NBA: League changes rules on postseason seeding

NBA division winners are no longer guaranteed home-court advantage for their first-round playoff series under changes announced by the league Tuesday.

Starting with the upcoming season, each conference's playoff teams will be seeded based strictly on their regular-season record. Under the old format, the three division winners in each conference plus the non-division winner with the best record were awarded the top four seeds.

The tie-breaking procedure also was altered. For teams with the same overall record, the first tiebreaker is now head-to-head record, with the second tiebreaker being whether a team won its division. The order was reversed in previous seasons.

The NBA Board of Governors enacted the changes in a unanimous vote following a unanimous recommendation by the Competition Committee.

Last season, the Northwest Division champion Portland Trail Blazers received the fourth seed in the Western Conference playoffs despite having the conference's sixth-best record. Under the new format, the Blazers would be seeded sixth, behind both the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs.