Basketball in the early season is getting more exciting thanks to the NBA’s new tournament. However, the tiebreaker is inciting animosity.
At the conclusion of the Toronto Raptors’ 121-108 victory over the Chicago Bulls, DeMar DeRozan lost his cool. The explanation? Because of the in-season tournament, Toronto was attempting to run the score.
Since there are just four tournament games that decide the winners, ties are very likely to occur. Point differential was chosen by the league as the tiebreaker, which encourages teams like the Raptors to keep scoring in the closing minutes of games when good sportsmanship would normally recommend slowing down.
Because of this, tournament games now have unpredictable end-of-game scenarios. In order to set up a three-pointer by Moses Moody that would have cut the Golden State Warriors’ lead to three points, Steve Kerr called a timeout in the closing seconds of the team’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
That might matter since Golden State’s victory over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday might put them in a three-way tie in West Group C. The Warriors are now eight points clear of the Timberwolves in point differential.
Running up the score is only a problem for one more night because Tuesday is the final day of in-season tournament play. However, as Lance Stephenson discovered six years prior after making a layup in garbage time, DeRozan takes winning teams that don’t dribble out the clock very lightly.
