2023-03-29 07:00:00
The game between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans was heated. For 48 minutes there was always scrambling and pack formations, unsportsmanlike and technical fouls, all kinds of trash talk – and an incredible comeback from the Warriors, who were 17 points behind at halftime. Then they showed what makes them so unique: Draymond Green rumbled and bullied, the role players Jordan Poole (21 points), Donte DiVincenzo (13) and Jonathan Kuminga (13) embodied the mantra of everyone in the squad is important Franchise that shaped the past decade of basketball with four championships and six finals.
And, of course: Stephen Curry, who can also trigger earthquakes in his home arena in San Francisco at the age of 35: he put up 39 points, the Warriors still won 120:109.
The game had everything that makes this sport so fascinating, as it should be for a proper playoff duel. But, wait a minute: It’s the end of March, the elimination round of the North American professional league NBA doesn’t start until April 15th. So why on earth were these two teams working so hard on Tuesday night as if it were the crucial seventh game of the finals series? Well, both defending champions Golden State and the Pelicans are among the nine Western Conference teams currently caught between title shots and missing out on the playoffs. “Both teams are fighting for nothing less than survival. They’re tense, almost desperate,” said New Orleans coach Willie Green. “The playoffs have long since begun for these teams, and this defeat hurts.”
In the west it looks like this: The Denver Nuggets should have number one and home rights up to and including the semi-final series; the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings are dueling for second place. Then it’s “Three, Four, Two” and that means: three places that entitle you to direct playoff qualification. Four teams will win the remaining two of the eight participants in a play-in tournament. Two will have missed the playoffs at the end of the regular season.
The seeding for this play-in tournament is also important, the structure is: seventh place plays home once morest eighth place, winner will be seeded seventh in the playoffs and play number two. The loser of this game plays once morest the winner of the duel “nine once morest ten” (the loser of this game is out) for the last remaining playoff spot. That’s pretty complicated – but it guarantees three games before the start of the playoffs in each of the two conferences that make up the NBA, in which everything is at stake. And that creates ratings. How great for the NBA that two weeks before these play-in games, almost every game is regarding this seeding list – and therefore: regarding everything.
Like a World Cup without Neymar, Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema
For marketing reasons, this constellation is the best possible. The time of sporty irrelevant games is now over. After the turbulence at the end of the transfer window, the squads are fixed and there are no creative breaks for the best players. That had previously assumed such grotesque excesses that the Los Angeles Times satirized the way NBA teams treat their stars in a comic: What if parents were so gentle on their children? You can see a father calling the school: “Well, my daughter was all at school yesterday, so she needs a day off today, tomorrow she’ll only be able to do lessons three and four – and then we’ll watch from day to day. We they have to be carefully introduced to their full teaching workload.”
Luka Doncic (right) is an important factor for the Dallas Mavericks and the NBA. The forward is one of the best in the league.
(Photo: Michael Conroy/dpa)
On the other hand, the constellation is dangerous from a marketing point of view, because out of nine candidates in the West, four will not qualify for the playoffs. As of now, the Dallas Mavericks and thus the stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving would have been eliminated. The Lakers with LeBron James and Anthony Davis would have to both Winning play-in games to get in, the Warriors might face the Pelicans. That’s another reason why the game on Tuesday was so heated. Playoffs without James, Doncic and Curry are therefore possible, which would be tantamount to a World Cup without Neymar, Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema.
In terms of sport, all of this also means that a game like the one recently played between Minnesota and Lakers, which is proclaimed a must-see treat, is a duel between two clubs with almost even balance sheets. Is that really a treat – or is there artificial tension created? The play-in tournament was only introduced in 2020 because of the corona bubble and was only retained because of the great ratings.
How good that Warriors rooting buffalo Draymond Green not only likes to talk on the field. (“That’s my thing. They started with the trash talk and didn’t understand that that makes us stronger.”) He also says his opinion apart from that: “Of course I like games that are regarding something. The play -in-Ding I’d rather give up,” says Green, “straight into the playoffs, and then the season really gets going.”
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