Tournament Play
- Thread starter Krunker
- Start date
You would figure a guy like DeMarcus Cousins would be a good matchup against Zion. Or even Dwight Howard. Someone who is bigger and stronger than Zion would do the trick I think. Not McGee or Len (even though injured). We should maybe look at signing a big guy like that if both Kings and Pelicans make it to playoffs and play one another in the first round.
You forget two things.
The first is that if we lose to the Warriors, we still need the Wolves to win to get in. If the Wolves lose, the tiebreaker is head-to-head, which the Warriors win.
The second is that if we get into that 3-way tiebreaker by losing to the W's, every point we lose by counts as double. Losing by 12 would put us into a tie in the point differential tiebreaker with Golden State (29-12=17; 5+12=17). At that point we go to the next tiebreaker, which is total points scored. The Warriors win that one. So our loss buffer is 11 points, not 25. Then of course, there's the question of whether the Wolves catch us. If we lose by 11, they can catch us if they win by 20. Maybe not likely, but certainly possible when OKC has nothing to play for.
All we need to do to make this all academic is win on Tuesday.
The first is that if we lose to the Warriors, we still need the Wolves to win to get in. If the Wolves lose, the tiebreaker is head-to-head, which the Warriors win.
The second is that if we get into that 3-way tiebreaker by losing to the W's, every point we lose by counts as double. Losing by 12 would put us into a tie in the point differential tiebreaker with Golden State (29-12=17; 5+12=17). At that point we go to the next tiebreaker, which is total points scored. The Warriors win that one. So our loss buffer is 11 points, not 25. Then of course, there's the question of whether the Wolves catch us. If we lose by 11, they can catch us if they win by 20. Maybe not likely, but certainly possible when OKC has nothing to play for.
All we need to do to make this all academic is win on Tuesday.
Correct, inartfully expressed on my part. Win or lose against the Warriors, if we are to advance in the tournament our next two games will both be against teams that have already gone 2-0 against us, and if we don't beat the Warriors but still get in, the second of those two games will be on the road in an arena where we have already lost two games this year (and have looked bad doing it).
And that's just quirky, because we've only played 15 games this year. For 6 of those to have been against upcoming tournament opponents and for us to be 0-6 in those games...setting ourselves up for a storyline, I guess:
"With the Minnesota Timberwolves losing earlier in the evening, the Kings had no backdoor into the Tournament. They would need to defeat the Golden State Warriors - one of their two rival teams - despite holding an 0-2 record against them in the short season. In their previous matchup the Kings had been defeated, also on their home floor, by a buzzer-beating Klay Thompson jumper. This time, however, the Kings prevailed handily and as the 2-seed were already destined to meet either Houston or New Orleans in the quarterfinals - against both of whom they were also 0-2, those six combined losses against the Warriors, Rockets, and Pelicans being their only losses on the season to that point. By the time the Kings went to the locker room for halftime in their final round-robin game, they knew that were they to advance they would host the Rockets, whose two victories over Sacramento earlier in the season had come by a combined 43 points. With the Kings as the 2-seed, however, the game would be hosted in Sacramento, and the Kings made use of a new high horns set to counteract the tendencies of the Houston centers to drop into the paint, leading to an easy win. The semifinals moved to Las Vegas, where the Kings faced their other rival team, the Los Angeles Lakers, who had narrowly defeated the Phoenix Suns in their quarterfinal in L.A. before making the quick drive up the 15 freeway to Vegas with a host of fans trailing them, bringing along a heavy home court advantage. It didn't matter. The Kings, who had run the older Lakers into the ground in their first matchup of the season ran the game on repeat and advanced to the Finals to face the only team fate would allow them to face - the Indiana Pacers. The two teams were inextricably linked by a blockbuster star-for-star trade executed at the trade deadline in 2022, when the Kings sent budding second-year guard Tyrese Haliburton to the Pacers for the 25-year-old two-time all-star center Domantas Sabonis. Initial reactions to the trade were universally negative towards the Kings, but in the upcoming '22-'23 season newly-hired coach Mike Brown used Sabonis' skills at running an offense out of the post to unlock the lightning speed of De'Aaron Fox, and in their first full season after the trade, the Kings cruised to the best team offensive rating in league history and a #3 spot in the playoffs, breaking a league-record 15-year playoff drought. This year, however, the Kings had begun to work on their defense and had ceded the top offensive spot in the league to those same Indiana Pacers, fronted by Haliburton in a now undisputed lead guard role and his league-pacing 12 assists per game. A mere season and a half after making the biggest win-win trade in league memory, the two squads were set to face off in the very first In Season Tournament Finals..."
And that's just quirky, because we've only played 15 games this year. For 6 of those to have been against upcoming tournament opponents and for us to be 0-6 in those games...setting ourselves up for a storyline, I guess:
"With the Minnesota Timberwolves losing earlier in the evening, the Kings had no backdoor into the Tournament. They would need to defeat the Golden State Warriors - one of their two rival teams - despite holding an 0-2 record against them in the short season. In their previous matchup the Kings had been defeated, also on their home floor, by a buzzer-beating Klay Thompson jumper. This time, however, the Kings prevailed handily and as the 2-seed were already destined to meet either Houston or New Orleans in the quarterfinals - against both of whom they were also 0-2, those six combined losses against the Warriors, Rockets, and Pelicans being their only losses on the season to that point. By the time the Kings went to the locker room for halftime in their final round-robin game, they knew that were they to advance they would host the Rockets, whose two victories over Sacramento earlier in the season had come by a combined 43 points. With the Kings as the 2-seed, however, the game would be hosted in Sacramento, and the Kings made use of a new high horns set to counteract the tendencies of the Houston centers to drop into the paint, leading to an easy win. The semifinals moved to Las Vegas, where the Kings faced their other rival team, the Los Angeles Lakers, who had narrowly defeated the Phoenix Suns in their quarterfinal in L.A. before making the quick drive up the 15 freeway to Vegas with a host of fans trailing them, bringing along a heavy home court advantage. It didn't matter. The Kings, who had run the older Lakers into the ground in their first matchup of the season ran the game on repeat and advanced to the Finals to face the only team fate would allow them to face - the Indiana Pacers. The two teams were inextricably linked by a blockbuster star-for-star trade executed at the trade deadline in 2022, when the Kings sent budding second-year guard Tyrese Haliburton to the Pacers for the 25-year-old two-time all-star center Domantas Sabonis. Initial reactions to the trade were universally negative towards the Kings, but in the upcoming '22-'23 season newly-hired coach Mike Brown used Sabonis' skills at running an offense out of the post to unlock the lightning speed of De'Aaron Fox, and in their first full season after the trade, the Kings cruised to the best team offensive rating in league history and a #3 spot in the playoffs, breaking a league-record 15-year playoff drought. This year, however, the Kings had begun to work on their defense and had ceded the top offensive spot in the league to those same Indiana Pacers, fronted by Haliburton in a now undisputed lead guard role and his league-pacing 12 assists per game. A mere season and a half after making the biggest win-win trade in league memory, the two squads were set to face off in the very first In Season Tournament Finals..."
Why you count the Rockets/Mavs as well ?
We do not have a chance for the wild card , it is almost 100% for Phoenix , only Wolves - OKC matters in favour of advancing ...
If Minnesota wins , then the task is much easier if not ... Well simple again , just win
We do not have a chance for the wild card , it is almost 100% for Phoenix , only Wolves - OKC matters in favour of advancing ...
If Minnesota wins , then the task is much easier if not ... Well simple again , just win
The NBA needs to make the In Season Tournament Finals game Win count for the Champion team.
Why would a team want to play an extra game in an already long 82 game season and risk injury, play better teams in the knock out rounds and being more tired than every other team?
The Champion of the In Season Tournament should be given a bonus Win in the playoff seeding (if that team get in the playoffs). That way, the winner will have a edge in the playoff seeding, (i.e. the champion would get their record bumped from 52-30 from the regular season, to 53-30 for the playoff seeding). That way the Champion would have the tie-breaker with any team that winds up with the same record as them. This would give real meaning to winning the In Season Tournament and give teams a reason to play the extra game outside of the extra cash.
Why would a team want to play an extra game in an already long 82 game season and risk injury, play better teams in the knock out rounds and being more tired than every other team?
The Champion of the In Season Tournament should be given a bonus Win in the playoff seeding (if that team get in the playoffs). That way, the winner will have a edge in the playoff seeding, (i.e. the champion would get their record bumped from 52-30 from the regular season, to 53-30 for the playoff seeding). That way the Champion would have the tie-breaker with any team that winds up with the same record as them. This would give real meaning to winning the In Season Tournament and give teams a reason to play the extra game outside of the extra cash.
This could be a real possibility. I also think they will tweek the point differential tie breaker. Overall the IST has been a resounding success and that’s because the players bought in. These athletes are competitors. They want bragging rights and some really want that extra 500k. All of this has added up to intense, playoff like games in November. I mean, I found myself invested in a random Twolves/Thunder game and a Rockets/Mavericks game I wouldn’t have cared anything about without the tournament.
The extra cash if you win it all is a decent amount even for a guy like Monk or Murray (around 5% of their annual) and a big payday for someone like Ellis. Not so much for Fox but you know he really wants to win (same for all of them really). I can see from the coach's perspective though not wanting to get guys hurt. Maybe the coaches get a bonus too, I'm sure Vivek will get some additional TV money and there would be extra merch sales too.
Agree, there needs to be a reward for the teams that make the championship. Maybe guaranteed 4 seed in the playoffs for the winner, 5 seed for runner up. I’m sure there will be tweaks each of the next few years to keep evolving this until they get it right. Eventually I would like to see 8 groups of 4, each team plays each other twice in a home and away, and they eliminate the point differential as a tie breaker. I would think this is feasible scheduling-wise before the targeted championship game in early December
