When the Portland Trailblazers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2020 play-in tournament, it was a necessary game to help decide who should claim the final playoff spot in the NBA.
The 2021 edition, featuring six total games – two 7 seed vs 8 seed matchups for the rights to the 7 seed, two 9 seed vs 10 seed matchups for the rights to play the loser of the higher seed matchups and two final games to decide the 8 seed – was far from a necessity.
The Memphis Grizzlies avenged their 2020 play-in failure by defeating both the San Antonio Spurs in the 9 seed vs 10 seed game and the Golden State Warriors to claim the 8 seed in the Western Conference. For the first time, a regular-season 9 seed claimed the eighth and final playoff spot.
The only thing is, history says it is all for naught.
Since expanding the playoffs to a 16-team tournament, only five 8 seeds were able to defeat the 1 seed. Things get bleaker in best-of-seven series with only three teams ever accomplishing that feat – the Warriors in 2007, the Grizzlies in 2011 and the 76ers in 2012.
In the NBA, unlike any other league, the best team will typically win a best-of-seven series. There is much less luck involved like there is in the playoffs in baseball, hockey and especially football.
The NFL expanded their playoffs as well this past season, adding an extra wildcard team in each conference to bring the total to 14 teams. This move appeared to be strictly for money reasons. The addition of two extra opening-round playoff games was estimated to create $150 million in extra money for the league. While the NBA’s expanded playoffs – or at least additional postseason games – were created to recoup lost money from the pandemic shortened 2019-2020 season, it will not generate nearly as much revenue, nor will it create any additional meaningful basketball.
Today’s NBA fans’ biggest gripe with the league is how useless the regular season is. With load management and end-of-season tanking to acquire more favorable seeding becoming a rampant trend over the past few years, the quality of regular-season games has decreased significantly. The fact that over half of the league makes it to the playoffs before this tournament already led to this nonchalant approach to the 82 games leading up to the playoffs. Not to mention teams routinely make it with sub .500 records.
With the addition of the play-in tournament, two-thirds of the league now makes it to the postseason. If a team is not actively tanking, chances are they will at least get a shot at a playoff spot. The only one to blame for the lackluster regular season is the NBA.
The appeal to create it in the first place is clear. The NFL is king in American sports and leagues often try to recreate their monetary successes. When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver saw the NFL making $150 million off of two games, he was licking his chops. The only thing is, the 7 seeds in the NFL not only have a chance to upset the 2 seed in their opening-round matchup, but also have the potential to go all the way.
Yes, the 7 seed Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears found little success in the inaugural expanded NFL playoffs, however, the former ended just 15-yards shy of field goal range to send the game to overtime against the Buffalo Bills.
The point is it’s doable. Both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers captured the Vince Lombardi Trophy as 6 seeds in Super Bowl XL and Super Bowl XLV respectively. In the NFL, the saying “any given Sunday” has become as repetitive and annoying as it is true. The same cannot be said about the NBA.
Any given night, anything can happen. This is why teams who are tanking still occasionally rattle off a win against a top-seeded team in the regular season. Throughout seven games, though, it rarely ever comes to fruition.
The Grizzlies got lucky in game one against the top-seeded Utah Jazz without their franchise star Donovan Mitchell. In game two on Wednesday night, the Jazz righted the ship behind a solid 25-point performance from Mitchell in his first game back since injuring his ankle in mid-April and they will all but certainly continue winning, pending the health of their stars. Even a 47-point explosion from Ja Morant was unable to bring the Grizzlies close to win against the fully loaded Jazz.
All the NBA did by trying to create more meaningful basketball was make even more meaningless games. All eyes will be on Adam Silver going forward to see what he does with the tournament. For the sake of regular-season basketball, let’s hope he scraps it.
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