Let the best NBA teams pick their playoff opponents

Surprising many, the Blazers went into Wednesday’s season finale against the Kings hoping to lose, which would have sent Portland to the No. 4 seed in the West and a first-round date with the strong Utah Jazz. With a win, the Blazers would get the Thunder in the first round (a tougher matchup for Portland, perhaps) but avoid a potential series with the Warriors in the second round. It seemed like a no-brainer: if you want to make a deep playoff run, put off the Warriors as long as possible.

So in trying to lose and rest the normal starters, the Blazers played six guys all night. Anfernee Simons, Gary Trent Jr., and Jake Layman played all 48 minutes. Zach Collins — poor Zach Collins — relieved Skal Labissiere and Meyers Leonard for a few minutes each. But it didn’t work! The Kings, with nothing to play for, gave their own starters minimal minutes to get deep bench guys young and old some run in the season finale. And the Blazers ended up winning, setting up a first round series with the Thunder after all!

A couple days ago, Denver blatantly tanked a game against Portland to try to get the Blazers ahead of the Rockets to avoid a potential second-round series against Houston (a real bad matchup for the Nuggets). It worked! It almost didn’t because of Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr. But it worked! Denver, if it gets past San Antonio, will face Portland or OKC in the second round, not Houston.

This is madness! Instead of manipulating games and losing on purpose to acquire preferential seeding, the NBA should just let the top three seeds in each conference pick their first-round opponents. Denver should be rewarded for winning the No. 2 seed by being able to pick its first-round opponent after Golden State, the No. 1 seed, picks its own. You’d still have some chicanery around the edges, but not the embarrassing game-throwing at the end of the season.

Of course, if seeding is determined by choice instead of the standings, then none of these West teams that were essentially ruled out of the No. 4 seed wouldn’t have had anything to play for the last couple weeks. We might have seen the OKC and San Antonio equivalents of Jake Layman all of April. So a reduction in the season length might be on order, too. Or some play-in games for the No. 7-10 teams in each conference. Avoiding a win-and-in situation against the Kings or a team feature LeBron James is a nice motivator to keep playing hard down the stretch.

Pacers 135, Hawks 134
Heat 94, Nets 113
Magic 122, Hornets 114
Pistons 115, Knicks 89
Bulls 109, Sixers 125
Warriors 117, Grizzlies 132
Thunder 127, Bucks 116
Mavericks 94, Spurs 105
Timberwolves 95, Nuggets 99
Jazz 137, Clippers 143 (OT)
Kings 131, Blazers 136

Here’s the weekend schedule for Games 1 of the 2019 NBA playoffs. All times Eastern. Let’s go!

Saturday
Nets at Sixers, 2:30, ESPN
Magic at Raptors, 5, ESPN
Clippers at Warriors, 8, ABC
Spurs at Nuggets, 10:30, ESPN

Sunday
Pacers at Celtics, 1, TNT
Thunder at Blazers, 3:30, ABC
Pistons at Bucks, 7, TNT
Jazz at Rockets, 9:30, TNT

The WNBA Draft included three Notre Dame players in the first round, including (surprisingly, it seems) Jackie Young at No. 1.

Dwyane Wade got a triple-double in his final NBA game with his close friends LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony sitting courtside. Banana Boat Forever. Alex Wong wrote a fantastic tribute to Wade’s legacy as told by his friends and teammates.

The Spurs gave Dirk Nowitzki a beautiful send-off, a night after Dallas presented a perfect scene for his goodbye. Life through the spectrum of watching Nowitzki’s career. An oral history of his legacy from James Herbert.

The Lakers have a real opportunity to clean house and rebuild around James in the wake of Magic Johnson’s resignation. I wrote Johnson did the right thing by walking away (he probably should have told his boss first). Harry Lyles respects Johnson’s basic human desires. Bob Myers keeps getting mentioned as a potential Lakers target. Dan Devine on what the Lakers need.

Rajon Rondo makes cookies for his teammates.

Zach Lowe’s awards ballot.

Anthony Davis claims a stylist picked out his “That’s All Folks!” T-shirt worn to the Pelicans’ season finale. I ... actually sort of believe it.

The NBA and players’ union are trying to wrap up negotiations on ending the age minimum in time for the 2022 NBA Draft because 2022 draft picks are about to become eligible to be traded and because the U16s NBA teams are going to be allowed to scout will be potential 2022 picks. Interesting that the league is approaching this decision so cautiously and with thoughts of prep considering they foisted the age minimum on the union with no lead time in 2005.

Be excellent to each other.