By rule, a team was required to win Tuesday’s NBA play-in game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
For stretches, especially late in the game, it looked like neither team wanted to win with a litany of careless turnovers, bad shots, blown opportunities and poor decisions – none more boneheaded than the Lakers’ Anthony Davis fouling Mike Conley on a 3-point attempt with .1 second remaining in the fourth quarter. That just after Dennis Schroder put the Lakers ahead with a corner 3 with 1.4 seconds left.
Conley forced overtime where the Lakers prevailed with a 108-102 victory, securing the seventh seed in the West and an intriguing first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The game was ugly and thrilling all at once.
If the opening night of the play-in game tournament, especially in the West, revealed anything, it’s that this will be an unconventional playoff.
Even though no play-in team has won a first-round series in two previous seasons, the LeBron James and the Lakers pose problems. Los Angeles won the season series against the Grizzlies, and though James said the Lakers had a “brain-fart” moment against the Timberwolves, they are a dangerous seventh seed and just as good as Memphis in the final two months of the season.
At the top of the West, Denver is an underwhelming No. 1 seed but certainly not without talent when you include two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.
Phoenix is an atypical four seed. The Suns are loaded offensively following the trade deadline deal to acquire Kevin Durant. Though the sample size is small, the Suns are 8-0 when Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton play and generate an impressive 122.3 points per 100 possessions.
The Suns are favored to win the West, and if Denver and Phoenix meet in the conference semifinals, Phoenix will be favored. That doesn’t happen often.
Third-seeded Sacramento is the upstart darling of the postseason, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2006. But like Denver at the No. 1 spot, the Kings are a vulnerable No. 3 so much so that the sixth seed was coveted.
And who earned that sixth seed? Golden State, the defending champ. There’s no easing into the playoffs for the Kings. No matter what you think of the Warriors’ regular-season –…