NBA in-season tournament tiebreaker is ruffling some feathers

DeMar DeRozan got upset at the Toronto Raptors at the end of their 121-108 victory over the Chicago Bulls. The reason? Toronto was trying to run the score, because of the in-season tournament.

There’s only four games of tournament play that determine who advances, meaning there’s a high likelihood of ties. The league decided the tiebreaker would be point differential, which encourages teams like the Raptors to keep scoring late in games, when sportsmanship would usually dictate slowing things down.

That’s made end-of-game scenarios unpredictable for tournament games. Steve Kerr took a timeout in the final seconds of the Golden State Warriors’ loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves to set up a Moses Moody three-pointer — to cut the deficit to three points.

That could be significant, as the Warriors are now eight points ahead of the Timberwolves in point differential, which could prove the difference if Golden State creates a three-way tie in West Group C by beating the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday.

Tuesday is the last day of in-season tournament play, so running up the score is only an issue for one more night. But as Lance Stephenson learned after shooting a layup in garbage time six years ago, DeRozan doesn’t take lightly to winning teams who don’t dribble out the clock.