[jwplayer y1EDgoG0-z6KDnl0B]
During a normal season, the Oklahoma City Thunder would be trying to make a push for home court advantage almost 70 games into the year.
In the sixth seed but one game back from the fourth-seeded Houston Rockets and 2.5 from the Denver Nuggets in the third seed, the Thunder could be in the upper half of the Western Conference playoffs.
But in the NBA bubble, with these specific teams, does it really matter?
ESPN reporters Zach Lowe and Kevin Arnovitz addressed this on the Lowe Post podcast Tuesday.
“I truly believe that nothing matters less in Orlando than three through six in the West,” Arnovitz said.
The primary reason: There’s no real home court advantage. Sure, there’s some crowd noise piped in, but that’s a different atmosphere than a true, vicious opposing arena.
Then, as far as personnel goes, no teams seem to have a huge advantage over another. The Los Angeles Lakers and their stars are locked into the first seed; the Los Angeles Clippers seem unlikely to lose the second spot, though they’re only 1.5 games above Denver.
If Oklahoma City thinks it can compete with any team in the three-through-six group,it doesn’t need the third seed to get the best matchup. Getting the fourth seed instead of the fifth won’t change a thing.
“I can’t recall a time where jockeying for position at the three through six at this situation, especially given, again, no home-court situation, it means nothing,” Arnovitz said.
[lawrence-related id=436033,435929]
While Denver and Houston have the biggest stars of the four teams in three through six, there isn’t a dramatic concern against them like the LA teams.
He mentioned the Utah Jazz probably don’t want to meet the Rockets after losing to them in the playoffs two years in a row, but even this isn’t a normal situation — the Jazz wouldn’t have to finish third to avoid them while keeping home court advantage. Sixth would be more or less the same.
Lowe agreed with the sentiment that the seeding doesn’t matter much.
James Harden and Russell Westbrook are MVPs, and Nikola Jokic is a nightmare matchup, but all four teams must think they have a chance against any other of the group.
“There’s not a lot of evidence that Houston is like a level above any of these teams,” Lowe said.
“They’re such a weird team … that they scare people. Denver avoided them last year, and that Jokic matchup. But then you have Jokic who is unstoppable in the post. … Utah is sick of seeing red jerseys in the playoffs, they don’t want any part of Harden again.
“And Oklahoma City is sitting there just like, ‘Yeah we’re tough as (expletive), we know how to play, we know how we play. We don’t really care.'”
Thunder head coach Billy Donovan was directly asked about this on July 30, two days before their first real game in the bubble.
While he didn’t say that seeding didn’t matter, he acknowledged that home court won’t be a factor and that playing well entering the playoffs will be more important than the matchup itself.
“All the teams in the West are really, really good,” Donovan said. “You want to be playing good basketball. It’s how well can we go through three weeks of, so to speak, a training camp, have three scrimmages and now we’ve got eight games. And how well can we be playing by the end of these eight games?”
[lawrence-related id=435912]
[vertical-gallery id=434405]