Being the Mavericks fan that I am, I was wondering why every national sports website had the Spurs listed ahead of the Mavericks in the standings. After doing some searching, I found the answer. Even though the Mavs and Spurs have the same overall record and are 1-1 against each other this year, the Spurs still technically have the tiebreaker since they have a better conference winning percentage. They are 18-4 (.818) against the West, and Dallas is 21-7 (.750). The order of the tiebreaker is: 1) Head-to-head; 2) Conference winning percentage; 3) Division winning percentage (only if the teams are in the same division); 4) Winning percentage against playoff opponents in the same conference; 5) Winning percentage against playoff opponents in opposite conference; 6) Better point differential.
I really think they should put division winning percentage above the conference in the tiebreaker when it comes to the division title. The seeding for the NBA playoffs gets thrown off now that there are 6 divisions. For example, if the season ended today Dallas would have the 4th seed behind San Antonio, Phoenix, and Denver. Dallas is 10 games ahead of Denver and 5.5 ahead of Phoenix. Getting the division seeding is extremely important, and it just makes more sense to me that in a tiebreaker scenario like this, the title should go to the team who did better in that division.
I hear ya. The 3 divisions has potential to cause major problems like this for playoff seeds. As of now the Mavs in the 1st round would have to play the 5th seed (Clippers 25-16) who have a better record than the 3rd seed (Denver 25-21), which means the 6th seed (Memphis 25-18) would be playing a team with a worse record than themselves. Doesn’t make sense.
FYI though the conference tiebreaker is used as the first thing that breaks ties in the standings for playoffs, the division winner is determined first and I believe at that comes to division play first to break the ties, just look at Dallas Morning News and see that they have the Mavs first.