Giving teams like Boston and Los Angeles the two-game leeway, the system should build suspense – NCAA Tournament-like to Brad Stevens – for games that’ll likely be tedious steps into the first round.

“The Thursday game you’re more prepared for than the Saturday game,” he said. Ryen Russillo argued that game would exist in the past anyway, as it did when the Nuggets and Timberwolves played game 82 for the final playoff spot a few years ago.

Those occurrences were the exception though, and now every season there’ll be playoff-like games in April before a fun slate of consequential games before the first round.