One of the interesting wrinkles of the In-Season Tournament group stage was teams having to think about not just winning their games, but also winning big (or losing small) to ensure they had the best possible point differential.
There were some moments where that created some frustration from teams on the wrong end of a blowout, as we saw the Celtics go to Hack-a-Drummond while up 30 against the Bulls in the fourth quarter needing to make up point differential to the dismay of Chicago coach Billy Donovan. The necessity of stacking as big of a point differential cushion as possible runs against one of the unwritten rules of the game, which is to go to the backups and coast to the finish line in a blowout.
While some bristle at that notion, others are embracing it and think it’s how the game should always be played. Devin Booker was asked about that topic after the Suns clinched the West Wildcard off point differential, and said he can’t understand why teams or players get mad and thinks it should be how every game gets played, with teams playing hard for all 48 minutes regardless of score.
"I've seen teams upset about it, I don't know why. I've seen players upset about it, I don't know why. I wish every game was like that where you play until the end and it wasn't viewed as disrespectful. Just high competition." Devin Booker on NBA In-Season point tiebreakers #Suns pic.twitter.com/mzDqnRyvAk
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) November 30, 2023
I think as the In-Season Tournament continues on, teams and players will adjust and understand it’s part of the format. Teams losing should be looking to trim the gap as much as they can, while teams winning are incentivized to run it up as much as possible. I don’t think Booker’s hope of that becoming the case in every game will come to fruition, particularly because teams want to rest their guys at the end of blowouts to steal some time off of their minutes load for the season, but I do think the pearl-clutching will become less of a thing over how teams handle blowouts as the In-Season Tournament becomes just part of the NBA season.
Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/devin-booker-in-season-tournament-point-differential-play-hard-all-game-video/
