out of 8th place but only 2 games out of 10th place have a real incentive to win.

Not only that, but moving from 7th or 8th up to the 6th spot is a big motivator as well, so those teams are all playing hard late in the year to try and leap from 6th, and that 6th place team has to fight hard to not drop to 7.

It’s great for fans and for creating an interesting last month of the season. Not great for teams the bottom half of the playoff race though, since now they could get bumped out of the playoffs altogether in the play in tournament.