Friday, April 08, 2005

Home court advantage: Bulls?

In case you didn't know...

                      W   L PCT  GB    
1 x-Miami      56 19 .747  -        
2 Detroit        47 27 .635  8 ½    
3 Boston        41 34 .547  15      
4 Chicago      42 32 .568  13 ½  
5 Washington 41 33 .554  14 ½  
6 Indiana        40 34 .541  15 ½  
7 Cleveland    38 36 .514  17 ½  
8 Philadelphia 37 37 .500  18 ½  

   New Jersey  37 39 .487 19 ½
   Orlando       35 40 .467 21
 

If the season ended today, the Bulls would have a home court date against the Washington Wizards. It doesn't end today though (and probably a good thing given the injuries), so lets have a look at the remaining schedules. I'll include the Pacers, but exclude Boston since no matter how poorly the Atlantic Division winner finishes they will have the 3 seed. Dumb? perhaps. but that's the way it is.

Remaining schedules:

Bulls Wizards Pacers
-- 1GB 2GB
@NY @IND WAS
TOR PHI NY
DET MIL @TOR
@WAS CHI NJ
ORL CLE PHI
@ATL CHA @MIA
NY @NJ @ORL
@IND @NY CHI

Very interesting, as all 3 play eachother in the final weeks. Also very even in terms of winnable games and tough games. Washington has perhaps the easiest schedule, void of a Detroit or a Miami like the Bulls and Pacers have to play. The Bulls have the most road games(4) of the three.

Tiebreakers:

(1) Head-to-head:
Bulls v. Wizards:      1-1
Bulls v. Pacers:        2-1
Wizards v. Pacers:   2-1

(2) Conference Record:
Bulls:      27-17
Wizards: 24-20
Pacers:   25-19

(3) Division Record:
Bulls:      8-6
Wizards: 9-6
Pacers:   8-7

The Bulls look pretty good here, but definitely would benefit from a win over both the Wiz and Pacers. Both are on the road.

So 3 teams, each fighting injuries down the stretch to see who gets a 4, 5, or a 6 seed. Some might say that a 6 seed would in fact be the best of all, since they face the Atlantic Division winner and also avoid the Heat in the second round. But another side of me says I really want to see game one of the playoffs at the United Center. A win at NY followed by a gimmee at home against the Raptors, and hopefully Eddy Curry will be back by then to lock up the #4 seed and home court advantage.