Word: play-off
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Neither the Braves nor the Pistons would have made the play-offs without an assist from a newly amended rule book. Beginning this year, play-off berths no longer go to the first two teams in each of the four N.B.A. divisions. Instead, only divisional winners automatically qualify; a third-place team like the Pistons (behind Milwaukee and Chicago in the Midwest) can beat out a second-place team in the Pacific division if the third-place finisher has the better record. Buffalo, trailing Boston and New York in the Atlantic division, displaced second-ranking Atlanta in the Central division...
Harvard entered the tournament in a division that included MIT, the University of Rhode Island and Yale. The Crimson earned the top seed for the play-off round by winning its division championship with a record of 7-1, losing only to Yale...
Signs of Life. In some cities, hockey shows healthy life signs. The game has caught on in Atlanta, where thousands of fans follow the expansion Flames, a young team that is displaying play-off potential in the Western Division of the N.H.L. The Buffalo Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers, also expansion teams, are doing well. Ironically, the team that has benefited most from expansion is the one that needed help the least-the Montreal Canadiens. Under the direction of General Manager Sam Pollock, the Canadiens have exploited expansion to replenish their bench and keep their dynasty in power. Unlike Washington Redskins...
Sanders, who was on eight of those championship teams, found himself on the bench for most of last season and contributed little to the team's 4-3 series loss in this year's NBA play-off semi-finals against New York...
...State Warriors in five games. The Knicks, helped by an injury that all but immobilized Celtic Star John Havlicek, ran up a commanding lead of three games to one, then lost two in a row. With that the Celtics did something they had never done before in ten previous play-off series that went to the seventh and deciding game: they lost. In the end, those two old money teams, the Knicks and the Lakers, squared off in the finals...