How the 2022 NBA Playoffs Standings Shaped the Championship Race

I still remember sitting in my living room last May, watching the Western Conference Finals unfold with a mix of awe and disbelief. The Golden State Warriors were staging what felt like an inevitable march toward their fourth championship in eight years, but what struck me most was how dramatically the playoff landscape had shifted from just months earlier. The journey to the Larry O'Brien Trophy wasn't just about who played best in June—it was about how the 2022 NBA playoffs standings shaped the championship race from the very first round.

When the regular season concluded, the standings revealed some surprising realities. The Phoenix Suns dominated with a franchise-record 64 wins, while Memphis surprised everyone with 56 victories despite Ja Morant missing significant time. Out East, Miami secured the top seed with 53 wins in what became the most balanced conference I've seen in years. These standings didn't just determine matchups—they created narratives that would define the entire postseason. The play-in tournament had already reshaped the playoff picture, eliminating LeBron James' Lakers and sending Brooklyn through as the seventh seed despite Kevin Durant's heroics.

What fascinated me was how quickly those carefully earned standings positions unraveled. Milwaukee, the defending champions and third seed, fell to Boston in seven games despite Giannis' historic 44-point Game 6 performance. Philadelphia, sitting comfortably as the fourth seed, watched their title hopes evaporate when James Harden disappeared against Miami. The Warriors themselves had climbed from the play-in tournament disappointment the previous year to the third seed, giving them just enough home court advantage to survive Memphis in the second round. I've covered basketball for fifteen years, and I've never seen seeding matter so much while simultaneously meaning so little—the margins between advancing and going home were razor-thin.

The championship path truly demonstrated how the 2022 NBA playoffs standings created unexpected advantages and challenges. Boston's route was particularly fascinating—they benefited from facing a depleted Miami team in the Conference Finals after the Heat's brutal seven-game series against Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Golden State avoided Phoenix entirely when the top-seeded Suns suffered that spectacular collapse against Dallas. The standings had positioned Phoenix as favorites, but the playoffs revealed their regular season dominance as somewhat fragile. This reminds me of something Polish basketball coach said during EuroBasket about external expectations: "I hope it will still not be the case while I am a coach of Poland but in general, I don't listen to the noise and that's it." Championship teams understand this—the standings create noise, but contenders learn to block it out.

Looking back, the Warriors' championship was as much about navigating the playoff bracket as their superior talent. Their experience showed in how they handled the standings-generated pressure—they never seemed bothered by being the lower seed against Memphis or the theoretical underdogs against Boston. The Celtics, despite being the second seed, played with a road-warrior mentality that served them well until they ran out of gas against Golden State's depth. In my view, this postseason proved that while standings determine matchups, they don't determine destiny. The best teams create their own paths regardless of seeding, something Stephen Curry and company demonstrated perfectly throughout their remarkable run to the 2022 championship.