The 2012/2103 NBA season is on its way to reach one third of the regular season (the last games will be held on May 17th).

The Eastern conference is lead by New York Knicks (19 wins and 6 losses), immediately followed by Miami Heats (16-6), Atlanta Hawks (15-8) and Chicago Bulls (14-10).

In the Western Conference Oklahoma City Thunder are the leaders with 21 wins and only 4 losses. This is the best record of all NBA teams till now.

La Clippers (19-6), Memphis Grizzlies (17-6) and San Antonio Spurs (19-8) follow the ‘Thunder’ in the Conference classification. Traditionally Western Conference teams perform better as a whole in NBA’s regular seasons and that is already visible in the current standings. Teams play both against their pairs conference as well as other Conference teams.

http://www.nba.com/standings/team_record_comparison/conferenceNew_Std_Cnf.html

Eastern conference teams have globally till now 173 wins and 204 losses (54.1% rate) and Western Conference teams 205 wins and 172 losses (45.6% rate).

Each and every teams players, details and 2011/2012 statistics can ben checked in a very interesting NBA Guide on:

http://www.nba.com/.element/mp3/2.0/sect/podcastmp3/PDF/2012-13-Media-Guide.pdf

By the way, when looking to 3 pointers stats you may want to remember our post on:

Basketball 3 Pointers – Is it equal worldwide?

Before the regular season ends and therefore before the Playoffs start (April 20th) the famous all-star game will take place next February 17th in Houston as we published before in:

2013 Major Sports Events Calendar

and this edition will have a new format.

http://www.nba.com/allstar/

The NBA announced the current revised playoff seeding system on August 3, 2006. Following the NBA regular season, eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs and are seeded one to eight accordingly to the following rules: (NBA’s website full citation)

“Playoff Tie-Break Procedures

Teams 1 to 4 in each conference are the three division winners and the team with the next best regular-season record, with the seeding of these four teams determined by regular-season record. The playoffs seedings of Teams 5 to 8 are based upon regular-season record. Ties are broken pursuant to the rules set forth below

Ties for playoff positions (including division winners) will be broken utilizing the criteria set forth in subparagraph a. below (in the case of ties involving two teams) and subparagraph b. below (in the case of ties involving more than two teams), and the guidelines set forth in subparagraph c. below.

a. Two Teams Tied	b. More Than Two Teams Tied
(1) Better winning percentage in games against each other.	(1) Better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams.
(2) Better winning percentage against teams in own division (only if tied   teams are in same division).	(2) Better winning percentage against teams in own division (only if all   tied teams are in the same division).
(3) Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.	(3) Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.
(4) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own   conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a   playoff position).	(4) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own   conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a   playoff position).
(5) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in   opposite conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied   for a playoff position).	(5) Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed   against all opponents (“point differential”).
(6) Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed   against all opponents (“point differential”).

c. Guidelines For Applying Tie-Break Criteria.  The following guidelines shall be used when applying the above criteria to break ties for playoff positions:

(1) (a) Since the three division winners are guaranteed a spot in the top four, ties to determine the division winners must be broken before any other ties.
(b) When a tie must be broken to determine a division winner, the results of the tie-break shall be used to determine only the division winner and its playoff position, not any other playoff position(s).

(2) If a tie involves more than two teams, the tie-break criteria in subparagraph b. shall be applied in the order set forth therein until the first to occur of the following:
(a) Each of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tiebreak criterion (a “complete” breaking of the tie). In this circumstance, the team with the best winning percentage or point differential under the criterion will be awarded the best playoff position, the team with the next-best winning percentage or point differential will be awarded the next-best playoff position, and so on, and no further application of the tie-break criteria will be required.
~OR~
(b) One or more (but not all) of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a “partial” breaking of the tie). In this circumstance: (x) any team(s) that performed better under the applicable criterion than any other team(s) will be awarded a higher playoff position than such other team(s); and (y) teams that had equivalent performance under the applicable criterion will remain tied, and such remaining tie(s) will be broken by applying, from the beginning, the criteria in subparagraph a.(1)-(6) above (for any remaining tie involving only two teams) or subparagraph b.(1)-(5) above (for any remaining tie involving more than two teams) and the guidelines set forth in this subparagraph c.

(3) If application of the criteria in subparagraph a. or b. does not result in the breaking of a tie, the playoff positions of the tied teams will be determined by a random drawing.”

We will publish another update when the regular season is through its halfway and playoff contenders will by then be certainly better defined.