Should we even care about seeding?

[PhoSita]

Cleveland has a very good chance of being alone in 4th place after tonight. I feel like some people are not even looking at the standings here

You're right, I hadn't considered the possibility that they could end up on the 1 seed side of the bracket.

[Moranis]

Cleveland has a very good chance of being alone in 4th place after tonight. I feel like some people are not even looking at the standings here

sure and then they look at the Pacers schedule and see how hard it is and write them off.  I honestly think it is more likely that the Pacers are the 8th seed then they are the 3rd seed.  Their schedule is brutal

[Jiri Welsch]

Cleveland has a very good chance of being alone in 4th place after tonight. I feel like some people are not even looking at the standings here

sure and then they look at the Pacers schedule and see how hard it is and write them off.  I honestly think it is more likely that the Pacers are the 8th seed then they are the 3rd seed.  Their schedule is brutal

Yeah the Pacers just lost tonight. Not gonna be the #3 seed in all likelihood. 

[celticsclay]

Cleveland has a very good chance of being alone in 4th place after tonight. I feel like some people are not even looking at the standings here

sure and then they look at the Pacers schedule and see how hard it is and write them off.  I honestly think it is more likely that the Pacers are the 8th seed then they are the 3rd seed.  Their schedule is brutal

It's not just the pacers though. The wizards and 76ers are right on their heels. The 76ers have a very favorable schedule now. Then again, I think pigs would fly for you to even acknowledge the possibility something unfavorable could happen to the cavs.

[celticinorlando]

Best case scenario for Boston is they finish two and Cavs finish 4.  I do not think that will happen though Cleveland will finish third

[jpotter33]

Cleveland has a very good chance of being alone in 4th place after tonight. I feel like some people are not even looking at the standings here

sure and then they look at the Pacers schedule and see how hard it is and write them off.  I honestly think it is more likely that the Pacers are the 8th seed then they are the 3rd seed.  Their schedule is brutal

It's not just the pacers though. The wizards and 76ers are right on their heels. The 76ers have a very favorable schedule now. Then again, I think pigs would fly for you to even acknowledge the possibility something unfavorable could happen to the cavs.

Yeah, Philly definitely has the schedule to do it more so than Washington and Indy, who both have brutal finishing stretches, but I just wonder if they can finish that strong with how young they are. I give it about a 50/50 shot of one of those three teams knocking Cleveland out of the 3 spot (more if James rests down the stretch), and my bet is on Philly.

However, even though it might help us, I'm not sure if it's worth hearing about it from all the Philly fanboys, even though we'd destroy them in the second round.

EDIT: Holy hell, after looking at their schedule again they definitely could do it. Of their 19 games left, only 6 (!) of them are against current playoff teams, and only 2 of those 6 (CLE and IND) are against top-4 Conference opponents, with both of them in Philly and Cleveland being on the second night of a back to back at the end of the season (meaning likely no Lebron). That's amazing, especially given how many of those teams that they will play are tanking down the stretch. They legitimately might do it and help us out!

[Celtics4ever]

Nope, we should not, we are going to have to play and beat TOR and CLE at some point and there are other teams that could give us problems.   I would shoot for one though as you can tire out teams if you have good seeding.  This may or may not be our year but Brown and Tatum got a lot of practical playing time out there and experience which is priceless.

You have to play the games regardless.

[jambr380]

Nope, we should not, we are going to have to play and beat TOR and CLE at some point and there are other teams that could give us problems.   I would shoot for one though as you can tire out teams if you have good seeding.  This may or may not be our year but Brown and Tatum got a lot of practical playing time out there and experience which is priceless.

You have to play the games regardless.

That statement isn't necessarily true and I think is one of the main points in this thread. If we get 'lucky', CLE will fall to 4th and we will only have to face TOR (or CLE, depending on who wins in their EC Semi match-up).

Now I know Brad said that Hayward isn't returning this year, but it sure would be helpful to bring him off the bench if we made a deep playoff run.

[Moranis]

Cleveland has a very good chance of being alone in 4th place after tonight. I feel like some people are not even looking at the standings here

sure and then they look at the Pacers schedule and see how hard it is and write them off.  I honestly think it is more likely that the Pacers are the 8th seed then they are the 3rd seed.  Their schedule is brutal

It's not just the pacers though. The wizards and 76ers are right on their heels. The 76ers have a very favorable schedule now. Then again, I think pigs would fly for you to even acknowledge the possibility something unfavorable could happen to the cavs.

Washington's schedule is more difficult than Cleveland's, I believe they have no shot at it.  The Sixers could do it as they have a pretty easy schedule, but they are currently 2.5 games behind the Cavs, which won't be easy for them to make up given they have been a very streaky team all year and are a pretty bad road team.  If they can stay hot, they could certainly catch Cleveland, I just don't see that as all that likely.  That said, the Sixers need to make up the gap over the Cavs next 7 games which are pretty tough (5 road games LA, LA, PHO, POR, CHI, and then home with MIL, TOR) because after that the Cavs after a relatively easy 6 game stretch before their very difficult 3 game stretch in early April (TOR, WAS, @PHI) before closing with 2 games against the Knicks. 

At the end of the day, I expect the Cavs to finish 50-32, which I believe will be slightly better than the Sixers, but the Sixers certainly could only lose 3 or less games as their schedule is pretty easy (4 losses ties the Cavs with 32 losses and I have no idea how the tiebreaker would shake out). 

[mr. dee]

Celtics have a better road record than home this season. I think we can manage to get deep in the playoffs, regardless of seeding. Although a HCA in the east would be nice.

[Celtics4ever]

If we get 'lucky', CLE will fall to 4th and we will only have to face TOR (or CLE, depending on who wins in their EC Semi match-up).

I want us to beat these teams, not hope we get lucky to sneak by them.  I can see how some might want this but I live in Ohio and want to see the Cavs beat and that look on LeBron's face when he loses.   

[SHAQATTACK]

Nope, we should not, we are going to have to play and beat TOR and CLE at some point and there are other teams that could give us problems.   I would shoot for one though as you can tire out teams if you have good seeding.  This may or may not be our year but Brown and Tatum got a lot of practical playing time out there and experience which is priceless.

You have to play the games regardless.

This ^

[jambr380]

If we get 'lucky', CLE will fall to 4th and we will only have to face TOR (or CLE, depending on who wins in their EC Semi match-up).

I want us to beat these teams, not hope we get lucky to sneak by them.  I can see how some might want this but I live in Ohio and want to see the Cavs beat and that look on LeBron's face when he loses.

Oh, I would love to beat both teams, but it's not exactly a fair fight this year without Hayward. I would have rather the Pats beat the Eagles, too, but looking back, I wish they had played Minnesota instead (obviously).