SB Nation Reacts: The play-in tournament and Lebron James vs. Steph Curry

It’s an extra special edition of SB Nation Reacts this week centered around the NBA’s play-in tournament. Our Houston Rockets aren’t involved, but we do have the fan confidence rating since the regular season has come to a close and it’s officially rebuild time.

But first, let’s get to the league-wide questions, because those are the biggies this week with the tournament.

First we asked our voters if they were excited about the tourney, and that answer was pretty unequivocal.

I voted yes here, and I honestly thought it would be higher even though it’s already pretty up there. Even if you’re not a fan of the overall concept, the extra games and the nature of the tournament lends itself to being exciting.

Next, we asked our voters who they thought would advance through both the Western and Eastern Conferences. Here are those results:

I took the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, so we’ll have to wait until after tonight’s games to see how I did, as the L.A. battles the red-hot Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

Which brings us to one of our more interesting questions of the week. We asked our voters who they thought was more dangerous in an elimination game, Curry or Lebron James. This was a surprise to me.

Curry has been playing out of his mind, but James has more ways to beat you. If Curry is shooting well, sure, I can get behind this. But if he’s not, well, that’s another story entirely. I realize Steph is more than just shooting, but that’s his game. James can play world-class defense if his shot isn’t falling, something we know Steph just isn’t capable of. I’m rolling with LBJ.

Finally, we asked our national voters about both Rookie of the Year and about Defensive Player of the Year. Here’s what we got:

I’m right in line with both of those. Rudy Gobert deserves it for a surprisingly dominant Utah Jazz team, and I also went with LaMelo Ball. I thought about Anthony Edwards for a minute, but the narrative is with Ball, and we all know how much the NBA loves narratives. He takes it.

Our final question is just for our Rockets fans, and we asked for our fan confidence rating. I was interested to see this since the season just finished up and was curious how the fanbase was feeling after the worst Rockets season the vast majority of us have ever been witness to. I don’t have a card for us this week, but confidence came in at a cool 83 percent, or the third-highest rating of the entire year. That’s my corner too, I’m confident. Go Rockets! In Stone we trust.

Don’t forget to join SB Nation Reacts to take take part in the voting fun. Head over here to sign up!