As every boardgame aficionado knows, jail is often the best place to be late in a Monopoly game. Of course, you can’t accumulate any rent if someone lands on one of your house- or hotel-equipped properties, but you will at least go three more turns without landing on on some tycoon’s hotel on Boardwalk or Pennsylvania Avenue. And sometimes that’s all it takes to outlast the other players desperately trying to just hang on by reaching Go.
Essentially, you can’t win the game relaxing in jail; but you also can’t lose. And this exact same phenomenon is going on in the race for the Western Conference Playoffs right now. TrueHoop explains:
Saturday was a great day for the Blazers, because they didn’t play and watched Utah, New Orleans, and Houston all lose (while Denver and Phoenix won fairly easy games).
As a result, the Blazers woke up Sunday morning in fourth in the West, which means they would have had homecourt advantage.
But it didn’t last long: On Sunday, the Nuggets were the ones to rest — while Portland, Dallas, and Utah all lost. (The Suns won again.)
By having the day off, Denver takes over the coveted fourth spot.
If Portland wants to get back to fourth, maybe they should listen to Homer. “Well, son, you failed. The lesson here is: Never try.”
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