The NBA Playoffs standings for 2014 heading into the second half of the season has the Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets as the best teams in the league and here is a look at the seeds and records heading into the back stretch towards the playoffs from Friday onward.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have been able to stay on top with the best record in the NBA despite Russell Westbrook missing time for over a month and now they have 43 wins and they top the western conference heading into the second half of the season. The Indiana Pacers have been the best team in the eastern conference during the season and only the Miami Heat are within striking distance.
The eastern conference is so terrible that only the top two teams would even be in the playoffs and that has pushed them to go at each other for home court advantage. Indiana knows that home court is very important and all things this season in the east are leading to the conference finals, as the Pacers and Heat are expected to matchup for the second straight season. Last year that went to seven games and Indiana said they felt that having Game 7 at home could have changed everything and they are hoping to hold onto that in the second half. Miami is within two games now and the top teams have nothing to worry about in the east, as the Raptors are closest at 12 games back.
Oklahoma City is two and a half games up on the San Antonio Spurs and the next team in the standings is the Houston Rockets and they have a slight lead over the Los Angeles Clippers. The standings for the playoffs are much closer in the west and the teams are all over .500 that are in the eight playoff spots and there are a number of teams not in the playoffs that would be if they were in the east.
The Toronto Raptors are first in the Atlantic division right now with the Brooklyn Nets in second place and in the central it's Indiana by a wide margin and there is no way any team is catching them. The team is playing very well at home and has only lost three times and in the southeast Miami has a huge lead over the Wizards. OKC is tops in their division over Portland by six games after it was closer this season, while the Clippers are first in the Pacific. The southwest has San Antonio ahead of Houston, while Dallas is also in the playoffs currently.
Check here for the full division standings, records and seeds for the NBA.
