NBA
Steph Curry Turned Into a Meme When Asked About Playing the Lakers in the NBA Play-In Tournament
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
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The NBA regular season is nearing completion, and the questions on everyone’s minds are about the NBA Play-In Tournament. This new postseason feature is making the NBA more competitive coming down the homestretch. It is also generating some buzz with the possibility of some intriguing matchups to kick off the tournament.
Stephen Curry fielded a question in a post-game press conference about a possible heavyweight matchup in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament. The star gave a hilarious and meme-worthy response.
The NBA Play-In Tournament is stopping teams from tanking
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For decades, the end of the NBA regular season was anticlimactic. Most playoff teams would be comfortably in the postseason and wouldn’t worry about their seed. Teams that didn’t make the playoffs were competing in a way. Unfortunately, that way was tanking for better lottery odds, which made for a dull stretch run.
The new NBA Play-In Tournament has changed this dramatically. While some stars may not like it, there is no question it’s making the waning days of the season more exciting.
With less than a week left in the regular season, more teams than ever are involved in the postseason hunt. Sixteen total teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences are still fighting to either get in or stay out of the Play-In Tournament.
This new setup leaves only seven teams in the entire league with nothing left to play for other than a draft pick. It is also leading to more exciting games at the end of the season and more pre-playoff intrigue for NBA fans.
That’s a big win for the NBA.
The Play-In Tournament could feature a matchup of two huge NBA superstars
While the games aren’t set yet, several intriguing matchups could come into play. The New Orleans Pelicans are currently on the outside looking in, but if they can overtake the San Antonio Spurs and sneak in, it could set up a matchup between the No. 1 and No. 2 picks of the 2018 draft, Zion Williamson and the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant.
In the Eastern Conference, the No. 7 versus No. 8 matchup looks like it could also be a battle between young stars. On one side, we could have the Boston Celtics dynamic duo, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. On the other side, it would be the presumptive NBA Rookie of the Year, LaMelo Ball.
The marquee matchup would come with the top-seeded Western Conference teams in the Play-In Tournament though. With just four games to play, the No. 7 versus No. 8 game looks like it will be LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers taking on Curry’s Golden State Warriors.
A question about a Lakers/Warriors Play-In matchup elicited a meme-worth response from Steph Curry
RELATED: Stephen Curry Gets MVP Endorsement From a Former NBA Champion
A Curry and Draymond Green-versus-James and Anthony Davis showdown would be an epic way to start the 2021 Play-In Tournament. It would give us two generation-defining players in Curry and James, a young superstar in Davis, and a history of bad blood between Green and James.
When asked whether he thought the NBA would enjoy the Play-In Tournament featuring a matchup between these two star-studded teams, Curry gave a response that instant memes are made of. The two-time NBA MVP simply smiled while nodding his head and shrugging his shoulder. Endorsing that the reaction would achieve internet fame, the reporter who asked the question replied to Curry’s non-verbal answer by saying, “That’s a meme.”
Curry might not be as excited as the rest of us are for the Lakers and Warriors to meet in the Play-In Tournament, but there is no arguing that it would be exciting and the league would love it. It would be the perfect way to get the fans fired up for playoff season and, hopefully, set the tone for a great postseason to follow.
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