Adam Silver said on Friday that play-in games for postseason spots in the NBA are great fun, and the league might look into making them mandatory, not just a fortunate fluke of the 2017-18 schedule.
The Minnesota Timberwolves reached the postseason on Wednesday night when they beat the Denver Nuggets on the final day of the NBA’s regular season. Both teams could have made the playoffs if they won, which made the game a win-or-go-home situation. It was an overtime thriller in which the Timberwolves came out on top, and it was a lot of fun to watch.
Silver spoke with the media on Friday before the start of the NBA playoffs and was asked about the game and the possibility that the league could force more of that excitement by scheduling play-in games for postseason seeds. It was something that he seemed open to exploring, which has been reported in the past.
“It does open up those possibilities that we can be looking at something more formalized, a play-in-type format,” Silver said according to ESPN.
That’s far from saying it’s a certainty, but it would be a huge alteration to the postseason format, perhaps even bigger than another proposed idea: Eliminating conferences and just putting the 16-best teams in the league in the playoffs.
Changing the rules to include a play-in game would make the postseason similar to the First Four of the NCAA Tournament, which has two games determining 16 seeds and another two determining two other spots in the bracket. But a play-in game between the eight and nine spots in each conference would be a huge attraction for the NBA, and would be a massive ratings boost to end the season.
