Friends in fast breaks,

We made it. 82 games down, months of picking and planning. The regular season is done and dusted. It's PLAYOFF time. 20 teams enter, 1 team leaves. Welcome to the thunder dome. Let's hoop.

PLAY-IN PICKS

• Glove Playoff Pick'em
  • Summary | Overall Standings | Weekly Standings

Love it or hate it, the Play-In Tournament is . It's an NBA mini-almost-march-madness to kick off the trophy chase. Are we gonna see a cinderella run? Can Jokic finally get some post-season success? What about Embiid? Which of the enormous trades (Gobert, Mitchell, D. Russel, R. Westbrook, Durant, Bridges) pays off?

PICK STATS

• Our picks, from most picked to least:
  • Los Angeles Lakers - 375 picks
  • Miami Heat - 357
  • New Orleans Pelicans - 215
  • Toronto Raptors - 185
  • Chicago Bulls - 129
  • Atlanta Hawks - 128
  • Minnesota Timberwolves - 115
  • Oklahoma City Thunder - 96
• The Lakers take our top spot
  • Part of this is the contingent who believe "the NBA won't keep Lebron out of the Playoffs"
  • And part of ths is "the Wolves are in total disarray"
  • I definitely feel that second part
  • And yet the Wolves took the Lakers to OT... single 
• The Thunder are on the opposite end
  • They're young, inexperienced, and need to win twice to get through
  • But I just don't want to doubt Shai

PICK COMMENTS

@cferengul (Lakers, T'Wolves, Raptors, Heat): "I'm from Chicago - will I pick the Bulls? NO. And for some reason I think the Lakers will make it - largely because the NBA wants LeBron in the playoffs!"
GM says: It always hurts when you know exactly how good your team is

@StatCzar (Thunder, Lakers, Bulls, Heat): "I would first like to share that I told my grandma that the GM calls her granny in the responses, and the woman who will be 95 in November says she absolutely hates being called granny as it makes her sound old, and titles she finds preferrable to that included, old crone, old fart, and dumbass, but that she hopes he can come up with something better. (She signs a lot of her Christmas presents as from the old crone, btw). But I also feel like I should share that she roped me into somehow being Saint Bartholomew in the church reenactment of the last supper. What was promised to be just a role as an extra with little to no work involved, turned out to be multiple practices a week from Super Bowl Sunday until last Thursday, for a script that was a mere 5.5 pages!!! But anyway, the performance of the play went fine and is available on Facebook for viewing. Someone commented on the post that she heard the play was really good. Grandma replied and fired back with, Really good? It was great! You'd know that if you watched it! The woman can barely type a coherent text, but apparently divine power allowed her to defend my performance. "
GM says: Shoot, I just rolled with what I call mine. I'm VERY cool with the Old Crone out here dropping bomb

@LeviLeo (Lakers, T'Wolves, Heat, Hawks): "I hope everyone picked NOP and OKC as well as TOR and CHI. I hope that because those are impossible outcomes. "
GM says: The anti-big-🧠 strat

@jrcondon (Pelicans, Lakers, Raptors, Heat): "There's no home here for you girl, go away."
GM says: Go on, git!

@Sooser21 (Lakers, Raptors, Heat, Hawks): "Cody and Dipo, let's go Hotsiers"
GM says: Hoos gonna win?

@Mr_Rodgers_Neighborhood (Pelicans, Lakers, Raptors, Heat): "I think these 4 teams will punch their ticket, as opposed to punching walls, teammates and fan’s dreams. Sorry Wolves’ fans…"
GM says: RIP TheCommish

@LasLiLo1432 (Pelicans, Lakers, Raptors, Heat): "I'm not sure about these picks, so I'll roll with the punches. "
GM says: hmmmmm 👨🤛

@YikesVikes (Pelicans, T'Wolves, Heat, Hawks): "It is highly unlikely that any of the individual teams participating in the play-in tournament pulls off a first-round upset and truly “makes noise” in the playoffs, so this is just for SZN fun, and I haven't watched a NBA game this season and won't watch any of these either. "
GM says: Heat could give the Bucks trouble. Lakers could beat the Grizz. But... yeah, it's a shot at a shot to maybe do something interesting

@MONSTERXXX (Pelicans, Lakers, Bulls, Heat): "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH !! Playoffs . Go Celts !"
GM says: WOOOOOOOH!! MONSTER IN THE PLAYOFFS

@pheezy42 (Pelicans, Lakers, Heat, Hawks): "wait, there's an eastern conference play in? who knew? "
GM says: East? I thought you said WEAST

@NEELERSBTB1 (Pelicans, Lakers, Raptors, Heat): "Since I am basically Chief Inspector Clouseau in the NBA........gotta go with home cooking!!!!"
GM says: But by picking these teams... have you unleashed the Clouseau chaos on them?

@TigersLovePepper (Lakers, T'Wolves, Raptors, Hawks): "Does it really matter…. Nothing matters until The Kings win the WCF. I’m just hoping David Stern isn’t paying refs from his grave. Light the beam! "
GM says: Kings taking the WCF would end with the city of Sacramento incinerated via beam-splosion

@Johnson67 (Pelicans, Lakers, Bulls, Heat): "Thanks, Rudy Gobert and McDaniels for ending YOUR TEAMS chances!! Sorry, WOLVES fan here, just saying how it is!!!!!"
GM says: And they took the Lakers to OT. Did not see that coming.

Yours in Roundball Rock,
The GM