Everything to Know About the NBA’s In-Season Tournament
Perhaps you tuned into an NBA game last Friday night and were surprised to see it being played on a court that looked kind of like a swimming pool, or maybe a classical depiction of hell. Maybe the announcers referenced that this was an “In-Season Tournament Game” and you didn’t know what that meant.
Even if you had heard of the NBA In-Season Tournament, which we ranked as one of our five big things to watch for in this 2023-24 NBA season, you probably didn’t know all the nuts and bolts of how it works. So we’ve compiled a list of everything you need to know.
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What is the NBA In-Season Tournament?
The NBA In-Season Tournament is a new event that takes place during the regular season. The format was agreed upon by the league and the National Basketball Players Association in the collective bargaining agreement that the two sides signed in June 2023.
How does the NBA In–Season Tournament work?
The 30 NBA teams were divided into six groups of five teams. Each team will play the other members of its group once. Then eight teams will advance to a single-elimination tournament. The team in each group with the best record in group-play games will advance, along with the team from each conference with the best record in group-play games that finished second in its group.
The knockout stage will culminate in a championship game to determine the winner of the trophy, called the NBA Cup.
What are the NBA In-Season Tournament tiebreakers?
If multiple teams are tied for first place in a group, or for the conference “wild card” spot, the tie will be broken according to the following, in sequential order:
Group stage head-to-head
Group stage point differential
Group stage total points scored
2022-23 regular season record
Random drawing
What NBA teams make up the groups?
Each team was placed into a “pot” based on its 2022-23 regular-season record. In each conference, one team was selected from each pot and placed into each of the three groups in that conference. Pot 1 had the teams with the three best records in the conference, Pot 2 had the teams with the fourth- through sixth-best records in the conference, and so on.
When is the NBA In-Season Tournament?
Most of the NBA In-Season Tournament schedule is already set. Group play games will occur every Tuesday and Friday night of November, with the exception of Election Day on Nov. 7. All NBA games on those nights are In-Season Tournament games.
For the knockout stage, two quarterfinal games each will be played on Monday, Dec. 4, and Tuesday, Dec. 5, and televised on TNT. Both semifinals matchups will take place on Thursday, Dec. 7, (one airing on ESPN, the other on TNT). The championship will be broadcast on ABC on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 8:30 p.m.
Where is the NBA In-Season Tournament played?
All group-play games, in addition to the quarterfinals, will be played in NBA team markets. The semifinals and championship will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which is a neutral site.
What do NBA players get for winning the NBA In-Season Tournament?
The payouts for players whose teams advance to the knockout stage are as follows:
Champions – $500,000
Runners-up – $200,000
Semifinals Losers – $100,000
Quarterfinals Losers – $50,000
Of the 438 players with 2023-24 salaries listed on Spotrac, 283 of them will earn less than $10 million, meaning that an NBA Cup win would result in at least a 5% bonus for the majority of the league’s players.
Are there awards for the NBA In-Season Tournament?
There will be a Most Valuable Player for the tournament and an All-Tournament Team, with selections based on both the group play and knockout stages.
How will the NBA In-Season Tournament impact the regular season?
All In-Season Tournament games count as regular season games in the standings except for the championship, which exists outside of the regular season.
To ensure that every team plays exactly 82 regular-season games, the 22 teams that do not qualify for the knockout round will play two additional regular-season games on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8. The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals of the tournament will play one additional regular-season game on Dec. 8 against the opponent from the same conference.
What is the point of the NBA In-Season Tournament?
The NBA regular season is long, with 82 games played over a period of nearly six months. Superstars are sitting out more nights than ever. Playoff outcomes feel increasingly detached from regular season results, as an 8-seed made the Finals last season. The NBA In-Season Tournament adds intrigue to the regular season, particularly during a stretch of the year when fan attention is easily siphoned away by the NFL and college football.
In the words of NBA executive vice president of Basketball Strategy & Analytics Evan Wasch, “The In-Season Tournament will provide a new opportunity for teams and players to compete in an exciting format, build their legacies, chase an early-season championship and raise the NBA Cup. It will add must-win games in the early part of our season while creating something new and different for fan bases to celebrate and rally around.”
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