Tiebreakers with Orlando and Utah

[Global Celtic]

Can someone please explain our current situation on the tiebreakers with Orlando and Utah (possible third, fourth or fifth worst record at stake)?

[saltlover]

Tiebreakers are decided by coin flips.  We split the lottery combinations with any teams with which we are tied, so currently we'd split the 156 combinations for third and 119 combinations for fourth with Orlando.  This results in each team getting 137 combinations.  The coin flip would decide who got the extra combination (since there aren't an even number to split), and the winner of that coin flip also picks first in the event that neither team wins the lottery.

[SHAQATTACK]

Lakers fans have worked out every conceivable  win loss record with four remaining four games r , and the impact for the draft ....they seem to think it matter ....as does Mitch.

Utah,  Boston, Lakers , Magic


Never have I seen LAKERS fans cheering so hard for the Celtics to win games.   They are actually screaming mad when a Boston player is making bonehead play . 

Some people here want to win.....so far I ve seen no Lakers fans wanting to do anything but tank for Exum and Wiggins.

Fact is Danny and Stevens can still screw up the draft for us .   

[TheTruthFot18]

That "Magic" win last night was very nice. I thought we would be at best 4th behind MIL, PHI, and ORL but this is interesting. We already are tied for 3rd worst record with 4 games left and a minimum of 1 game up on the West's bottom teams.

These last four games will be interesting, with all eyes on that last Philly game. Lets do this

[celticsfan8591]

Anyone know how three way ties are broken? I assume the three spots are averaged for the number of combinations each team receives, but how is it decided who gets the extra combination/s and who  gets the highest slot if no teams win the lottery?

[Fafnir]

Anyone know how three way ties are broken? I assume the three spots are averaged for the number of combinations each team receives, but how is it decided who gets the extra combination/s and who  gets the highest slot if no teams win the lottery?

It is decided by a coin flip (or series of coin flips).

I don't know if they flip twice or once, they could do it either way. (flip 3 coins until one is different and thus the winner or the different one is eliminated then a single coin flip to break the tied remaining teams)

[kozlodoev]

Anyone know how three way ties are broken? I assume the three spots are averaged for the number of combinations each team receives, but how is it decided who gets the extra combination/s and who  gets the highest slot if no teams win the lottery?

It is decided by a coin flip (or series of coin flips).

I don't know if they flip twice or once, they could do it either way. (flip 3 coins until one is different and thus the winner or the different one is eliminated then a single coin flip to break the tied remaining teams)

I think you take "coin flip" too literally. My guess would be that in three-way ties, the extra combination(s) just get assigned randomly to one team. This should be highly irrelevant, since even in a five-way tie, the odd remainder is no more than half a percent from the overall odds.

[saltlover]

Anyone know how three way ties are broken? I assume the three spots are averaged for the number of combinations each team receives, but how is it decided who gets the extra combination/s and who  gets the highest slot if no teams win the lottery?

It is decided by a coin flip (or series of coin flips).

I don't know if they flip twice or once, they could do it either way. (flip 3 coins until one is different and thus the winner or the different one is eliminated then a single coin flip to break the tied remaining teams)

I think you take "coin flip" too literally. My guess would be that in three-way ties, the extra combination(s) just get assigned randomly to one team. This should be highly irrelevant, since even in a five-way tie, the odd remainder is no more than half a percent from the overall odds.

I'm pretty sure it's an actual coin flip.  They have these a few days after the regular season to determine all the ties in the drafting order, be it for lottery teams or playoff teams.  Our positions in the 2012 draft were decided by these.

[Fafnir]

Anyone know how three way ties are broken? I assume the three spots are averaged for the number of combinations each team receives, but how is it decided who gets the extra combination/s and who  gets the highest slot if no teams win the lottery?

It is decided by a coin flip (or series of coin flips).

I don't know if they flip twice or once, they could do it either way. (flip 3 coins until one is different and thus the winner or the different one is eliminated then a single coin flip to break the tied remaining teams)

I think you take "coin flip" too literally. My guess would be that in three-way ties, the extra combination(s) just get assigned randomly to one team. This should be highly irrelevant, since even in a five-way tie, the odd remainder is no more than half a percent from the overall odds.

I'm pretty sure it's an actual coin flip.  They have these a few days after the regular season to determine all the ties in the drafting order, be it for lottery teams or playoff teams.  Our positions in the 2012 draft were decided by these.

Tom Ziller wrote about how its just done via random drawings now-a-days. That's disappointing.

A lot of sports leagues and political systems still have actual coinflips or card draws on the books.

[colincb]

The coin flip is important, not so much because of the one extra ball you get for the lottery if you win, but because it sets draft order. We win the flip with ORL, we're 3rd and they're 4th pre-lottery.

[Celtic Fan Forever]

The coin flip is important, not so much because of the one extra ball you get for the lottery if you win, but because it sets draft order. We win the flip with ORL, we're 3rd and they're 4th pre-lottery.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, if we win the coin flip for the 3rd worst record does that mean the lowest we can draft would be 6th (7th if we lose the coinflip)?

[Boris Badenov]

The coin flip is important, not so much because of the one extra ball you get for the lottery if you win, but because it sets draft order. We win the flip with ORL, we're 3rd and they're 4th pre-lottery.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, if we win the coin flip for the 3rd worst record does that mean the lowest we can draft would be 6th?

That's what I understand.

I think the difference in contrast to having the 3rd slot outright is that we'd have a 10% chance of drafting 6th, rather than a 4% chance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_draft_lottery