I agree about the cup games, not so much about the play-in tournament.
Whether it's an improvement over the traditional 1-8 method is debatable, but its games should definitely count as playoff games of a preliminary round.
The 1957 games were exactly that - without the "play-in" title - and counted as playoff games.
The NCAA play-in games, also known as "First Four", count for record purposes if memory serves me correctly.
No, I was referring to the tie-breaking games. The 1957 ones were actually only used for seeding the Western teams 1-3, so the 1956 de-facto play-in game between the Nationals and the Knicks would have been a better example.
I see now that Basketball reference does not count these for playoff stats, but is that the case also for official NBA statistics?
In any case, they should count.
And it's not only basketball. The Olympics also have a prelim round in 100m before the "official" 1st round. And it sure counts as an Olympic race.
I agree about the cup games, not so much about the play-in tournament.
Whether it's an improvement over the traditional 1-8 method is debatable, but its games should definitely count as playoff games of a preliminary round.
The 1957 games were exactly that - without the "play-in" title - and counted as playoff games.
The NCAA play-in games, also known as "First Four", count for record purposes if memory serves me correctly.
I think you might be referring to the double round robin that was employed in the 1954 NBA Playoffs.
The NCAA's "First Four" games do count as official tournament games.
No, I was referring to the tie-breaking games. The 1957 ones were actually only used for seeding the Western teams 1-3, so the 1956 de-facto play-in game between the Nationals and the Knicks would have been a better example.
I see now that Basketball reference does not count these for playoff stats, but is that the case also for official NBA statistics?
In any case, they should count.
And it's not only basketball. The Olympics also have a prelim round in 100m before the "official" 1st round. And it sure counts as an Olympic race.