But the NBA regular season is weird. Players don't play hard every game. Hell, teams don't try to win every game. They sit guys to rest them and instead of spacing it out in order to try to squeak out as many wins as possible, they simply play games with their B-side guys. The NBA is wanting to combat this, but that's when the 1-game injuries start to happen, lol.
The NBA season is a marathon followed by 4 one-mile runs. You won't win the title if you exhaust yourself in the marathon.
This is why, IMHO, they should cut the playoffs down to the top-4 in each Conference only. Then the playoff race, and by extension the regular season in general, would REALLY matter.
East Playoff Race this year:
With 10 games to go then last-10, then final, then seed (
Bold if changed from with 10-games to go):
- 53-19 Toronto, 6-4, 59-23, #1 seed
- 49-23 Boston, 6-4, 55-27, #2 seed
- 43-29 Cleveland, 7-3, 50-32 #4 seed
- 42-30 Philly, 10-0, 52-30, #3 seed
- 41-31 Indiana, 7-3, 48-34, #5 seed
- 40-32 Washington, 3-7, 43-39, #8 seed
- 39-33 Miami, 5-5, 44-38, #6 seed
- 38-34 Milwaukee, 6-4, 44-38 #7 seed
- 32-40 Detroit, 7-3, 39-43, First team out
Basically nothing interesting happened in the last-10 games. Toronto and Boston had effectively clinched the top-2 seeds with 10 to go and Detroit was an extreme long-shot. Philly surged past Cleveland for the #3 seed and Washington nosedived from 6th to 8th but so what?
Cleveland, Philly, Indiana, Washington, Miami, and Milwaukee were all within 5-games of each other for the #3 through #8 seeds but did it really matter? IMHO, it did not.
Now imagine for a minute if only the top-4 went to the playoffs. Six teams within five games for two spots would have been VERY exciting.
West Playoff Race this year:
With 10 games to go then last-10, then final, then seed (
Bold if changed from with 10-games to go):
- 58-14 Houston, 7-3, 65-17, #1 seed
- 54-18 Golden State, 4-6, 58-24, #2 seed
- 44-28 Portland, 5-5, 49-33, #3 seed
- 43-29 OKC, 5-5, 48-34, #4 seed
- 42-30 NOLA, 6-4, 48-34, #6 seed
- 42-30 San Antonio, 5-5, 47-35, #7 seed
- 41-31 Utah, 7-3, 48-34, #5 seed
- 41-31 Minnesota, 6-4, 47-35, #8 seed
- 39-33 Denver, 7-3, 46-36, First team out
- 38-34 LAC, 4-6, 42-40, Second team out
Houston and Golden State had clinched the top-2 seeds with 10 games to go but the West race was somewhat more interesting because the Nuggets and Clippers were within range of the Jazz and Timberwolves. Still, that isn't very interesting when you consider that the reward for winning that race was to get slaughtered by the Rockets/Warriors in the first round.
Now imagine for a minute if only the top-4 went to the playoffs. Eight teams within six games for two spots would have been VERY exciting.
