Getty (From left) Andre Drummond, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets.
The 2021-22 NBA regular season is quickly coming to a close, and the Brooklyn Nets are in the driver’s seat. With two games left in the season, they control their own destiny regarding their seeding in the play-in tournament.
Currently, the Nets sit in the eighth seed of the Eastern Conference. On Friday, they face the current seven seed Cleveland Cavaliers. On Sunday, the Nets will host the Indiana Pacers. If Brooklyn wins its final two games, it will overtake Cleveland for the seventh seed and host the league’s first play-in game, on April 12.
Drummond: ‘They’re Must-Win Games for Us’
After Friday’s shootaround, the Nets’ veteran center, Andre Drummond, spoke on his mindset for the next two games.
“I think they’re must-win games for us,” Drummond told reporters. “I think we know what’s ahead of us and we know what’s going to happen if we do win these two games. I think our sense of urgency is a little bit higher than what it was before, and I think we’re prepared to take that next step.”
Regardless of their seed, the Nets are likely to take on the Cavaliers in the play-in tournament, so what makes the two final regular-season games feel like must-wins?
Seth Curry, who was traded with Drummond and Ben Simmons to the Nets from the Philadelphia 76ers this year, added his thoughts.
“If we’re playing well heading into the play-in game, then those two games take care of itself, and we should win ’em,” Curry told after reporters after the April 8 shootaround. “But if we’re not playing well, then we’re probably not going to get out of the play-in game anyways. So it’s just a matter of [playing] our style of play, having confidence and being in a good rhythm playing our best basketball.”
So while the next two games will not rock the boat in terms of overall seeding in the Eastern Conference, they could indicate the momentum the Nets enter the playoffs with.
NBA Play-In Tournament
If you are unfamiliar with how the NBA play-in tournament works, there will be six games in total involving eight teams. Four teams from each conference will enter. The games are April 12-15.
Teams that finish seeded anywhere between first and sixth in their conference will automatically be in the first round of the playoffs. However, teams seeded seventh through 10th in the standings enter the play-in tournament.
The play-in tournament games are as follows:
Game 1: The team ranked seventh in the standings will face the team that finished eighth by winning percentage. The winner then becomes the No. 7 seed in the playoffs, and the loser then gets a second chance in game 3 of the play-in tournament.
Game 2: The No. 9 team plays the No. 10 teams in its conference standings. The winner advances to game 3, and the loser enters the NBA draft lottery.
Game 3: The loser of the seven vs. eight matchup hosts the winner of the nine vs. 10 game. The winner of game 3 then becomes the eighth and final seed of the conference, and the loser also enters the NBA draft lottery.
With the seventh or eighth seed getting two chances at the playoffs one can understand why these final two games can be considered must-wins for the Nets.