NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Western Conference has been a confusing disarray this season, with few teams seeming capable of separating themselves and the rest mired in a chaos of injuries, disillusion and malaise.

The drama reached its apogee on Sunday afternoon. Seven games between Western foes tipped off simultaneously and determined half the post-season seeding, including which teams could rest for a week and which could be knocked out in the play-in tournament before the play-offs even start.

There were blowouts, shenanigans and punches thrown.

It was one of the most exciting days of the season, and highlighted part of NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s ethos – that change, though it may come at a cost, can be good.

Two years ago, he met resistance when he introduced the play-in tournament, in which the teams seeded seventh to 10th compete for the last two of eight play-off spots in each conference.

Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks argued that it was unfair for teams to play a whole season to land among the top eight seeds just to face elimination in the play-in tournament. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James said whoever came up with it should be fired.

But two weeks ago, Silver said all but four of the league’s 30 teams still had a chance to make the play-offs. On Saturday, with two days of games left, the NBA posted a dizzying, colour-coded graphic on Twitter with 64 scenarios for the final West seedings.

Did any team really want to face the Golden State Warriors, the defending champions?

How dangerous could the Los Angeles Clippers be once Kawhi Leonard locked in, and if Paul George was healthy?

A team with James and Anthony Davis are fearsome no matter their record, and the Lakers have excelled since the trade deadline.

None of this intrigue would have been possible without the play-in tournament. It is undeniable that it made the end of the season more intriguing.

“It makes it more exciting and it keeps things really interesting all the way down the stretch,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “I’m watching all of it for sure.”

All teams played on Sunday. The slot at 1pm Eastern time offered a slate of mostly meaningless Eastern Conference games. At 3.30pm, the real drama began.

Golden State (No. 6) dismantled the Portland Trail Blazers by 56 points, but it was just their 11th road win.

About the same time, the Mavericks, with no chance to make the play-offs, lost to the San Antonio Spurs by 21 points.

At the trade deadline, the Mavericks had acquired Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets to play with Doncic and seemed to be title contenders. And yet there they were, ending the season by losing to a 22-win team.

The Lakers finished the season with an emphatic win over the Utah Jazz to claim the seventh seed.

Los Angeles had spent most of the season floundering, with injuries further hampering a mismatched roster that struggled to flow. They improved at the trade deadline, but by then they needed a furious rally to give themselves even a chance at the play-offs.

Finishing with the seventh-best record in the West was an accomplishment, but it took a lot out of them.

The Lakers’ play-in opponents on Tuesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves (No. 8), had the most dramatic day.

They had spent all season trying to adjust to adding centre Rudy Gobert, for whom they had traded away a treasure trove of assets last summer.

On Sunday, in the second quarter of their game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Gobert punched his teammate Kyle Anderson during a verbal altercation. A few minutes earlier, Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels broke his right hand by punching a wall.

McDaniels is out indefinitely, and Minnesota suspended Gobert for the game against the Lakers.

It is not the kind of drama the NBA wants, but it did have people talking.

It was also another example of how much can go wrong with a blockbuster trade for a star.

Then there were the Phoenix Suns and the Clippers. The Clippers were playing to stay out of the play-in tournament and the only way was to win – even if that meant facing a star-studded Suns in the first round.

“I’m not a fan of the play-in, me personally, because we didn’t make it last year and we fought so hard to get a top-eight seed,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said.

“You don’t make it, it’s tough. But we knew today was a big game to stay away from that.”

The play-in tournament is not the last break with tradition Silver will oversee.

In April, the league and the players’ union agreed to add an in-season tournament to the regular season. It will add more games, but could also add drama.

Last weekend’s theatrics may be taken as evidence that it does not hurt to try. NYTIMES