2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

turned dubs-celtics off already. trey lyles still being in the league is crazy to me

i had to go through my nba player rolodex to confirm that this is indeed quinndary weatherspoon

Chiozza westherspoon jta Kuminga is a lineup choice

its stauskas

NIK STAUSKAS WHAT A SHOT!!! pic.twitter.com/oeDchW2TLA

— Green Machine (@Greenmachine17_) March 17, 2022

movement in the east

The Raptors get a big win over the Clippers tonight in LA, sending them to five straight victories and moving them into a tie with Cleveland for sixth in the East. Both teams are 4 losses ahead of Brooklyn with 13 games to go — in short, it’ll be tough for Nets to escape play-in.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) March 17, 2022

It’s also worth noting that the Bulls, after losing to Utah tonight, are now behind the Celtics in the standings & only two losses ahead of both Cleveland & Toronto (and also two losses back of second). The race for positioning in the East will be intense over the next few weeks. https://t.co/E7XqMftwpj

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) March 17, 2022

In the west… can the wolves catch one of nuggets jazz or mavs and get out of the play in?

it seems plausible but all those teams are playing pretty well right now

wolves are 9-1 in their last 10, mavs are 8-2, nuggets are 7-3. so they haven’t made up a ton of ground

My God that Westbrook/Beverly clip. I've never in my life gone down the "these athletes get paid too much, if I was making that much I'd be busting my ass every play" sports talk call-in rant path but that clip is pushing me down it

lol

The Lakers since All-Star break:

2-0 when LeBron scores 50
0-9 when LeBron doesn’t score 50 pic.twitter.com/EdVbkc9xpZ

— StatMuse (@statmuse) March 17, 2022

perfect illustration lmao

Curry out indefinitely

They should change the playin rules at the very least. Lik I do not want a team 15 games under .500 in the playin

Yah you should def have to meet some type of threshold

Fan vote in for last spot lol

you should have to be within 5 games of the 8 seed or you auto-forfeit your play-in game

yeah something like that would be good

tbh i don't think teams under .500 should get play-in games at all unless they are tied with the 8 seed. you could simply win half your games if you want to make the playoffs it doesnt seem like too much to ask

i know this is gonna sound like a crazy concept but if a play in game is happening w/ a team that is too far under .500 for your liking, you can just choose to not watch it

its not that it's that the Lakers probably would find a way to win it which means we'd be in for a miserable series vs. the Suns or whatever. though I guess it might be fun to watch the Lakers get housed 4 games straight

This seems like it will correct itself. Like you can flip it around and say the team above .500 in the play-in should just win their game.

its not that it's that the Lakers probably would find a way to win it which means we'd be in for a miserable series vs. the Suns or whatever. though I guess it might be fun to watch the Lakers get housed 4 games straight

― frogbs, Thursday, March 17, 2022 2:06 PM (two minutes ago)

as opposed to the less miserable option of the clippers? i don't really see the issue

idk I guess it goes back to the issue every sport now has which is why are we giving mediocre teams playoff berths. the last NFL playoffs were really plagued by this. I guess its not too big a problem in the NBA where bad teams can rarely beat a 1-2 seed 4 times

The 1-8 and 2-7 series should be 5 games

(All 1st round series should be, but esp those)

eh that increases the likelihood of a stupid upset

i've always liked the idea that if a first round series goes 3-0 the series ends, but the teams would never agree to give up a playoff game

If a 1 or 2 seed can't win a 5 game series, they deserve to be upset and I wouldn't deem that stupid.

i don't think there's actually much difference between 5 and 7 games in terms of statistical likelihood of a much worse team winning, you have to go down to 3 to move the needle

like 99.9% isnt that much more than 99% whereas 90% is a lot less

Right and I can't recall any "dumb upset" happening when it used to be 5 games. Dikembe and Nuggets beating the 1 seed is all I can think of and that was a classic moment.
If you want to make it nearly impossible for a 1 or 2 seed to get upset in 1st round, just give them a bye. What's the point in going through the motions.

If you want to make it nearly impossible for a 1 or 2 seed to get upset in 1st round, just give them a bye. What's the point in going through the motions.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, March 17, 2022 3:28 PM (one minute ago)

well this is a money concern on the part of the teams and the leagues so it's really not even worth talking about. we might as well be talking about what happened if they decided to play the first round on the moon.

the calculus doesn't make sense to me anyway. we're talking about potentially eliminating one or two first round playoff games between 1 and 8 that are boring w/ the risk of having a whole second round series between 4 and 8 which is far less entertaining than having the 1 seed continue on, and then likely the 4 seed in the conference finals which again in most years will make for basketball that is much less compelling than if the best teams win out. think of the hawks/bucks ECF from last year which had no juice to it at all. if there's a few first round games that aren't that intriguing to you just don't watch them. the second round comes around soon enough

everyone remembers the "we believe" warriors, but not so much when they lost 4-1 to the 4th seeded jazz in the next round or when the jazz lost to the spurs 4-1 in the conference finals

You're making different arguments based on how you want the end result to be. If a 4 vs 8 series doesn't interest you, you don't have to watch it either! I think a lot of people would like to see an underdog who just beat a 1 seed try to make it thru the next round. I'm not buying that it's inherently less entertaining. Plus I just feel like a 1 seed that needs a game 7 to win 1st rnd doesn't deserve to go on.

Do you think that series would've been remembered if the Jazz had played someone else?

second round series are more entertaining than first round series, i don’t think that’s really up for debate. if i’m gonna ignore a playoff series i’d rather it be 1/8 than anything in the second round. trying to improve the first round at the potential expense of the rest of the playoffs doesn’t make sense to me

Idk if you just want the team that was better in the reg season to win the 1st 2 rounds every time I don't know what the purpose of those rounds are

the purpose is to get the best teams playing later in the playoffs

can we please get back to how bad teams playing in the play-in is bad, this silly discussion is polluting that good idea

It's not improving the 1st rnd it's just shortening it. And like ciderpress said, the number of series where a different winner between 1/2-7/8 seeds would happen if a series was 5 games vs 7 is incredibly tiny. IOW your suboptimal outcome would almost never happen whereas my suboptimal scenario happens multiple times a year.

No one's forcing you to read our silly discussion nor is it preventing anyone from having your preferred discussion kev

first round should be round robin like in footie

Idk if you just want the team that was better in the reg season to win the 1st 2 rounds every time I don't know what the purpose of those rounds are

second round upsets of the 1 seed are cool to me, hawks vs sixers was a really memorable series even if it kinda ruined the east finals. less cool would’ve been wizards vs hawks tho

The teams and their owners love playoff games. They make money. They excite fans. They sell merchandise. The play-in bumps the number of 'playoff' games, if only slightly, but they won't ever go away as long as they generate some extra interest and revenue.

I think its been long established in the NBA that the regular season & playoffs are different things and that teams don't really show everything until the playoffs start. its not like the NFL where random Sunday Night games have major implications, or MLB where there's a real set way to manage your team. I think those two sports have a much bigger issue with this than the NBA does.

Seems not good:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33527472/ex-gm-donnie-nelson-sues-dallas-mavericks-says-was-fired-reporting-sexual-misconduct-team-denies-claim

thats pretty bad

Best organization around

Richaun Holmes is out for the remainder of the season due to personal reasons: pic.twitter.com/IpIKkcipAr

— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) March 18, 2022

Credit where it’s due Russ made a sick steal/3 to tie at the end of regulation

It was an ugly as hell jumper that looked like it could’ve airballed & it kinda looked like his foot was on the line but hey. It went in

scott fucking foster man