Everything you need to know about the Bucks' participation in the NBA In-Season Tournament
The Milwaukee Bucks (2-2) host the New York Knicks (2-3) at 6:30 p.m. at Fiserv Forum, and it will be the first In-Season Tournament game for each team. The game is the first in pool play in East Group B, which also includes Miami, Washington and Charlotte.
“It’s the first one so I don’t really know how people are going to approach it,” Bucks point guard Damian Lillard said. “I think because we got the first one so early in the season everybody’s excited to continue to grow and to continue to play games, so I’m pretty sure our energy will be high. It’s a home game. I’m not sure how people are going to respond to it because it’s a tournament game.”
Here is what you need to know about the In-Season Tournament:
What is the In-Season Tournament?
Modeled after various European soccer "cups," the NBA is introducing round-robin group play featuring all 30 teams to help make regular-season games more important to players and fans.
Each game counts toward the regular season standings. The two finalists will end up playing 83 regular season games.
The teams that win their groups advance to single-elimination games for the final eight teams, which are the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. The semifinals and final will be held in Las Vegas.
“I can’t speak for other teams, but for us there’s going to be a trophy so, go after it,” Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin said. “We’re going to use this opportunity to continue to improve and get better. It’ll give us a great experience moving forward, give us a great opportunity to experience some playoff intensity, playoff atmosphere, playoff environment with our group. So, it can only benefit us. And if you’re going to compete, compete to win and I think our players feel the same way.”
Along with claiming the NBA Cup, each player on the winning team gets a lump sum of $500,000. The second-place team receives $200,000 apiece. Semifinalist players get $100,000, while quarterfinalists get $50,000.
“I also learned that our two-way players get that prize as well,” Lillard said. “So I think as somebody who’s built relationships with a lot of those guys over the course of my career I would love to, to not only be able to win it but also to be able to say, look, we looked out for our guys. So I guess I’m excited about the opportunity to do that. But I don’t know many guys are going to be like alright, this is a tournament game, we gotta do this, we gotta do that. We’ll see.”
The group play portion of the tournament runs from Nov. 3-Dec. 9. Group play, which will be dubbed “tournament nights,” will be played every Tuesday and Friday from Nov. 3-28 (except for election day on Nov. 7).
How well the Bucks perform also matters beyond just winning or losing. Head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker, other tiebreakers include:
Point differential in group stage
Total points scored in group stage
Regular-season record from 2022-23
Random draw
It could, potentially, lead to some uncomfortable late-game scenarios for teams if they try to increase their chances of reaching the quarterfinal stage by scoring more points on a given night.
What is the Bucks' In-Season Tournament schedule?
Friday, Nov. 3: Bucks vs. Knicks, 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Friday, Nov. 17: Bucks at Hornets, 6 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 24: Bucks vs. Wizards, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 28: Bucks at Heat, 6:30 p.m. (TNT)
The Bucks will have new jersey and court
The Bucks will be wearing their new City Edition jerseys and every home team will play on new, In-Season Tournament-specific courts.
The Bucks’ court has elements of their “gathering place” City Edition jerseys and colorways. All courts have a rendering of the NBA Cup trophy. Bucks forward Khris Middleton said he liked the rendering of the court and felt it’ll be a nice addition for the fan experience.
“It’s pretty cool how they did it with all the teams having something like that with their own team colors,” he said. “Never played on a court like that, in an NBA setting at least. I think it will be fun, pretty cool and hopefully it's a great experience for the players and fans.”
NBA head of on-court and brand partnerships Christopher Arena answered some questions on the new-look courts for the In-Season Tournament:
Why was it important to have new court designs for all 30 teams for the In-Season Tournament games?
Arena: "We wanted the In-Season Tournament games to jump off the screen and immediately grab fans’ attention and felt like the bold colors of the courts accomplished that. We also felt that we needed to elevate the stage of the tournament by providing a unified look across all teams, with these courts marking the first time that the league has implemented an alternate court for all 30 teams."
Why was it important to have some connectivity with the design for all the courts, particularly the Cup image?
Arena: With the In-Season Tournament running concurrently with regular-season play, we wanted to make it easy for fans to identify an In-Season Tournament game right away, and to achieve that there needed to be consistency across the league. The trophy, which is featured prominently at center court as well as in the lanes, is a symbol of what the teams are competing for, which was a fitting reminder for both players and fans.
How much input did the teams have on its design? It appears some have their classic colors, like the Los Angeles Lakers, while the Bucks’ is a bit different.
Arena: Each team provided input on the colors that were used as well as the logos and team tagline featured at center court and on the baseline. To make it visually cohesive, we wanted the courts to match with the City Edition uniforms which all home teams will be wearing for In-Season Tournament games. Some teams’ City Edition uniforms stick to their core color scheme, for example the Lakers, while others deviate for a more unique look, as with the Bucks.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Here's what to know about the Bucks in the NBA In-Season Tournament
