The playoff format was expanded to 16 teams for the bj-league's 10th season.
There are five 40-win teams in this season's postseason tournament: Kyoto (44-8), Ryukyu (42-10) and Akita, Iwate and Hamamatsu (41-11). There are also six teams in the hunt with losing records: Takamatsu (17-35), Oita (18-34), Gunma (19-33), Fukushima (21-31), Shimane (22-30) and Aomori (23-29).
Golden Week brings basketball fans an action-packed weekend and will extend to Monday in Kansai with the Hannaryz-Five Arrows series slated for Sunday and Monday, with the other seven matchups scheduled to begin a day earlier.
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