5 days Ago By Associated Press
STEVE Kerr, the basketball fan, raves about the play-in tournament and the drama that it creates down the stretch of the NBA’s regular season and leading into the official start of the playoffs. Kerr, the basketball coach, doesn’t like it so much. “I haven’t loved it because we’ve been on the wrong end of it,” said Kerr, the Golden State Warriors coach.
“We’re 0-3 in these play-in games. And so, you finish in the top eight, you feel like you should be in the playoffs. On the other hand, it’s been great for the league.
If you’re eighth and-or seventh, well, you had 82 games to do better — and you didn’t do better.” This is where the Warriors — and seven other teams — now find themselves. They’re in the postseason.
They’re not in the playoffs. And six games this week all will have either a playoff berth, season elimination, or both on the line. The fifth full season of the NBA’s play-in tournament starts Tuesday (Wednesday, April 16, 2025, PH time): No.
7 Orlando hosts No. 8 Atlanta in the Eastern Conference, and No. 7 Golden State hosts No.
8 Memphis in the Western Conference. The winners of those games make the playoffs, with the Magic-Hawks winner earning the chance to play Boston and the Warriors-Grizzlies winner off to play Houston. For Tuesday’s losers, all is not lost.
The Magic-Hawks loser will play host to either No. 9 Chicago or No. 10 Miami on Friday in an elimination game to see who faces No.
1 Cleveland in the East, while the Warriors-Grizzlies loser plays host to either No. 9 Sacramento or No. 10 Dallas to see who’ll take on No.
1 Oklahoma City in the West. The Chicago-Miami and Sacramento-Dallas games are Wednesday. The losers of those games are eliminated.
“You want to be mindful that you don’t over-clutter the mind,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’re at our best when we have great clarity. And we know what our game is at this point.
We know what their game is. We’ve played them three times in the last two months. So, we will do a little bit more prep than a normal regular season game .
.. but I don’t want over-saturation of information to slow us down.
” The play-in tournament started in the Walt Disney World bubble in 2020, a way to even out an uneven schedule that year. The only game was Portland-Memphis to decide the final playoff spot in the West; Portland won to grab the No. 8 position.
The full tournament started a year later. Home teams are 17-7 in those games, which is a good sign for Golden State, Sacramento, Orlando, and Chicago. Play-in past performances Of the eight teams in this year’s play-in tournament, six have been there before.
Atlanta is 3-1 in past play-in games, Memphis is 2-1, Chicago and Miami are both 2-2, Sacramento is 1-1, and Golden State is 0-3. “We haven’t fared well in these play-in games,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “Got to get locked in and get ready to go.
” Dallas and Orlando are there for the first time. “The beauty of it and the blessing of it is being at home, in front of our fans,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. / AP.
