VIDEO: Why The NBA Cup Rules Rule
Just press the pedal a little harder...
On today’s Locked on NBA, we talked the Lakers’ woes as LeBron can’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, the Hawks’ insufferable enigma, the Cup matchups and more.
One follow up on this…
I get why players don’t want the point differential as tiebreaker. It breaks those unwritten rules and encourages them to run the score up. But if anything, I feel like it’s a good lesson for the losing teams to learn.
You got beat bad? Look at what happens when a team actually puts their foot down and tries to run it up on you.
I’m not a fan of bad sportsmanship and I’ve never liked the “if you don’t like it, stop it” argument. But I do think there’s something to be said for how often teams in the league back off in games instead of really doing what they can to make sure they play hard to the end. And if losing by 40 motivates you to not get embarrassed the next game or the next time you play that team? All the better.
The crux of the Cup is that it shows what the league looks like when players want to ramp up in the regular season, even to somewhere between regular season and the playoffs. It’s not playoff intensity, and it shouldn’t be. But it’s more than the normal amount. And that means the games are better and the blowouts are worse. But at least you get to see when teams don’t ease off the throttle and follow the speed limit.
No one wants the speed limit, and no one wants them to go 90 mph and blow a gasket.
They just want a little more gas.