Cleveland Cavaliers: Does the Number One Seed Matter?
For the first time since the beginning of last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers are not the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. The Boston Celtics are currently a half game ahead of the Cavs.
It’s no secret that the Cavs are playing bad basketball right now. With the way both them and the Celtics are currently playing, it’s a very real possibility that the Cavaliers will go into the playoffs as the second or third seed. If the Cavs lost their remaining ten games the lowest they could fall is to the fourth seed.
With the real possibility of the Cavs falling out of the first seed, it’s important to see how teams have fared that weren’t one seeds in their conference.
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Since LeBron James entered the league in the 2003-04 season, seven number one seeds have won the championship. In that same time, six teams that weren’t the number one seeds in their conference have won the championship.
In that same time period, 11 of the 13 Finals featured at least one team that was not the number one seed in their conference. The two times both number one seeds were in the Finals since 2004 was last season when the Cavs beat the Warriors and 2008 when the Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers.
Since 2004, there has been six occasions where the third or fourth seed in their conference made the Finals. Only three of those teams have gone on to win the Finals.
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Furthermore, LeBron’s team has been the one seed in the East four times. Out of those four times he has reached the Finals in only two of those occasions. The seven times his team has gone on to the Finals, five of them came as the number two seed in the East.
All of that is to say that one, it isn’t uncommon for LeBron’s team to go into the playoffs without being the number one seed. Looking back at James’s time in Miami it is easy to think that they didn’t go through adversity in the regular season, however considering they were the one seed only one time in four years, that simply isn’t the case.
The second conclusion that can be drawn is that it isn’t out of the ordinary for a team that isn’t the top seed in the conference to make or win the Finals. There is even precedent for a team that finishes third or fourth to make the Finals.
These numbers give credence to the comments that James made after the loss in San Antonio. LeBron told The Athletic that how the team is performing is much more important than seeding.
"“It matters more that we’re playing better basketball than where we’re at. If that results in us having the No. 1 seed, 2 or 3, whatever the hell it is, we need to play better basketball.”"
The Cavaliers’ poor basketball could be a cause of concern. However, losing the number one overall seed should not be a concern at all.
The Cavs priority should be getting healthy and finding continuity with their rotations. There is absolutely no need to sacrifice rest in a race to get the number one seed in the East.
The stats and results were taken from basketball-reference.com.