The NBA Play-in tournament is a nice touch to the NBA Playoffs this year. There are 20 total teams who can make a run at an NBA Championship which makes it a little more interesting than the usual format of 16 teams. The 9th and 10th seed of each conference will play each other and the winner will play the loser of the 7 and 8 seed play in game to see who gets the final spot (8 seed). The winner of the 7 and 8 seed game gets the 7 seed in each conference. Any team in the play in games can easily go a run and win a few to at least create some drama in the playoffs. This is much more exciting than watching the same two teams go to the finals every year with absolutely no interest in watching. Currently, even the Lakers have to compete in the play in tournament as the 7th seed in the West. Injuries caught up to them and they’ve been inconsistent for the past month or so.

The NBA Playoffs needed a spark to create some attention for the postseason. The playoff ratings have gone down dramatically which in part could be cause of Covid-19 and people not interested in watching with no fans. A lot of the decrease in ratings is due to how boring the playoffs have been the last 5 years. There hasn’t been any kind of spark or cinderella story because it’s been the same stuff every year. Lebron vs Warriors, Lebron vs Warriors, Lebron vs Warriors…..though it was nice to see Toronto make a run a few years back. Then we go right back to Lebron vs Heat. The narrative has to change for people to want to watch the NBA playoffs because people want to see new faces competing for a title as opposed to Lebron every year. Hopefully this postseason will bring us more excitement than what we’ve been getting in previous years.