NBA: Biggest winners of resuming season and revamped playoff format
4. The No. 9 seed in each conference
One of the big winners under the new format is the ninth seed in both conferences. In the Eastern Conference, the Orlando Magic lead the Washington Wizards by 5.5 games. If the Wizards can close that gap to four games, this will create a play-in series between the two teams.
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The Wizards would need to defeat the Magic twice in order to get into the playoffs. On the flip side, the Magic would have to beat the Wizards just once to hold on to the final playoff berth.
In the Western Conference, the picture is a bit more interesting, to say the least. The Memphis Grizzlies held down the eighth spot when the season was placed on hiatus nearly three months ago.
However, there are four teams that are within four games of the eighth spot. The list includes the Portland Trail Blazers (3.5 games back), New Orleans Pelicans (3.5 games back), Sacramento Kings (3.5 games back) and the San Antonio Spurs are four games out.
Whether either of these teams can overtake the Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed will heavily depend on their respective schedules when play resumes. The task won’t be easy for the Spurs with LaMarcus Aldridge out of the mix for the rest of the season following shoulder surgery.
While the Grizzlies have a good chance at retaining that spot, the new play-in scenario will allow multiple teams a legitimate shot to compete for a postseason berth where that would not have been the case under the traditional format.