To know list: 8 things to make you an instant expert this week.(KNOW IT ALL)

[1] THE MAIN EVENT

Seeds of change

The last time two 60-win teams met in the NBA playoffs was three years ago, when the Spurs outlasted the Mavericks in the Western Conference finals. This season, the Spurs and Mavericks again reached 60 wins and again are meeting in the playoffs.

This time, however, they're playing in the second round, thanks to a flaw in the NBA's seeding process. When the league expanded to six divisions last season, it decided to award the division winners in each conference the top three seeds and base seeds 4-8 on regular-season records. So even though the Nuggets finished tied for the seventh-best record in the West, they copped the third seed because they won the Northwest Division. The Mavs were stuck with the fourth seed after finishing behind the Spurs in the Southwest. The poor Grizzlies fared even worse--their fourth-best record earned them nothing but a first-round sweep by the Mavs.

The league says it will try to improve the process next season. Most likely, that will mean taking the division winners and the team with the best record among the rest of the field and seeding them 1-4. In such a scenario, the Spurs and Mavs would have been seeded first and second and been on track to meet in the conference finals. The Nuggets, however, still would have caught a break by being given the fourth seed.

Seeding teams 1-8 based strictly on regular-season records would render the division races worthless, and the league understandably wants to avoid that. Re-seeding after each round is another possibility, but the league has expressed no interest in that.

Indeed, it's a tough situation--kind of like what the Mavs and Spurs are in right now.--Stan McNeal