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The NBA playoff first round are almost on the verge of completion, and we have seen winners already emerge from some of the competitive series games. Teams like the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors are already through to the next round and awaiting their opponents.
The playoff format is a best four out of seven possible game series interchanged between home and away matches. The top six teams from each conference qualify directly for the competition while four other teams are selected from a play-in tournament battle between teams ranked seventh to tenth. The victors advance to the next round while the losers are eliminated. Winners of each conference then square off to determine who the 2022 NBA champions will be.
Well when I started developing an enhanced interest in basketball sometime last year, I felt it was ridiculous to have such a format. I mean, after a grueling 84 game regular season series what was the point of having playoffs in the first place? I mean If a team can top standings after 84 competitive games why not just give them the title? Or have the eastern and western conference table toppers face each other to determine the champion?
To me it was just a money move by the NBA to get more out of TV sponsorships, adverts, fans, merchandise sales and the likes. It meant there isn't a point in playing hard to top the season standings, all one has to do is simply get into the top six. There are perks to coming top of the standings though, such as having a better seeding and a theoretically easier draw, but this (to me) probably isn't enough to justify another competition after a grueling 84 game season.
Where Am Currently At
Since the start of this years playoffs though, I have developed a keen interest in it and perhaps have come to see why the playoffs bring a different level of excitement compared to the regular season. The intensity is very different and you get the feeling of a very different level of competition from what obtains in the regular season.
As we very well know, everyone is beatable in the game of NBA basketball where high quality teams face off against one another. Hence the concept of a best four out of seven series is a pretty good way to determine who gets to progress into the next round and claim a deserved championship. We have seen that finishing number one in the regular season does not guarantee playoff success at all. The Phoenix Suns, best team of last seasons regular season across conferences, are currently struggling to win their first round opening series against the Denver Nuggets. Such competitive matches highlights the quality and intensity of the playoffs.
Conclusion
I'll say the regular season is more of less for entertainment purposes while the playoffs are where we find true competition. It provides an avenue to watch the best basketball players in the world play at their absolute best staking everything on the line, something we definitely don't see much of in the regular season.