NBA - Main

In both of these reasons the "victim" is the team in the group that did not play a game in the last day of group stage tonight (11/28).

1. If it ends up coming down to point differential, the teams playing on 11/28 have the advantage of knowing how many points they need to catch up to the team that is not playing on 11/28. They would know this before their last game starts.

2. Since the other 4 teams play on the last day, the last game that the "victim" team plays is going to be a game that is NOT the other teams last game of the group stage. This means it's more likely that the team that they are playing would still be in the running for the tournament, and would make an effort to maintain the point differential until the end of the game.

To give a perfect real world example...East Group C! The Magic played their last game of the tournament against the Celtics. When that game was over, the Celtics immediately knew how many points they would need to score in order to catch up to the Magic in point differential, AND they had the benefit of playing on the last day, matching up against a Bulls team that was already out of the tournament from the start of the game. Of course the Bulls wanted to win the game, but once the Bulls had already shit the bed as we all expected, they did not pay any mind to the point differential of a tournament they were already eliminated from the week before.

I realize this is a small nitpick, but I believe those are two genuine structural advantages that the 5th left out team does not enjoy. Might not seem like a big deal, but when the final point differential between first and second in your group is 5 points, maybe that makes you look into the details more.

Signed, A coping Magic fan