What did I miss? Playoffs, 8th seed, 7th seed?

[jpotter33]

So basically I've been MIA this past weekend due to traveling across the country to go back home for my wife's baby shower, and I didn't get to indulge in much Celtics playoff push coverage.

Obviously we beat the Cavs twice, and we're virtually a lock for the postseason. However, my question is this: do we seem to be content with the 7th seed and playing Cleveland, or would we prefer Brooklyn and/or Indiana to leapfrog us? I know Wyc recently came out and said he wants Cleveland, but I can't imagine either Danny or Brad truly being happy with Cleveland over Atlanta, due purely to matchups. Furthermore, we're in a really good place to try and move back into 8th, because we own both of the tiebreakers with Indy and Brooklyn. They'd both have to win the rest of their games with us losing ours for us to miss the playoffs. If Brooklyn loses to the Bulls tonight, then we're in the playoffs, and we shouldn't win another game so that Indy can hopefully leapfrog us to 7th (since they'll necessarily have to try and win the rest of their games to make the playoffs).

I don't like strategically resting players or trying to lose games on purpose for seeding, but I feel as if we have a MUCH greater shot at making a good series with Atlanta than Cleveland due to matchups, less star power, and their recent injuries. And if we plan on trying to attract any free agent here during this summer, we need a decent playoff series to show that we're heading in the right direction. A sweep or non-competitive series against the Cavs won't aid us there, but pushing the Hawks to six or seven games could very well do that.

[fairweatherfan]

We don't really control our own destiny with regard to the 7th vs 8th seed.  We need to lose both games, but also have either Brooklyn or Indiana win out to get 8th.  But if we lose out and both teams win out, we're not in the playoffs at all. 

Brooklyn plays tonight - if they lose we're in and could maybe try for this.  But if they win we'd be in a really difficult situation if 8th was our goal.  Since both our games Tues/Wed are before the Pacers' games, and Wednesday's is at the same time as Brooklyn's, we'd have to walk the tightrope of trying to lose those games without knowing for sure whether we can afford to do so without missing the playoffs completely.  I just don't think it's likely, we'll take the sure ticket and play the team in front of us.


EDIT:  Looks like you're talking more about hoping for the 8th as opposed to trying for it.  I'm against that too for the same reason - we wouldn't know if the losses were pushing us down to 8th or 9th until the games were over.

[jpotter33]

We don't really control our own destiny with regard to the 7th vs 8th seed.  We need to lose both games, but also have either Brooklyn or Indiana win out to get 8th.  But if we lose out and both teams win out, we're not in the playoffs at all. 

Brooklyn plays tonight - if they lose we're in and could maybe try for this.  But if they win we'd be in a really difficult situation if 8th was our goal.  Since both our games Tues/Wed are before the Pacers' games, and Wednesday's is at the same time as Brooklyn's, we'd have to walk the tightrope of trying to lose those games without knowing for sure whether we can afford to do so without missing the playoffs completely.  I just don't think it's likely, we'll take the sure ticket and play the team in front of us.


EDIT:  Looks like you're talking more about hoping for the 8th as opposed to trying for it.  I'm against that too for the same reason - we wouldn't know if the losses were pushing us down to 8th or 9th until the games were over.

[jpotter33]

We don't really control our own destiny with regard to the 7th vs 8th seed.  We need to lose both games, but also have either Brooklyn or Indiana win out to get 8th.  But if we lose out and both teams win out, we're not in the playoffs at all. 

Brooklyn plays tonight - if they lose we're in and could maybe try for this.  But if they win we'd be in a really difficult situation if 8th was our goal. Since both our games Tues/Wed are before the Pacers' games, and Wednesday's is at the same time as Brooklyn's, we'd have to walk the tightrope of trying to lose those games without knowing for sure whether we can afford to do so without missing the playoffs completely.  I just don't think it's likely, we'll take the sure ticket and play the team in front of us.


EDIT:  Looks like you're talking more about hoping for the 8th as opposed to trying for it.  I'm against that too for the same reason - we wouldn't know if the losses were pushing us down to 8th or 9th until the games were over.

I agree that Brooklyn will have to lose tonight for this to really be a possibility, because there's literally nothing to lose at that point since we'd already be in. The Wizards really don't have any incentive to play their guys the rest of the way, too, and I'd venture to say that Memphis will rest their main guys against Indy on Wednesday as well. Indy HAS to play to win, because both Boston and Brooklyn have the tiebreaker against them. So it's very well possible, though I think our best bet is Indy passing us rather than Brooklyn.

However, like you said it will really depend upon Brooklyn losing tonight. It's just too risky otherwise, and I'd rather be in the playoffs than just missing them.

EDIT: The question really will be if Danny and Brad will see this possibility (contingent on Brooklyn losing tonight) and have our team take advantage of it. It also further betters our draft pick by a spot, so to me it seems like a no-brainer if we can do it safely without risking missing the playoffs.

[Quetzalcoatl]

The one thing I don't get is how we're playing Milwaukee 3x this year.  I thought we played all teams in our division 8 times, all teams in our conference 4x and all teams in the West twice.

According to ESPN, we played them on Feb 7th, April 3rd and are about to play them on April 15th.  Is there always one team we play an odd amount of times each year?

[jpotter33]

The one thing I don't get is how we're playing Milwaukee 3x this year.  I thought we played all teams in our division 8 times, all teams in our conference 4x and all teams in the West twice.

According to ESPN, we played them on Feb 7th, April 3rd and are about to play them on April 15th.  Is there always one team we play an odd amount of times each year?

I think there are several non-Atlantic Division, Eastern Conference teams that we only play 3 times each year. For example, I think we only played Atlanta 3 times this year, too, possibly even Washington as well.

[fairweatherfan]

The one thing I don't get is how we're playing Milwaukee 3x this year.  I thought we played all teams in our division 8 times, all teams in our conference 4x and all teams in the West twice.

According to ESPN, we played them on Feb 7th, April 3rd and are about to play them on April 15th.  Is there always one team we play an odd amount of times each year?

I think it'd have to be more than 1 team like that.  Using your numbers, we'd have 8x4 = 32 division games, 4x10 = 40 non-division conference games, and 2x15 = 30 Western games.  That's 102 games! 

[Fafnir]

Just win a game and the C's are in, then you can worry about stategic seeding considerations.

Can't mess around earlier than that.

[saltlover]

The one thing I don't get is how we're playing Milwaukee 3x this year.  I thought we played all teams in our division 8 times, all teams in our conference 4x and all teams in the West twice.

According to ESPN, we played them on Feb 7th, April 3rd and are about to play them on April 15th.  Is there always one team we play an odd amount of times each year?

We play each team in our division 4 times.  That's 16 games.
We play each Western Conference team twice.  That's 30 games.

This leaves 36 games for the remaining 10 Easyern conference team. So we play 6 of those teams 4 times each (24 games) and 4 of those teams three times each (12 games).  Accordingly, we rotate through which teams we play four times vs. three, and also which team gets two home games in the three-game series.

[fairweatherfan]

Just win a game and the C's are in, then you can worry about stategic seeding considerations.

Can't mess around earlier than that.

Yeah but once we win a game there are no more seeding considerations. 

[jpotter33]

The one thing I don't get is how we're playing Milwaukee 3x this year.  I thought we played all teams in our division 8 times, all teams in our conference 4x and all teams in the West twice.

According to ESPN, we played them on Feb 7th, April 3rd and are about to play them on April 15th.  Is there always one team we play an odd amount of times each year?

I think it'd have to be more than 1 team like that.  Using your numbers, we'd have 8x4 = 32 division games, 4x10 = 40 non-division conference games, and 2x15 = 30 Western games.  That's 102 games!

We play the teams in our division four times each (4 x 4 = 16) and the Western Conference teams twice each (15 x 2 = 30), which leaves 36 games for the other 10 teams in our conference. Thus, we'd have to play six Eastern teams four times (6 x 4 = 24) and the four remaining Eastern teams three times (4 x 3 = 12). I believe this is how it goes if my math is correct.

[jpotter33]

Just win a game and the C's are in, then you can worry about stategic seeding considerations.

Can't mess around earlier than that.

Yeah but once we win a game there are no more seeding considerations. 

Yep. You'll just have to play it by ear after the Brooklyn game tonight. We're in no matter what if they lose, so just cheer on the Bulls!

[erisred]

Geeze! Just win out! No backing into the playoffs, if the C's make it in they should make it by winning games.

Play the Cavs and do your best to win four times against them, too! A long, long, shot, but a shot.

[LarBrd33]

I have a feeling the team will just keep playing the same aggressive over-achiever style they have been playing for the past few months.   We don't have any stars to rest.  I imagine Stevens wants to keep confidence up.   This isn't a team that can afford to lose two in a row heading into a playoff series they have no chance of winning.   Gonna take some kind of miracle to make a dent vs the Cavs.    Makes the most sense to go full-throttle these last two games regardless of whether or not playoffs are locked in.

[jpotter33]

I have a feeling the team will just keep playing the same aggressive over-achiever style they have been playing for the past few months.  We don't have any stars to rest.  I imagine Stevens wants to keep confidence up.   This isn't a team that can afford to lose two in a row heading into a playoff series they have no chance of winning.   Gonna take some kind of miracle to make a dent vs the Cavs.    Makes the most sense to go full-throttle these last two games regardless of whether or not playoffs are locked in.

Unfortunately, I see this happening, too, even though I think it's stupid and we're shooting ourselves in the foot by doing it.

Though, it would be awesome to end the season 40-42, which would be absolutely amazing given the context of our season.