The Portland Trail Blazers will face the Memphis Grizzlies in a play-in tournament for the 8th seed in the West and NBA commissioner Adam Silver would like to see this type of format in the league’s future.
“I do see this as something we would embrace going forward,” Silver told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix. “As you know I’ve been talking about it for a while. We saw this as an opportunity to institute a form of it. I’m not sure if this would be the exact format going forward. But this is something we’d like to see stay.”
The play-in round matches the No. 8 team against the No. 9 team in this format. The No. 9 team must beat the No. 8 team two straight times to advance to the postseason, where will face the Los Angeles Lakers.
In that case, the Blazers will need to win tomorrow to secure the 8th place of the Western Conference. On the other hand, Memphis lost the advantage it had, before the season restart.
The Grizzlies will have to be victorious two consecutive times against the red-hot Portland to advance to the postseason.
