Last night might’ve proved why the play-in tournament should stick around next season. Now that was entertaining basketball. Both games had intense playoff energy mixed with march madness vibes. It won’t always happen this way but the NBA world was treated to clutch back-and-forth moments between the league’s most valuable players. All as a playoff appetizer. Of course, various teams and players negatively affected by this aren’t going to like the new format, but from a fan’s perspective, that was nothing but awesome.
In the less heralded, but still excellent game, Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies sent the Spurs home packing and will now play the Golden State Warriors on Friday night in San Francisco with the Western Conference 8th seed (and right to play Utah) on the line.