Celts could win Atlantic and not have home court advantage?

I was under the impression that whoever wins the Atlantic Division gets seeded no lower than fourth and has home-court advantage in the first round.

Apparently, if we win the Atlantic and we have a worse record than the #5 seed, THEY get home-court advantage.

Spotted this in the Indianapolis Star while reading their coverage on last night's game:


"It ultimately doesn't matter whether the Pacers finish with the third or fifth seed, as long as they have home-court advantage in the first round. Truth be known, the Pacers wouldn't exactly be overjoyed if they finished third and the Atlanta Hawks, a team that has owned them, ends up in that sixth spot. But those matchups are a long way off."


Here's the full article:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120408/SPORTS04/204080349/This-loss-just-symptom-long-hard-season

If the Pacers finish fifth and also have the possibility of being the home team in their first round match-up, that means that even if we win the Atlantic we could very well be on the road in our first series if we have a worse record than them. I either forgot the playoffs worked that way or never knew it. Winning the Atlantic now doesn't seem like that big a deal except for avoiding the Bulls or Heat for one round. And to get there we'd have to win a playoff series as the road team first.

Steve,

Actually, I'd prefer that the Celtics would play either the Heat or the Bulls in the first round. There's a huge likelihood that they'll eventually have to play oneor the other. The sooner they get it over with... :

• ...the less likely they'll have injuries that were incurred in playoff action, and I'd rather face teams other than the Heat or Bulls after possible injuries the Celtics had incurred in the opening round.

• ...the more likely that they'll have maximum energy.

• ...the more likely they'll catch either the Bulls or the Heat by surprise and be able to earn a victory in one of the first two away games.

My main reasons for not wanting the Celtics to finish seventh or eighth would be... :

• ...that they'd playing with fire by risking the possibility that they might miss the playoffs altogether.

• ...if an extra couple of weeks would make a major difference in Pietrus' health.

As far as I'm concerned, losing in the second round is no better than losing in the first round. Either they win the championship or it's a lost season. Close may count to 29 other teams, but not to the Celtics as far as I'm concerned.

Sam

sam wrote:
Steve,As far as I'm concerned, losing in the second round is no better than losing in the first round. Either they win the championship or it's a lost season. Close may count to 29 other teams, but not to the Celtics as far as I'm concerned.

Sam

Amen. the Celtics have had 17 succsessful seasons.. either you win it all, or you fail.

Like Yodo said, "there is no 'try" either do, or do not."

The only thing important to a Celtics fan is winning the last game of an extended season, one that went beyond ''reguler season"

Steve,
That is correct: a team with the best record get HCA (according to Wiki) regardless of seeding.

Sam,
I prefer the same but I doubt it's going to happen: Celtics are playing really good.

AK