If teams believed they could force a play-in series by creeping within four games of the No. 8 seed, suddenly the final month of the season would become more meaningful. “I do see this as something we would embrace going forward,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told Sports Illustrated. “As you know I’ve been talking about it for a while. We saw this as an opportunity to institute a form of it. I’m not sure if this would be the exact format going forward. But this is something we’d like to see stay.”