Let top seeds pick their opponents
The addition of the play-in tournament could lead to bad draws for top seeds. Fix that and add some more stakes by letting the best teams draft first-round opponents.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Stage Rehearsal, Edgar Degas
The Portland Trail Blazers and Dallas Mavericks had every chance to put together a run to knock the injury-hampered L.A. Lakers down into the No. 6 seed. Both teams have failed: as Anthony Davis prepares to return to action for the defending champs, Portland sits two games behind L.A. in the loss column and Dallas has sunk to four games back. The Lakers are on track to remain in the No. 5 seed, facing the Denver Nuggets in the first round with a likely second-round series with the No. 1 seed Utah Jazz awaiting the victor.
But circumstances around the injuries to Davis and LeBron James could have just as easily led to the Lakers falling to No. 6 and drawing the likely No. 3 L.A. Clippers in the first round. Having the Battle of Los Angeles in the first round would have been a win and a loss for the NBA: as the league learned in the bubble, there’s no guarantee of an eventual Battle of L.A. so ensuring you get one — even if in the first round — is a boon. But losing one of the two teams and their high-profile stars this early in the playoffs is a pain.
There’s also the impact such a circumstance has on teams fighting for playoff seeding and the jockeying around match-ups. What’s the point of fighting hard for a certain seed if you just end up with the misfortune of facing a ringer in the first round?
This is where I renew the argument that home court advantage isn’t a strong enough reward for winning a top seed. Especially with the play-in tournament boosting the possibility of a hotter or better team slipping into the No. 8 spot, the NBA should make a move to boost the advantage the top seeds receive by letting the top three seeds choose their first-round opponent from among the bottom-4 playoff seeds.
Consider a scenario. Last year, before the current incarnation of the play-in was installed, the Western Conference had seven really good teams and the teams fighting for the last playoff spot were all around and under .500. Had this new play-in set-up been in place and had the regular season No. 7 seed Mavericks (with a record of 43-32) lost their first play-in game to the Blazers and won their second game, the altogether weaker Portland (35-39 in the regular season) would have been the No. 7 seed and the clearly better Dallas would have been No. 8. The No. 1 seed would have faced a much stronger first-round opponent than the No. 2 seed solely by virtue of misfortune.
You get around this by letting the No. 1 seed pick their opponent from the bottom four seeds after the play-in is settled. In most cases, they’ll pick the No. 8 seed. But they may be occasional occasion to make a different choice. The No. 2 seed then picks from the remaining three lower seeds. Then the No. 3 seed gets their choice from the two teams remaining, which definitely heightens the spice factor.
This all makes for compelling television by the way, like a more serious version of the All-Star draft. I don’t think teams or players would be willing to have stars make the announcements or decisions on television. But general managers or coaches could be involved. Imagine this season the Bucks finish No. 3 and the Hawks finish No. 4, leaving Milwaukee to choose to face either the Celtics or Heat in the first round. You think whoever the Bucks picked as their opponent would squeeze a little extra juice out of that scenario?
This isn’t a new concept — the WNBA has done it — and I would propose the higher seeds get just one bite at the apple, they don’t get to pick their second-round opponent from the two survivors in the 3-6 and 4-5 match-ups. This has been proposed by others before as well — again, it’s not a new concept. But so long as the NBA is tweaking the competitive format and remains completely closed off to the idea of universal seeding (top 16 teams in a bracket regardless of conference), this is a sensible addition to the library of stakes the NBA needs to develop to keep the regular season interesting at this stage.
Scores
Friday
Clippers 103, Sixers 106 — No Kawhi Leonard, so this will go down as yet another Philadelphia win against a superpower without one of their stars (similar to the wins over Brooklyn). Still, Paul George brought it and Joel Embiid is truly unstoppable. They won, and you can’t really discount the fact that they keep on winning.
Pelicans 115, Wizards 117 — Look at the Wizards! This win got them into a tie with the Bulls for the No. 10 seed and the final play-in spot in the East.
Magic 102, Raptors 113 — It’s not just the Bulls and Wizards fighting for that last play-in spot, though: THE TAMPA RAPTORS ARE TIED FOR IT TOO! All three teams won another game this weekend, so we currently have a 3-way tie for the final play-in spot. Hilarious!
Blazers 107, Spurs 106 — San Antonio had three decent chances to win this in the final seconds but couldn’t get over the hump. A “whew!” game from Portland.
Knicks 117, Mavericks 109 — Julius Randle is a god.
This block by Nerlens Noel is just incredible.
Saturday
Jazz 115, Lakers 127 — No Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell or Mike Conley. Here’s what I don’t really get: it’s the Jazz’s best-case scenario that they keep the No. 1 seed and the Lakers end up No. 6. Maybe that’s not likely with Anthony Davis days away from coming back and the Mavericks and Blazers fumbling the ball. But losing to the Lakers somewhat on purpose sure doesn’t help!
Pistons 100, Wizards 121 — Russell Westbrook is rolling on a triple-double streak that now stands at seven.
Warriors 114, Celtics 119 — Heckuva duel between Jayson Tatum (44 points on 16/25 shooting) and Steph Curry (47 points on 15/27 shooting with 11 threes). Just haymaker after haymaker. Pure scoring instinct and shotmaking. You love to see it. Boston is rolling.
Incredible hustle play from Juan Toscano-Anderson … that landed him in the concussion protocol.
Spurs 111, Suns 85 — San Antonio rested DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and Patty Mills but the Suns just didn’t have it. It happens.
Sunday
Pacers 117, Hawks 129 — Atlanta, Boston and New York in a death match to avoid the No. 6 seed and a first-round date with the Bucks. Two of these three teams will get to face each other (unless the Heat or Hornets get hot).
Pelicans 112, Knicks 122 — Sixth straight win. The Knicks are no longer a cute little story: this team is good and has a good shot at getting to the second round of the NBA playoffs.
Nets 107, Heat 109 — Kevin Durant left very early with a hamstring issue — I’ve never seen a team be this cautious with a star player, though I understand it given what he’s coming off, the stakes, the mileage on him — but Miami still needed Bam Adebayo to save the day over Jeff Green.
Kings 121, Mavericks 107 — Sacramento avoids its first 10-game losing streak in three decades. Dallas gets 37 from Luka Doncic but Sacramento shot the lights out and had only six turnovers all game. Sometimes you’re just going to lose, but given the stakes for Dallas right now losing to a team that has recently lost to the injured Lakers by 20, the Pistons, the Wolves, the Wizards — that’s tough.
By the way, this is Mo Harkless calling Kristaps Porzingis “soft as hell” in his face and Porzingis not really disproving the theory despite pushing Harkless in response.
Timberwolves 105, Clippers 124
League Pass Cupdate
The three weekend LP Cup games held little consequence.
That said, this is a BANNER week for the League Pass Cup with 10 games between now and Thursday including some matches involving the top squads.
Schedule
All times Eastern. LP Cup games denoted with a 🏆.
Cavaliers at Pistons, 7 🏆
Bulls at Celtics, 7:30
Warriors at Sixers, 7:30, ESPN
Spurs at Pacers, 8
Rockets at Heat, 8
Thunder at Wizards, 8 🏆
Suns at Bucks, 8 — Potentially a big heavyweight fight if the teams don’t rest
Grizzlies at Nuggets, 9
Jazz at Lakers, 10, ESPN
Links
Zach Lowe’s weekly 10 things column for ESPN Insider, including Paul George’s vengeance tour. ($)
Fascinating developments in European soccer as a breakaway group of 12 clubs has announced the creation of an NBA-style league against the wishes of essentially everyone who is not an owner of one of the 12 teams in question. It sounds like players might be banned from FIBA competitions as a result of playing for these teams (empty threat or real?) and the league, dubbed The Super League, will institute a salary cap of sorts.
Dwyane Wade purchases an ownership stake in the Utah Jazz. Interesting!
The NBA is reportedly prepared for postponements with the Derek Chauvin verdict expected this week. The Timberwolves are on a road trip.
Year 35 of Ricky O’Donnell’s Western Illinois dynasty.
The Wolves, Lynx and a couple other NBA teams will hold an auction to benefit the family of Daunte Wright, who was killed by a Minnesota police officer earlier this month.
Tyler Tynes talks to Ben Simmons for GQ.
Yaron Weitzman on the frequency with which Zion Williamson’s shot gets blocked.
The Fever picking Kysre Gondrezick at No. 4 overall threw the WNBA Draft for a loop. Why’d they do it?
Britni de la Cretaz at SI on how nonbinary athletes live in a binary sports world.
Shot.
Chaser.
David Thorpe in TrueHoop on the magic happening with R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. ($)
How the Dallas Wings won the WNBA Draft.
Be excellent to each other.
I would love for top seeds to get to draft their first round opponents and it actually feels kind of possible now.
Small correction re: the football European Super League - players, coaches etc might be banned from FIFA competitions (rather than FIBA, which is the global basketball governing body).