All Five Southwest Division Teams Ready for NBA Playoffs
The NBA playoffs start on Saturday and all five teams from the Southwest division reached the postseason. It is the first time since 2006 that a complete division in the NBA consisting of five teams made the playoffs.
The top four teams in the division – Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and Dallas Mavericks – were able to secure playoff spots at least a week before the season ended.
However, the New Orleans Pelicans waited until the last day of the regular season to secure their playoff spot.
The last division that sent each team to the postseason, included two teams that finished .500 and one that was under .500.
The Central Division in 2006 consisted of Detroit, Cleveland, Indiana, Chicago and Milwaukee. However, the Bucks finished 40-42 and both the Bulls and Pacers were 41-41. This season the Pelicans, the division’s last place team finished 45-37.
All five teams in the Southwest have very good records despite playing four games against each of the other teams in the division. Houston, for example, is the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference despite playing four teams in the playoffs 16 times this season. Even versus the NBA’s top teams the Southwest is thriving.
They also play in the very tough Western Conference that is very deep and can only beat up teams from the East on 30 occasions.
At the same time, in the mediocre Eastern Conference, five teams finished above .500, one was at .500 and two were below .500 that reached the playoffs.
The Southwest might just be the best division top to bottom in the modern era.
As recently as 2004, divisions looked remarkably different than they do now. When the Bobcats came into the league and there was a reorganizing of the conferences, five teams in Central division, which had seven teams, reached the playoffs in 1990.
In 1986, in the now defunct Midwest Division, all six teams reached the postseason, but two were teams under .500.
The Southwest actually has two and possibly three NBA title contenders. The Houston Rockets seeded No. 2 in the West are one of the best teams offensively and now have Dwight Howard back from injury. San Antonio dropped to sixth on the last day of the season, but won 12 of 14 to end the season and is highly talented. Not to be outdone are both Memphis and Dallas.
It will be interesting to see how many of the five will get through the first round of the playoffs, with two of them facing off in the first round when Houston plays Dallas.
