Under the new proposal, the top four seeds would be slotted by record among the three division winners and the team with the next-best record.
按照新的提议，三个分区冠军和除此之外总战绩最好的球队，将按战绩排序确定前四位种子。NBA正在酝酿修改季后赛球队的排名规则。如果按照新的规则，马刺本赛季仍排第一，小牛第二，这样他们就不会在半决赛相遇。

Game 3s, in particular, cause headaches for the Pistons¹, who are 4-11 in those contests over the last five seasons. Their most successful season of Game 3s came in 2004, when they captured 3-of-4 of those games and won the NBA championship.
(系列赛)第三场让活塞队极为头疼，过去５个赛季他们在这里4胜11负。活塞最好的（系列赛）第三场战绩出现在2004年，4战3胜并最终夺得NBA总冠军。今年他们已经打过两次系列赛的第三场，都输掉了。算上输给骑士的这场，活塞过去的11次客场第三战输掉了10次。

Jason Kidd's triple-double was the ninth of his playoff career, which tied him with Wilt² Chamberlain for third place on the all-time list.
(第四场)基得获得了职业生涯中季后赛的第九个三双，这使他与张伯伦在（季后赛）三双榜上并列第三。“魔术师”约翰逊以30次列季后赛三双榜第一名。

Cassell entered the postseason with more playoff experience than the rest of his teammates combined.
卡塞尔的季后赛出场次数比快艇队其他所有球员加到一起还多。作为一名征战NBA13年的老将，卡塞尔拥有112场季后赛经验，而快艇其他人的总数为110场。

Dallas cleared out for Nowitzki. He bumped against defensive³ nemesis⁴ Bruce Bowen and drew a key foul⁵.
(第４场比赛结束前8.5秒，马刺111比109领先)小牛队拉开，让诺维茨基单打防守对头布鲁斯·鲍文，诺维茨基与对手撞倒一起，造成对手犯规。

clear out: 拉开，指进攻球员都站在外围，把禁区清空，让本队球星单打。

nemesis: 有报应、复仇女神的意思，在这里指强大的对手。

The James-Wade rivalry⁶ has the potential to become a classic because the players are likely to face each other in the postseason for many years.
由于詹姆斯韦德之间的季后赛竞争将持续很多年，“詹韦对抗”具有成为NBA经典的潜质。

rivalry: 竞争，对抗。

classic: 经典。詹姆斯和韦德最近一次相遇是上个月的常规赛，詹姆斯47分、12个篮板、10次助攻，韦德44分、8个篮板、9次助攻。