Trying to operate a professional league during the pandemic was hard on all sports.
Each league had to make changes to what was thought of as normal but sometimes there’s a bright idea that sticks.
That’s where the NBA is with the Play-In Tournament.
Technically, ten teams in each conference makes the playoffs and before you say it’s too many, it has provided much needed excitement to the bottom of each conference.
The structure is pretty simple:
At the conclusion of the regular season but before the first round of the playoffs, the team with the 7th-highest winning percentage in each conference will host the team with the 8th-highest winning percentage in a Play-In Game (the “Seven-Eight Game”). The winner of the Seven-Eight Game in each conference will earn the No. 7 seed.
The team with the 9th-highest winning percentage in each conference will host the team with the 10th-highest winning percentage in the “Nine-Ten Game”. The loser of the Seven-Eight Game will host the winner of the Nine-Ten Game in a Play-In Game, and the winner of that game in each conference will earn the No. 8 seed.
In the Eastern Conference it is pretty set when it comes to which teams will be in. Teams are still battling for seeding. Obviously you want to be in the 7th or 8th position.
Currently that would be Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets. It gets interesting because the Nets hold on the 8th spot is tenuous. They are a .5 game up on 9th place Charlotte Hornets and a 1.5 over 10th place Atlanta Hawks.
The Western Conference is a different story.
There’s only a 1.5 difference between 9th place and 11th place. The Los Angeles Lakers being in the 9th spot makes it even more intriguing. Under the old system the Lakers would need to make up four games with nine games left to get to the eighth. More than likely, LeBron James would be missing the playoffs even with the team in the eighth spot being the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers might have a “cursed” past but even they wouldn’t blow that type of lead.
By having the Play-In Tournament, the NBA has created a level of excitement beyond the top teams. NBA Governors like the Washington Wizards’ Ted Leonsis celebrate it.
Leonsis is one of the Governors who doesn’t entertain the option to tank. He wants to make the playoffs every year and, even though, the Wizards aren’t going to make the Play-In Tournament, they competed until late in the season because there was a path that didn’t exist in prior years.
The NBA playoffs are more intense than any other series based system except in the first round. That had to change and the Play-In Tournament has provided a much needed spark.
