Sunday is the final day of the NBA regular season, and none of the playoff matchups have been decided. There are 10 teams that are “locked into specific seeds” in the Eastern and Western Conferences, while there are 10 other teams that “know their seasons will end on Sunday.” Meanwhile, the 65-game rule for award eligibility is a major storyline. Lakers G Luka Doncic will not play Sunday and will “fall short” of the mark, while Nuggets C Nikola Jokic needs to play Sunday “to hit that number.” That means it is possible the NBA scoring (Doncic) and rebound and assist (Jokic) champions will “be ineligible to appear on the ballots that will decide the All-NBA teams, MVP and other major awards.” There were “no fewer than 168 players officially ruled out of Friday’s games, and it’ll likely be a similar number ruled out of Sunday’s games” (AP, 4/11).
The BOSTON GLOBE’s Gary Washburn noted the final few weeks of the NBA regular season have “been an abysmal example of porous competition and listless matchups.” The play-in tournament was created to provide two extra postseason spots, but the Warriors have been locked into 10th slot “for weeks.” Warriors F Draymond Green said, “I think (the play-in) worked initially, and now to have a team stuck in 10th, it ain’t working. We could have lost our last 15 games and been stuck in 10th. It ain’t working. The play-in was made for teams not to tank. I think that’s the part that everyone forgets. The play-in was made for teams that were like 12th or 13th to keep going, and they ain’t keep going. They slowed down and then they hit the brakes” (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/11).