It’s time to wave goodbye to tanking, player participation, gambling, salary cap circumvention, league expansion, and anything else going on in the NBA that takes away from what should be the primary focus for all involved.
Winning.
What could be described as a tumultuous 80th NBA regular season is finished, with postseason seeding in both conferences decided on the final day.
In a bit of serendipity, after months of discussion in the league about “tanking” and how to stop it, a team was rewarded for going all out in its regular-season finale. That team was the Toronto Raptors, who leapfrogged the Atlanta Hawks by winning Sunday to improve their playoff positioning in the East.
“You gotta love this (stuff), you should have fun,” said Raptors All-Star Scottie Barnes, who turned in an 18-point, 12-rebound, 12-assist triple-double in Toronto’s 136-101 trouncing of Brooklyn.
To summarize, the Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat won their games in the East; while the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and LA Clippers won in the West, setting every possible line of the NBA postseason bracket that can be determined by season’s end.
The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in each conference — Detroit and Boston in the East, Oklahoma City and San Antonio in the West — must wait to see who comes out of the Play-In to know their first-round matchups.
Sunday’s drama unfolded in the East (and no, we aren’t talking about Rory McIlroy at Augusta).
The Raptors, as previously mentioned, tried to win, and the Celtics always try, no matter the night. The Raptors began the day as the East’s sixth seed, but, playing all of its regulars, pounded Brooklyn. The Celtics, the surprise No. 2 seed because they missed Jayson Tatum for most of the year and parted with three key veterans from its championship roster two years ago, used the same depth they relied on all year to stun the Orlando Magic, 113-108.
Baylor Scheierman, a second-year wing who normally comes off the bench, started and lit up the Magic for a career-best 30 points. Reserve center Luka Garza’s 3-pointer with 31.7 seconds effectively sunk the Magic.
The Atlanta Hawks, meanwhile, entered the day as the No. 5 seed but chose to sit most of their regulars against the Miami Heat and lost, 143-117. The Hawks’ strategy cost them.
Because Orlando lost and the Raptors won, Atlanta fell to No. 6 and will play the No. 3 New York Knicks in a first-round series. Toronto moved up a spot, to No. 5, and will play the No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers in a first-round series.
“They have an amazing team, an amazing coach,” Toronto coach Darko Rajaković said of the Cavs and their coach, Kenny Atkinson. “Everyone thinks they’re one of the contenders, and I agree with that. They’re loaded.”
Did the Hawks share that opinion and decide the Knicks were a better matchup? No one would admit it, openly. Atlanta was led by Buddy Hield, who came off the bench for 31 points.
The Heat had something to play for, too, and though they didn’t quite get there, they were victorious behind 26 points from NBA top sixth man candidate Jamie Jaquez, and 25 from Bam Adebayo – who scored 83 points in a game earlier this season against Washington.
“Whoever we play is going to be really good,” Atlanta coach Quin Snyder said ahead of Sunday’s loss. “It’s hard to even try to figure that out. It’s possible that certain teams want to play us … Wherever it falls is how it falls.”
The Philadelphia 76ers, who started the day in eighth place, pounded Milwaukee, 126-106, and leapfrogged the Magic, who fell to eighth. Philadelphia will host Orlando in a Play-In game this week; the winner will move on to face the Celtics in a first-round series.
“Disappointed, but we have to move on fast,” said Orlando star Paolo Banchero, who played alongside all the other Magic regulars in the loss to Boston’s backups.
The other Play-In will feature the No. 9 Charlotte Hornets against No. 10 Miami. The winner of that game plays the loser of Philadelphia-Orlando, with the winner advancing to a first-round series against the Pistons.
The Hornets earned the right to host the Heat by beating the Knicks, 110-96. The only Knick starter to play at all was Mikal Bridges, who was on the court for 23 seconds to extend his consecutive games streak to 638 — the NBA’s longest active games streak.
The Play-In schedule looks like this: Charlotte hosts Miami at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday and the Sixers host the Magic at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. In the West, the No. 7 Phoenix Suns host No. 8 Portland at 10 p.m. Tuesday and the No. 9 Clippers host No. 10 Golden State at 10 p.m. on Friday.
It was a relatively quiet final day out West, even though the No. 3, 4, 8 and 9 seeds were up for grabs. The Nuggets, who secured the third seed by beating San Antonio, 128-118, started three-time MVP Nikola Jokić and played him 18 minutes in the first half to make sure he was eligible for awards like MVP and All-NBA. Jokić finished with 23 points and eight rebounds. He finished as the NBA leader in assists (10.7) and rebounds (12.9) per game while also averaging about 27.8 points per game.
The Nuggets pulled him in the second half, and didn’t play any of their other starters in the game, but outlasted a Spurs team that played all of its regulars except for Victor Wembanyama.
“It’s what the rules provide. So we’ll follow the rules,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said before the game, about playing Jokić in the first half.
The Nuggets will play No. 6 Minnesota in a first-round series. The Lakers beat Utah, 131-107, but were relegated to fourth because of Denver’s win. They will host No. 5 Houston in a first-round series.
The Blazers captured the ninth seed by holding on to beat Sacramento, 122-110. The Clippers won over the Warriors, 115-110, in a Play-In preview, but were blocked from advancing to the No. 8 seed by the Blazers’ win. It was nevertheless a brilliant season turnaround for the Clippers, who were 6-21 at one point.
Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, of the Oklahoma City Thunder, was held out of his team’s finale, ending any chance he had to catch Luka Dončić of the Lakers for the NBA’s scoring title.
Gilgeous-Alexander was last year’s scoring champ, but finished this season averaging 31.1 points to Dončić’s 33.5 points. Gilgeous-Alexander might very well hold onto his MVP trophy for another season — Dončić can’t take that away from him. In a weird twist, the 64 games Dončić played this season are enough for him to qualify as scoring champ, but below the required 65 games for him to be eligible for MVP or most other regular-season awards.
It was a strange season like that — one the league will be glad to leave behind. There were too many instances of big names not being healthy, of players and coaches effectively kicked out of the league for gambling charges, of teams purposefully trying to lose, and of an entire franchise accused of rigging a no-show job for its star player to circumvent the salary cap.
The NBA still requires players to appear in 65 games for most award eligibility (Jokić entered play Sunday with 64 games played). Detroit star Cade Cunningham suffered a collapsed lung after 61 games played and wound up playing 64 — the same as Dončić. And LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Stephen Curry were among the other superstars who couldn’t meet the threshold.
The players’ union is looking for the rule to change; commissioner Adam Silver has said he thinks the rule is working.
“When you’re talking about greatness and legacy, those awards matter,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “You understand the intent of the rule, but this guy has worked, sacrificed and played through injury. He just had one that he couldn’t overcome, obviously. I feel like he should still be recognized, but it’s one of those things that I know he’ll look back on and when he’s retired and you look at all the things he’s accomplished. It is a big deal.”
“Tanking,” or front offices and coaching staffs rigging lineups and rotations to create the best chance for their teams to lose games so they have the highest odds for a good draft pick, was so rampant this season that Silver is seeking to end the practice altogether. The Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers were fined for tanking; the Sacramento Kings were investigated for it (but cleared).
The Washington Wizards set the NBA record for 20-point losses, while trading for stars Anthony Davis and Trae Young. Davis never played for Washington, and Young barely played, but they’re both on the roster for next season. And the Wizards, with the NBA’s worst record, are among the three teams with the best odds to land the No. 1 pick. The Pacers, who finished with the second-worst record and have the same odds as the Wizards, traded for center Ivica Zubac. The Jazz traded for Jaren Jackson Jr. The trading and stashing by teams trying to lose was part of what pushed Silver to act.
The NBA’s top losers … errr … how the lottery finished, from worst to 10th, was: Washington, Indiana, Brooklyn, Sacramento and Utah tied; Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans, Chicago, and Milwaukee — which parted ways with coach Doc Rivers after Sunday’s game.
The silver lining for Atlanta, despite the final day seeding drop: The Hawks get either the Pelicans’ or Bucks’ No. 1 pick this year, depending on which team fares better in the lottery next month.
Before the season even started, the Clippers were accused of circumventing the salary cap with a multi-million-dollar marketing contract Kawhi Leonard received in 2022 from a major team sponsor. The NBA continues to investigate allegations that the Clippers arranged the deal for Leonard with now-bankrupt environmental firm Aspiration.
And after just two nights of the regular season, the Department of Justice unveiled major gambling-related charges against Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former Lakers assistant (and LeBron’s former personal shooting coach) Damon Jones. Billups did not coach this season. Rozier didn’t play (he was waived by Miami on Friday). And the federal court cases are ongoing.
Almost as an aside, the NBA is considering placing two additional franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle — while critics of the league (and also, coaches like Golden State’s Steve Kerr) say 82 games are too many. Silver is also working to start an entirely new league in Europe.
There was rampant, unending speculation that Antetokounmpo would be traded by February. That didn’t happen, but the same noise will crank back up this summer. The Giannis talk was matched, or trumped, by the “will he or won’t he” speculation about LeBron’s possible retirement after this season — his 23rd.
Rivers is the first coaching casualty at season’s end. The Athletic confirmed he was stepping down shortly after the Bucks lost, finishing off a miserable campaign in which they missed the postseason for the first time in a decade.
“I don’t ever use that R-word (retirement) because you never know,” Rivers said before the game. “I don’t want to be Ali and keep coming back. But yeah, it is (an emotional day). Kevin Eastman (who served as an assistant coach under Rivers in Boston and Los Angeles), some of my old coaches are here. So, it’s cool.”
For the next three months, hopefully, most of the focus in the NBA will be on who is on the court, and who is winning. Thank goodness the postseason is finally here.
NBA postseason seeds/matchups
Eastern Conference
No. 1 Detroit Pistons vs. TBD
No. 2. Boston Celtics vs. 76ers/Magic winner
No. 3 Knicks vs. No. 6 Hawks
No. 4 Cavaliers vs. No. 5 Raptors
East Play-in Tournament
No. 8 Magic at No. 7 76ers
No. 10 Heat at No. 9 Hornets
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. TBD
No. 2 San Antonio Spurs vs. Blazers/Suns winner
No. 3 Nuggets vs. No. 6 Timberwolves
No. 4 Lakers vs. No. 5 Rockets
West Play-in Tournament
No. 8 Trail Blazers at No. 7 Suns
No. 10 Warriors at No. 9 Clippers
The Athletic’s Eric Koreen contributed to this story.