TOTAL CHAOS On The Final Day Of The In-Season Tournament

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Against Chicago, the Celtics went for a hack-a-Drummond while being up by almost 30.
Running up the score on a 30 point lead is insane, but Boston had a good reason for it.
You see, these were the standings on the final game of the in-season tournament group stage.
So in order for them to get that final 4th spot and advance in the quarterfinals, the Celtics needed to catch up to the +18 point differential of New York.
And this is where the chaos begins. The 2 games were played at the same time and right at this moment in the third quarter, with the Knicks up by only 1 and Boston up by 31, the Celtics caught up to the point differential and even had a 12 point advantage on New York. If the games ended like this, they would advance to the quarterfinals.
But the thing is you could see that both of these teams were playing with a sense of urgency and had the in-season tournament score in the back of their minds.
So the Knicks really ramped it up in the fourth, especially Emanuel Quickley who scored 16 in the final period and helped his team get a huge 24 point win.
These 24 plus the 18 that they had on the Celtics, meant that Boston would have to win by more than 42 points. And they actually tried and kept their starters up until the very end on a 30 point blowout, but it was just too much for them.
The chaos didn’t end there however because here are the quarterfinal matchups and you see that the Celtics actually advanced and will play against the Pacers. But the calculations about how they got there were something like this legendary clip from inside the NBA.
I’ll break down what happened with Boston at the end of this video, because now we gotta move on to another wild ending.
Playing without Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro the Heat had a 3 point lead late in the game against the Bucks. And winning it meant that they would advance in the quarterfinals potentially knocking the Bucks out of the tournament.
Bam had a monster game but maaan if Milwaukee goes out to a big night from a 37 year old Kyle Lowry and Josh Richardson who bounced around 6 different teams in the last 4 years, that would have been crazy.
But this was just as crazy:,
Moments later we got this:
And then:
So the Bucks survived and will face off against the Knicks.
In the west, Houston decided for their own destiny and with a win against Dallas who were out of it anyways, the Rockets would advance so Jalen Green and company were fired up for this one.
But so were the Mavs as they had an answer to every Rocket point.
And there was even some chippynes and trash talk.
But at the end a 41 point game from Luka capped off by this hook shot at the end, killed the dreams of this young roster for the Rockets.
However the chaos is nowhere near ending. Follow Gobert here for the entire possession at the end of the game against the Thunder. Look at his incredible defensive intensity. Rudy was so hyped that he fist pumped here in the middle of the play. And he stays with it, contesting one final time on this shot that ends up being an airball. Unbelievable defense, and the rumors are true, he is absolutely back to his defensive player of the year level from a couple of years ago.
This game also went down to the wire, but Anthony Edwards got injured and left the game so Minnesota needed another hero. And they found it in Troy Brown Jr.
OKC didn’t give up tho and played the foul game till the very end, eventually securing an opportunity to send the game into overtime.
But the Timberwolves hold on to win this game that ended up being meaningless for both teams but set up the ultimate showdown between Sacramento and Golden State.
Golden State has to win by 12 points or more to advance over Sacramento. The Kings had an 11 point cushion here but right out of the gate that was gone, as the Warriors came out swinging and quickly built a 24 point lead.
The Kings were fighting for their tournament chances first and foremost trying to get the lead down to 11, but D’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and the rest of the Kings got so hot on the comeback run, that they came all the way back and actually took over the lead.
Still, despite all that effort, Sacramento was down by 4 with 50 seconds to go and the Dubs had the ball. So then, the real madness starts unfolding.
The arena is about to explode and under that pressure, Draymond commits a turnover.
Setting the stage for this incredible play at the end.
Unbelievable! All the gotta do now is watch out for Steph Curry at the end.
The Kings win and advance to the quarterfinals while the Warriors are out of the tournament in the most improbable ending.
This is how things look in the West: Lakers vs Phoenix and Sacramento vs the Pelicans. Amazing.
Now I haven’t forgotten that I gotta explain just how the Celtics found themselves here.

Heat Check

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I just realized the benefit of the in-season tournament. It gives franchises/fanbases with non-playoff teams an opportunity to have playoff-level excitement. It’s just players competing.

LASAGNA_LARRY

I'm not gonna lie, the in season tournament has been a blessing so far. I'm actually hyped watching these games and seeing the players actually putting their all and emotions into it. Something that we would rarely see at the beginning of the season in previous years

grimgamer

That Monk winning shot was some anime shot. the tournament has shaped up to be pretty hyped and wild

every_kyle

Gobert fist bumping in the MIDDLE of the position is actually insane 😂

elmehdinafia

Point differential is a sneaky good idea! Incentivizes teams to play hard to the very last second literally

timg

The intensity players have been playing at for the in season tournament has shown that the tournament is doing exactly what it was designed to do

bear

I LOVE that the players care. It's better than the All Star week, at least in my opinion.

This is something different, and seeing the players buy in makes all the difference!

corey

NBA fans now understand why we football (soccer) fans love the in-season tournaments. The goal differences are so important, teams have won leagues, relegated and qualified just by goal differences. this is why football teams play hard on defense and offense. the more goals or less goals scored/concended the better chances to win the leagues, groups or survive relagation and this makes the games fun

Brendan

It's so funny watching Americans struggle to figure out how group stages work, football fans are so used to calculating every possible scenario in group stages for years.

keval

These recaps and explanations are 🔥. I'm still salty about GSW loss and Kerr's coaching decisions but Monk's fading hangtime winner that ended up as a backwards somersault was unbelievable. Can't believe it dropped 😭

kalimbobo

This in season tournament was kinda off at first during the announcemeny but the competition was true and pure which is good for the game. The only thing bad about it is the courts

johnpaulgonzalez

Was awesome to see them going for it, the passion and intensity was really good in those last games

hondo

this court is designed so cool I never saw before at all!
It’s so cool
All the players are looking like cartoon characters! It’s just sooo majestic!!!!
Amazing revolutions came in and more money for NBA !!!
I have to go in person to feel it !!

qica

If the In-Season Tournament gave these teams a glimpse of the playoffs, let's see how interesting events will happen on the trade deadline.

trewaldo

This IST is forcing NBA players to actually play their games. Instead of taking 6 months off, then not playing 20+ games for "minutes management". Love this. Fans get their money's worth.

royduffey