Riley Cries Foul Over NBA Edict : Tiebreaker Ruling Would Cost Lakers Home-Court Edge

Coach Pat Riley is angry with the National Basketball Assn., which has notified the Lakers of a new interpretation of the playoff tiebreaker rules that would prevent them from having a home-court advantage in a championship series.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head results, and the second, the one that has upset Riley, concerns the team’s record within the conference.

Since the Lakers are 1-1 against Boston, Philadelphia and Milwaukee of the Eastern Conference, the second tiebreaker would decide which team has the home-court advantage should they meet in a final series.

But the league has now told the Lakers that the conference-record tiebreaker applies only in the conference playoffs, not in a championship final series.

The matter is a league interpretation of the rules because it is not written in the league’s operations manual as pertaining only to conference playoffs.

According to a spokesman for the NBA, the interpretation wasn’t made by Scotty Stirling, vice president of operations, until Thursday afternoon, at which time the Lakers were notified.

“We fight all year for that (the record within the conference tiebreaker), and I’ll be damned to give it up just because somebody wants to change it now,” Riley said.

“It’s confusing to me, and I want an explanation,” he said. “If I had known what they were going to do, I would have done things differently.”

If the league interpretation stands, the next applicable tiebreaker in a final series would be head-to-head point differential, and that doesn’t help the Lakers.

The Lakers were outscored by both Milwaukee and Philadelphia. And since Boston seems likely to finish with a better overall record than the Lakers, the Lakers would not have a home-court advantage with any of the top three Eastern teams.

But by using conference records as a tiebreaker in a final series, the Lakers would at least have a home-court advantage over Philadelphia or Milwaukee. They are 42-13 in the Western Conference, while Philadelphia is 38-15 and Milwaukee 36-17 in the Eastern Conference.

Riley said he would ask Laker owner Jerry Buss to clarify the interpretation.

Here are the tiebreaking procedures to be used in determining qualifiers for the NBA playoffs and a home-court advantage:

Two-team tie:

1. Head-to-head results.

2. Record within conference.

3. Record within division (only if tied teams are in the same division).

4. Record against playoff qualifiers in same conference.

5. Head-to-head point differential.

6. Point differential between offense and defense.

Multiple-team tie:

1. Head-to-head record among all tied teams.

2. Record within conference.

3. Record within division (only if tied teams are in the same division).

4. Record against playoff opponents in same conference.

5. Point differential between offense and defense.

Note: If a multiple-team tie is reduced to a two-team tie at any time using the above criteria, the two-team tie will be resolved in accordance with the existing two-team tiebreaking procedure.