Rumors are flying about the NBA’s tiebreaker rules, which will definitely not favor the New Orleans Pelicans if they tie with the Trail Blazers.
The New Orleans Pelicans throttled the Portland Trail Blazers in all four games they played this season, but it may not matter.
According to Tim Bontemps from ESPN, the NBA has decided to use winning percentage as the determining factor in any ties after the eight game finale to the season.
This is extremely unfair to the New Orleans Pelicans, as it means they would lose any tiebreaker to the Portland Trail Blazers, as the Blazers have played more games and would have a slightly better winning percentage.
The Trail Blazers are currently ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans by one-thousandth of a point strictly because they’ve played two additional games.
With all 22 teams playing eight games each in Orlando, the Pelicans will not get a chance to make up those two games, thus, would automatically lose any tiebreaker to the Trail Blazers.
Even after dominating the Trail Blazers by an average of 12.5 points, the New Orleans Pelicans would lose any tiebreaker situation.
This makes the road to the playoffs even more treacherous for the Pelicans. Not only do they have to stay within four games of Memphis (if they can’t overtake them outright) but also have to win at least one more game than Portland to get a chance at the play-in tournament.
This seems woefully unfair given that the Pelicans manhandled the Trail Blazers in all four games this season, and it’s hardly their fault that they played in two fewer games due to NBA scheduling anomalies.
It also seems unfair given that the Pelicans had the easiest remaining schedule in the NBA, with a real chance to catch Memphis in the final 18 games.
While the Pelicans are happy they get to play meaningful games, the NBA has stacked the odds against them with these rules.