Walker: Pelicans’ fans can thank much debated play-in tournament for keeping intrigue in season

Some love it.

Others, particularly those whose teams are lingering around the Nos. 7 and 8 spots in each conference, hate it.

Just ask LeBron James, who weighed in on the NBA’s play-in tournament Sunday night after a loss that sent the slumping Los Angeles Lakers to the seventh spot.

“Whoever came up with that (expletive) needs to be fired,” James said.

The play-in tournament, implemented by the NBA to keep the end of the NBA season intriguing at a time when it typically isn’t, has been a hot topic as the regular season creeps closer to the finish line.

If there was no play-in tournament, the New Orleans Pelicans’ back-to-back games against the Golden State Warriors on Monday and Tuesday wouldn’t mean as much.

For the Pelicans, the twin bill would have been somewhat meaningless games developing younger players while trying to get a few more pingpong balls in the lottery. The level of interest would have been a notch above a preseason game, with guys like Zion Williamson and Steph Curry perhaps taking the night off.

But thanks to the play-in tournament, which puts two additional teams from each conference into the postseason instead of the normal eight, the Pelicans still have a shot at getting to the playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

The Pels entered Monday night three games behind the Warriors and 2½ games behind the San Antonio Spurs, who enter play Monday ninth and 10th in the Western Conference.

Stan Van Gundy didn’t have to preach any fiery sermon to his team to let them know about the importance of the two games.

“They know,” Van Gundy said. “They’re not unaware. We know what’s at stake. It’s obviously really, really important. (Saying it’s a) playoff feel I think is going a little bit too far. Playoffs are just a different animal. But this is as close as you get in the regular season. Maybe not quite as close. You might get down to a one game do-or-die situation, but it’s important. We all know that.”

For those who haven’t been keeping up, here’s how the three-game play-in tournament will work:

The teams that finish the regular season as the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds will play each other. The winner of that game is the No. 7 seed in the playoffs.

Next, the Nos. 9 and 10 seeds will play. The loser is eliminated. The winner will play the team that lost the 7-vs.-8 game, with the winner earning the No. 8 seed and the loser’s season coming to an end.

So a team that played a full season to earn the No. 7 or 8 seed could have two bad nights in the play-in tournament and miss the regular playoffs.

For the fans, it’s perfect, a March Madness type mini-tournament from May 18-21. Teams like the Pelicans who would have been on the brink of elimination by now still have plenty to play for. And teams in the middle of the pack in those 4, 5 and 6 spots can no longer let their foot off the gas and rest starters because of the fear of slipping to 7 or 8.

So the implementation of the play-in tournament is serving its purpose for the end of the season.

However, if I wore the commissioner’s hat, there would have been a few tweaks. Teams that are the 9 and 10 seeds should be required to be within a certain amount of games (maybe three) of the 8 seed to have a chance. That likely will be the case this season anyway. But if the play-in tournament stays around, there will be a season when a bad 10 seed will get hot for two nights and knocks off a team that has earned a 7 or 8 seed during the marathon of a season.

If you’re a Pelicans fan or player, the play-in tournament is a good thing, giving you a reason to keep watching.

If the Pels were on track to finish seventh or eighth, you probably wouldn’t like it as much. The thought of playing well all season with the chance of it being taken all away in two games would have you cussing the concept out like LeBron did.

But that’s not the case this season, so enjoy the opportunity.

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