Kyrie Irving believes the person who came up with the Play-in tournament is hip-hip hooraying to the fact that it has already featured the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.
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On Tuesday, all 30 NBA teams will take the court to play their last games of the regular season. There were no surprises in West with the seeding most of the teams finished with.
The 3rd to 6th seed in the Western conference would see a tough fight between the Warriors and Mavericks for the 3rd spot. Meanwhile, the Jazz and the Nuggets play their last games to fight for the 5th spot. None of the four played each other, but the games still promise excitement nonetheless.
On the other hand, Eastern Conference had some thrill. With a tied record with the Bucks and the Sixers, Celtics finished as 3rd seed which is so atrocious when you think of how they started their campaign this season.
Meanwhile, none of the Play-in spots saw any swapped places. Cavs finished at 7th, Brooklyn at 8th, Hawks at 9th, and Hornets at 10th in the East. The Wolves and Clippers would finish at 7th and 8th, Pelicans at 9th, and Spurs at 10th in the West.
And although the Nets finished far below the expectations, Kyrie Irving is content with where they are and is happy with NBA’s Play-in tournament.
“Last year you get LeBron James and Steph, this year you get me and KD”: Kyrie Irving is impressed with the idea of play-ins
It would have made Brooklyn’s lives a little easier this season if the NBA never introduced the Play-in tournament because they finished as 8th seed. But it would have been too risky, and so Irving is happy that there’s a chance for even the 9th/10th seed to make it to the Playoffs.
Also, the fact that this theme kept LeBron James’ Lakers in for the Playoffs even for 1 series after the King had criticized the format publicly at the start of the season was ironic and great for the league business-wise. The Nets point guard just talked about the same after the last game of their regular season.
Kyrie: “I think somebody’s in the back room hip hip hooraying whoever created the Play-In tournament. Because last year you get Steph and LeBron, this year you get me and KD going against the Cavs in the Play-In game.”
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) April 10, 2022
Though we didn’t get to see Stephen Curry and Co advance to the playoffs last year, their presence in the Play-in tournament worked well in advocating the new format’s case.
As competitive as the league has become in the past 2 to 3 years, it looks like the Play-ins are here to stay. Otherwise, we might miss out on better teams altogether because they messed up a few games at some point in the season but could be a must-see TV for the Playoffs.
