Developmental league trying four referees
NEW YORK — The NBA G League will use four referees for preseason and regular-season games through November and expand its playoffs from eight to 12 teams.
The NBA’s minor league experimented with four- and five-person referee crews rather than the traditional threeperson crews for nine regularseason games last season.
Nearly half the 26-team league will qualify for the fourround post-season under the changes announced yesterday.
The new format will give berths to each of the six division winners, with the remaining six spots filled by three wild-card teams in each conference with the best regular-season records.
The top two seeds in each conference will earn byes into the second round. The playoffs will begin with three singleelimination rounds before culminating with a best-ofthree NBA G League Finals.
The 50-game regular season tips off on Nov. 3. Also: Overtime periods will be reduced from three to two minutes.
Clear path reviews were scrapped, leaving five instant replay triggers.
The coach’s challenge has been revised to one per game. It can be used any time to challenge fouls, goaltending/ basket interference and out-ofbounds calls.
DUH, WARRIORS FAVOURED
NBA.com’s annual general manager survey found that league head honchos see the defending champion Warriors as heavy favourites to repeat.
Golden State was named by 93% of those who responded, the most decisive count in the 16-year history of the survey.
The Warriors only received 69% of the vote last year.
LeBron James was named by 50% of the respondents as the pick to win league MVP, though the four-time top player hasn’t won in years.
Kevin Durant (29%) was the second MVP choice. Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony
Towns also received 29% support, though his category was picked as the player they’d pick today to build a franchise around. Milwaukee’s Giannis
Antetokounpo received 21% of the votes. Flashy point guard Lonzo Ball was surprisingly the clear top choice to win rookie of the year (69%).
General managers were not allowed to vote for their own players or teams.