when the top four teams in the conference all have 11 losses, and it gets complicated when those four teams are in two of the conference’s three divisions, because the division leaders are guaranteed to have three of the top four seeds. Home court advantage is determined by record still, to prevent teams having an incentive to lose games, but a weak division’s leader getting that fourth seed does get the benefit of playing a weaker team than it otherwise would.
Spurs fans must be particularly unhappy though, because they’ve dropped from #1 to #5 rather rapidly, skipping over #3 because the Lakers hold the tiebreaker due to a win when Tim Duncan and Tony Parker were injured, and #4 because of the weak but division leading Blazers having that spot guaranteed.
Exciting times are head, oh yes indeed.