Since the idea of the NBA Cup was put on the table, there were many who assured that it was necessary to give an incentive to the players to take it truly seriously. And although the first edition, in which the incentive was financial, seems to have worked in that sense, the league is considering going further.
And, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press, the NBA is considering the possibility of the tournament serving as a tiebreaker for the playoffs starting next season. In this way, in the event that two teams finish the regular season with the same balance of wins and losses, the one who has gone further in the Cup would be considered to have finished ahead, thus giving it greater weight and an impact on the postseason which, however, would not detract from the title itself. In the event that the tied teams have lost in the same round, the rest of the tie-breaking criteria would be used, such as direct duels or the balance against teams from the same division.
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This is not, however, the only change being studied. The report also includes the possibility that the points scored in overtime do not count when measuring the basket average, so that, although these games would obviously have a winner and a loser, for the purposes of the point differential they would be considered a tie. . The objective of this measure is quite specific, since the idea is to prevent a team from knowingly letting a match go to extra time to try to win by more points. That is, if a team needs to win by 8 points to advance to the next round, but only wins by 2 with 5 seconds left, they could let their rival score a basket to go to overtime and try to increase their advantage in it, but this rule would make such an attempt useless.
Adam Silver has acknowledged on several occasions that the league is considering various tweaks to the tournament format, so these potential modifications seem like a real possibility. Until there is official confirmation nothing can be taken for granted, but generally when these types of ideas reach the press it is because they bring a lot of truth with them.
(Cover photo: Harry How/Getty Images)
2024-03-16 08:00:00
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