Phoenix Suns in group play with Los Angeles Lakers in first ever NBA In-Season Tournament
LAS VEGAS — The Phoenix Suns will be in group play with the Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers for the first ever In-Season Tournament for the 2023-24 season.
"It's going to be different from a scheduling standpoint, but at the end of the day, they're going to tell us who we're playing on a given date and we're going to prepare to win that game," Suns coach Frank Vogel said at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
"The stakes and what it means are going to be a little bit different, but I think the feel of it all will be refreshing and something neat and exciting for our fans, but for us coaches, we're just going to take the next game on the schedule and try to go out and win."
The tournament semifinals will be played Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas followed by the finals Dec. 9 at the same arena.
Players on the winning team will receive $500,000 each. Here’s a breakdown the prize earnings.
Tournament champions: $500,000 for each player.
Tournament runner up: $200,000 each for each player.
Team eliminated in semifinals: $100,000 each for each player.
Team eliminated in quarterfinals: $50,000 each for each player.
The In-Season Tournament will award a Most Valuable Player and All-Tournament Team with the selections based on “performance in group Play and knockout rounds.”
The six groups — three in the Eastern Conference and three in the Western Conference — were picked by a random draw based on last season’s regular season record.
There are 30 NBA teams. There are five teams in each group.
Group 1 West: Grizzlies, Suns, Lakers, Jazz, Blazers.
Group 2 West: Nuggets, Clippers, Pelicans, Mavericks, Rockets.
Group 3 West: Kings, Warriors, Timberwolves, Thunder, Spurs.
Before the drawings, the team were placed in a ‘pot.’ In each conference, one team from each pot was randomly selected in each of the three groups in that conference.
Pot 1: Teams with top three records in a conference.
Pot 2: Teams with 4-6 records. The Suns finished fourth in the Western Conference.
Pot 3: Teams with 7-9 record.
Pot 4: Teams with 10-12 record.
Pot 5: Teams with 13-15 record.
Each team will play each other once for a total of four games — two at home, two on the road. The games will be played on Tuesday and Friday starting November 3.
These regular season games will count as tournament games.
The team with the best record in each group will advance. Then the team with the next best record in each conference will advance as wild cards.
That will leave an eight-team, single-elimination tournament.
In each conference, the two teams with the best record in group play will host the quarterfinal games and the team with the best record in the group play will host the wild card team.
The 22 teams that didn’t advance will play two regular-season games on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8. The four teams that are eliminated in the quarterfinals will each play a regular-season game Dec. 8.
Tickets for the semifinals and championship game will be available at NBAEvents.com, with premium experiences on sale now. Individual game tickets will be available on Monday.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns in group play with Lakers, Grizzlies in first In-Season Tournament
