There have been plenty of questions asked about how the NBA will handle tiebreaker scenarios for the 2020 NBA Playoff restart in Orlando, Florida, not only for the final playoff seed in each conference but also the potentially hotly contested seeding races in the upper tier of the league as well. But finally, over the weekend, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps confirmed the main way they will determine tiebreakers, as many teams will finish the regular season playing more games than others.
What does this mean? It could give an advantage to teams who have played more games than others. In the Western Conference, Portland has played 66 games while Memphis has played 65, while other playoff contenders New Orleans and Sacramento have played 64 games. If Portland, New Orleans, and Sacramento all have the same records in the eight games prior to the playoffs, Portland will be the 9th seed, as they currently are now, despite going 0-4 against New Orleans this season and splitting the season series with Sacramento.
As for the current 8th place Grizzlies, it’s almost impossible for them to lose out on the 8th position in the play-in scenario, which would give them two chances to win one game while the 9th seed would have to win two in a row. For example, Memphis would have to go at least 2-6 in the final eight games, while Portland needs to go 6-2 or better to leapfrog them into the more advantageous 8th place, even though Portland will end up playing one more game than the Grizzlies.
