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The trio of James, Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroder scored just 13 points. looked like a team that could've used the week of practice, shooting just 32.6% and missing 31 shots - both season lows. I said I'm ready to go,' James said about the play-in format. 'You guys asked me a few days ago how I felt.

Or a team like the Warriors, who won 15 of their final 20 games to snag what would have been a guaranteed playoff spot in previous seasons. But there was also the stark realization that this could exact a heavy toll on a team like the Lakers, who were devastated by injuries to star players in the second half of the season. Was there self-interest behind those gripes? Sure. That worked so well, the league opted to expand it to the current format, which also involves a play-in for the seventh seed.Īll season long, teams and stars who fell to the seventh spot in the standings lamented the new format, which could effectively take what had been a guaranteed playoff spot and turn it into a vulnerable position.

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It came up in competition committees for five or six years, before finding a perfect opportunity for a trial run last season in the NBA bubble. The original proposal for a play-in tournament, according to league sources, was to have the ninth- and 10th-place teams face off for a chance to play for the eighth seed. But this year, they'll have to play two extra games, one of which is an elimination game, just to advance to the same series.

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In any other year, that win would have sent the Warriors into a first-round series against the top-seeded Utah Jazz. It is a bit redundant from the Warriors' regular-season finale win over Memphis on Sunday that determined the eighth seed in the play-in tournament. The Warriors now have less than 48 hours to regroup before facing the Grizzlies in San Francisco.

'This was our game, and we couldn't get it done.' 'This is a bitter pill to swallow,' Warrior coach Steve Kerr said after the game. It's fair to question if the reward for all that excitement is worth the risk of potentially losing one of the league's marquee franchises before the playoffs officially begin. And it drops the Warriors, now fighting for the 8-seed, into an elimination game Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies (9 p.m. 7 seed in the Western Conference and a first-round playoff matchup against the second-seeded Phoenix Suns. We are looking forward to what is going to be in store for the postseason.' It wasn't comfortable, but it settled us, and we were able to bring the fight to them. 'Mike Tyson always said, 'Everybody got a plan until you get in the ring and you get punched.' 'It was good to get that first punch,' James said. James finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his 128th career triple-double (including regular season, play-in and playoffs). The trey was the longest go-ahead shot in the final three minutes of a game in James' career, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. James got the better of Curry on Wednesday, hitting a 34-foot 3-pointer over him to seal the Lakers' 103-100 win. The game was an instant classic, with two of the league's brightest stars, Stephen Curry and LeBron James, matching each other with brilliant performances and clutch shot-making that felt more like one of their classic NBA Finals matchups than the play-in game to get to the actual playoffs. It created exciting new scenarios toward the end of the regular season and mostly stemmed the widespread tanking that had made a mockery of the final month of play for the 14 teams that weren't making the playoffs.Īnd it gave us a delicious matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night at Staples Center. LOS ANGELES - By all accounts, the play-in tournament has been a resounding success for the NBA this year. NBA, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors NBA playoffs 2021: LeBron James and Stephen Curry's play-in performance was the playoff prelude everyone hoped for

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Kyrie and lebron stats