Recently, two very interesting play-in matches in the National Basketball League took place. The Brooklyn team defeated Cleveland. In general, the games of the play-in format haven’t been played in basketball for long. The leaders of the basketball league approved that the 2020-2021 season would be played in a new format in July last year. Teams that take 7th to 10th place in the tournament participate in the play-in. The two teams which, following the results of this tournament, will take the 7th and 8th places will play each other again in the decisive match. The winning team will get 7th place in the general conference.
How did the match between Brooklyn and Cleveland end
Let’s discuss the recent matches. The Brooklyn team won 7th place in the Eastern Basketball Conference. Kyrie Irving scored 32 points, did 12 assists, and, thanks to this, became a real hero of the game. This star player has been out of virtually every home game due to his refusal to vaccinate against Covid-19.
By the way, it is one of the frequent mistakes of beginners in basketball betting – they forget about this fact. Some athletes may not take part in competitions due to the absence of vaccination. Luckily for many fans and spectators, the mayor of New York has lifted all COVID-19 restrictions, and so Kyrie Irving was able to help his team achieve this long-awaited victory.
The second special match, which was remembered by many, is the match between the Clippers and Minnesota. The victory was achieved by the Minnesota team. Anthony Edwards and D’Angelo Russell earned 59 points together and were the best players of this match.
In the Eastern Conference, the Brooklyn team managed to reach the 7th line in just one round before the end of the championship. Now, the team will play against Cleveland on the basketball court, which is convenient for them. As noted by their head coach Steve Nash, this is a huge advantage over their opponents. Experts are confident that when betting on basketball, this factor should be taken into account. However, the decisive factor in all matches is experience. Brooklyn, unlike the Cleveland team, has a lot of experienced and strong basketball players, whereas, in Cleveland, most of the players you can see are young. Although they also have a couple of experienced stars from the National Basketball League on their roster. For example, Kevin Love, who has not been in his best physical condition for quite a while. Evan Mobley and Darius Garland are the main hope of Cleveland. This will be Mobley’s first season in the National Basketball League, but not Garland’s.
Keep calm and the good results will come?
Durant and Irving stay calm and keep a steady game without substitutions and deletions, which leads to a stable result. Kyrie Irving, as we said above, was able to complete 12 shots out of a possible 15. For him, this match was the 7 one in “Brooklyn” for the entire season. And, of course, if there were no mandatory vaccination requirements, Kyrie would have performed much more often.
Kevin Durant started playing much better towards the end of the game and scored a couple of the most effective goals in the last 5 minutes. Moreover, Jarrett Allen was not there due to an injury, so all his defence tasks were transferred to Evan Mobley. But he could not cope with such a difficult task. However, his game was pretty decent, considering his age and experience. And Garland helped him. Together they were able to reduce the gap in the score. But this was not enough. Bruce Brown showed outstanding performance: 36 points. The basketball player is now 25 years old, and he is a strong defender who’s performance was truly surprising this season.
Perhaps it is exactly because of such players that the Brooklyn team will be able to get into the finals of the National Basketball League. Experts advise not to make rash decisions but to wait for a series of matches with the Boston team. The Cleveland team still has a chance to make it to the playoffs. To achieve this goal, it only needs to defeat one team, depending on who wins the Atlanta vs Charlotte match.
The standoff between the young and experienced players
Now let’s talk about the game between Minnesota and the Clippers in more detail. Many predicted that the guests of the meeting, the Clippers, would win even though Kawhi Leonard didn’t participate in the game. In general, the squad looked stronger, even their first line of players. The best centre player committed six fouls and was sent off before the end of the match.
However, Edwards completely changed the course of the game. Minnesota led 16-2. The Clippers still had a chance, but Patrick Beverley turned out to be a great defender and did not allow this to happen. Patrick finished with 11 rebounds.
As Minnesota head coach says, Tyronn Lue is confident that the team has a hope of making it to the playoffs. They just have to wait for those matches. But some of them have already passed. For example, the match with Memphis under the leadership of Ja Morant.
By the way, the match in Minneapolis was suspended during the second quarter of the game. This happened due to the fact that one of the devoted fans went out into the centre of the playing ground. As the local media claims, the woman wanted to express her opinion on the actions of team leader Glen Taylor. She was wearing a shirt which said that this man was roasting animals alive. As it turned out later, Glen Taylor had his own poultry farm. And it was there that there was a sudden increase in bird flu infections.
Summing up, we note that the play-in of the National Basketball League in itself is very interesting. We spoke about the two most interesting matches that have already taken place. The teams have performed at their best, showing all their strengths. Before making your predictions, make sure you know the location of the match, its time, the motivation of the basketball players, the team’s schedule, and many other factors. After all, your results and how much you’ll win depend on it. In addition, you should never rush your decisions, it is better to view and analyse all the statistics available on the internet. We wish you success!
