Like the Eastern Conference, the top four teams in the West were also familiar faces from recent years.
Starting with fifth place, though, more and more unfamiliar teams began to appear.
There were the Timberwolves, who had brought in strong reinforcements while their core players continued to develop; the Suns, whose several young players were finally starting to realize their potential; the Mavericks, whose roster fit together better and whose core was stronger; and... the Lakers, who had a Big Three~~
The Los Angeles Lakers had also followed the classic pattern of starting strong and fading as the season went on.
Not only had they fallen short of the fans' initial expectations and finished seventh in the West, they now had to face Phoenix, with the winner securing a playoff spot~~
At a time like this, Old Zhang's interview was especially interesting~~
In a public interview, he launched straight into a scathing attack on the Play-In Tournament.
"Whoever came up with this system should be fired~~"
How should I put it~~
That was so Old Zhang.
Time kept slipping by.
Soon, it was April 13.
The Play-In Tournament for the 2021–2022 season officially tipped off that day.
The first matchups featured one game each in the East and the West.
They were the Los Angeles Lakers against the Phoenix Suns, and the New York Knicks against the Toronto Raptors.
The Lakers-Suns matchup was clearly the more intriguing of the two.
Los Angeles's Big Three faced off against a sharpshooting squad led by Booker.
That night's game was fiercely contested.
In the end, against everyone's expectations, the Suns were the ones who won!
Phoenix shot with unbelievable efficiency and buried the Lakers under a barrage of threes.
Devin Booker went 14-for-24 from the field and 4-for-7 from three, putting up a