After a difficult loss on Wednesday, the Warriors need to beat the Grizzlies on Friday to earn the West’s No. 8 seed.

After two nights and four games, the inaugural State Farm NBA Play-In Tournament has exceeded any expectations the fans or its architects might have had.

To this point, packed into a span of a little more than 48 hours as the traditional 16-team playoff bracket awaits, NBA fans have been treated to:

• The revival of a team, Indiana, that had struggled under the weight of injuries and reported internal strife, energizing itself while dominating a conference rival. Even that rival, Charlotte, can turn the spanking it got into something positive as the young team learns from its first taste of play beyond the regular season.

• A remarkable scoring night by a young All-Star on his way to superstar status in Boston. Jayson Tatum’s 50 points picked up the slack from a missing teammate (Jaylen Brown) and combined with veteran guard Kemba Walker to overshadow and beat Washington and its glittery backcourt stars Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook.

• A spirited contest between a pair of Western Conference grinders, Memphis and San Antonio, that appeared to be headed (like the Pacers’ victory) to a Grizzlies homecourt blowout. Until, that is, the Spurs’ pedigree and determination kicked in to remind the top-seeded West clubs there’d be no reason to celebrate a first round matchup with either.

• A marquee clash between recent heavyweights, the Lakers and the Warriors, that deserved another three to six games. Both teams found themselves down at Play-In level due to injuries, but any game of significance with LeBron James and Steph Curry competing for the same goal commands an audience. And it got one.

So now it’s down to two finals games. Indiana plays at Washington Thursday (8 p.m. ET, TNT) with the East’s No. 8 seed and a best-of-seven series with Philadelphia up for grabs. Then Memphis will face Golden State Friday (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) in San Francisco, with Ja Morant and crew eager to prove that a first-round series with Utah, but without Curry, could be every bit as competitive and entertaining.

But we’re at a crossroads: Does the Play-In mechanism deliver a different result from what tradition already had covered? Remember, the Wizards and the Warriors both finished in eighth place over the 72-game schedule. They would have advanced naturally in previous seasons directly to a 1-8 series with the Sixers and the Jazz, their respective conference’s heavyweights.

The Pacers and the Grizzlies are trying to crash that party. And there are good reasons why that might happen for one or both.

Washington and Golden State, having just lost, wind up at home but with zero momentum. The Wizards, who were 3-0 against Indiana during the regular season, had a nice springtime 12-2 bump in April but are just 5-5 since May 1. And their 19-17 record at home isn’t even as good as Indiana’s 21-15 mark in road games.

“We were a long way from even thinking about this seven weeks ago,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks told reporters Wednesday. He praised the Wizards’ cohesiveness for its ability to dig out of a 17-32 hole on April 5.

The Pacers – who again will play without Caris LeVert, Myles Turner, Jeremy Lamb and T.J. Warren, four of their preferred top eight – don’t have anyone likely to shred Washington’s defense the way Tatum did. But they shot 55% against Charlotte, sank 16 of 35 3-pointers and had eight scorers with between 12 and 23 points in the Play-In opener.

As potent as Beal and Westbrook can be, they shot a combined 16-for-43 against the Celtics, finishing with eight fewer points than Tatum by himself. Beal still is hobbled by a sore hamstring, and Westbrook looked out of sorts for stretches Tuesday. Neither they nor any teammates picked up the slack from the perimeter, either – the Wizards shot 3-for-21 on 3-pointers, including 1-for-10 by its two stars.

The #StateFarmPlayIn continues TONIGHT at 8pm/et on TNT!

▪️ PACERS x WIZARDS WIN TO GET IN… winner takes East #8 seed in the #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/VIEzub6zUk

— NBA (@NBA) May 20, 2021

Meanwhile, Golden State and Memphis faced each other as recently as Sunday, with the Warriors’ 113-101 victory deciding eighth place, which gave Golden State homecourt for Friday’s Play-In matchup.

Solid on the road at 20-16, the Grizzlies went 1-2 in the Golden State matchup this season, averaging 105 points, about six below its average against the league’s No. 5 defense. Memphis shooters managed to hit only 28.9% of their 3-point attempts (24 of 83) while the Warriors made 35.5% (43 of 121).

Of the three meetings, Curry played in only Sunday’s game. He nailed 9-of-22 threes by himself and finished with 46 points, seven rebounds and nine assists.

Center Jonas Valanciunas did the most damage for Memphis in the season series, averaging 19.3 points and 15.7 rebounds while making 65.6% of his shots. Ja Morant, the Grizzlies’ leading scorer overall in 2020-21, got game-planned by the Warriors to about five points fewer per game (14.7) than his season average, while shooting 34% dragged down by 2-for-13 from the arc.

A potential X factor for each team? Wings Andrew Wiggins and Dillon Brooks. Wiggins has averaged 20.8 points over Golden State’s past 10 games. Brooks averaged 19.5 points in 17 games from mid-April and had a team-high 24 against the Spurs Wednesday.

Dillon Brooks and Ja Morant come up big in the @memgrizz #StateFarmPlayIn W! @dillonbrooks24: 24 PTS@JaMorant: 20 PTS, 6 REB, 6 AST

Grizzlies will face the Warriors Friday at 9:00pm/et on ESPN to decide the West #8 seed. pic.twitter.com/KyYv26RuMJ

— NBA (@NBA) May 20, 2021

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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