The Nuggets, Bulls, Raptors, Thunder, Clippers and Mavericks were all eliminated from the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament in the group stage following Friday’s game results, marking 12 total teams out of contention.
The Pacers and Lakers remain the only two teams to clinch spots in the quarterfinals so far, with six more spots up for grabs. The final day of group stage play is Tuesday, Nov. 28 and the quarterfinals will take place on Dec. 4 and 5.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps took a look at all the action from Friday, which featured numerous upsets that set the stage for some interesting scenarios to play out. By beating Detroit on Friday, Indiana won East Group A and guaranteed a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks–Heat game on Tuesday dictates who earns the top overall seed in the East. If the Bucks win, Milwaukee is the conference’s top seed, but if Miami wins, it will be the Pacers. A Miami loss eliminates the Heat.
If the Heat and Knicks win, there will be a three-way tiebreaker between Miami, Milwaukee and New York that is determined by point differential. In that scenario, the Heat would have to beat the Bucks by eight more points than the Knicks beat the Hornets on Tuesday in order to have a chance.
Orlando defeated Boston on Friday, meaning the Magic‘s chances of winning East Group C are bolstered. With the Raptors and Bulls eliminated, the Celtics, Magic and Nets are competing for that group.
The Suns‘ win over Memphis in their final group stage game helped them take steps toward securing a wild-card spot, finishing their games at 3-1 with a plus-34 point differential. The Lakers play in West Group A alongside the Suns and, given the wild card team plays the top seed, it’s likely they’ll face off against each other in the quarterfinals. The only way the Lakers don’t earn the West’s top seed is if the Kings beat the Warriors on Tuesday by 46 or more points.
West Group B got shaken up with the Rockets upsetting and eliminating the Nuggets on Friday, and the Pelicans are now the runaway favorite to win the group, according to Bontemps. The Pelicans beat the Clippers, eliminating them, and improving to 3-1. The Pelicans are not in front of the Suns for the wild card spot and will need the Rockets to lose in order to clinch the group.
The Kings are looking like a top contender for the tournament title, sitting at 3-0 and plus-29. If the Kings beat the Warriors on Tuesday, they advance. If both Sacramento and Minnesota lose, the Warriors win the group. If both Golden State and Minnesota win, it sets up a three-way tie to be decided by point differential. The Warriors are plus-5 and the Timberwolves are minus-3.
Any team that makes the quarterfinals clinches per-player bonuses worth at least $50K. The value of those bonuses would increase to $100K if they advance to the semifinals, $200K if they make the final, and $500K if they win the entire tournament.
The full in-season tournament standings can be found here.
Am I the only one that finds this tournament annoying? I know the NBA trying to sell it as a exciting event but its only for more marketing money and nothing else.
Yes, you are.
Maybe it’ll grow on me in a few seasons, but right now these games just feel like normal regular season games to me, and most of the court designs are horrendous.
Pretty much how I, and I imagine many, feel. And that’s not unexpected all things considered. But the court designs definitely need to be addressed moving forward. I can’t imagine they will have good internal polling on that.
No, you’re not.
Practically no one cares about this tournament. It’s a complete joke
I bet your team is already eliminated
Not at all. Just no one cares. It means nothing. The players don’t even play differently. There’s literally no point to this.
I like it, but don’t like the way the courts are setup.
I like it. No reason to complain about it.
I like it, but it’s too convoluted to figure out standings and such. Needs some tweaks. They should add more games to the qualifying rounds next season.
I also like it a lot. Games with stakes and a bit of playoff feel in November/December, sign me up all day. Though a few of the courts have been a bit too much on the eyes, a lot of them are really super cool.
Think most of the hate/disinterest is probably coming from fans of teams who were knocked out quick, which I get too. Not denying it’s also to make more money, but if most fans love it and the players are into it too, then what’s the problem..
I think it would be more interesting if it occurred later in the season. There’s too much randomness early in the season for these games to be considered meaningful.
For the first tourney game to be a little over a week after the regular season begins is downright absurd. I had to do a double take to make sure I was reading things right.
At the very least, there should be a month of separation between the two, and ideally more like 6-8 weeks.
If we’re being honest the entire playoffs and NBA finals is mainly for marketing purposes and the extra revenue. The tourney adds some intrigue to the regular season games. The players play harder and seem to care and it makes early season where teams are usually just trying different lineups and such more watchable.
I see no evidence that the players care more about these games, at least from the team I follow (Raptors). They’ve laid complete eggs in several of the games.
I don’t find it annoying, but I see no real purpose behind it for me to really care. In the end, I’m only concerned about the Heat winning the real tournament – the NBA Finals.
You’re not the only one. I wouldn’t say I find it ‘annoying’ exactly, but I definitely do not care about it. At the same time, I think the courts are kind of cool and appreciate them trying something different with them. If they made them safer/less slippery it would be better. As long as they don’t start cramming them down our throats like they’ve done with all of the uniform re-designs.
Agree
The In Season Tournament have made it a little more exciting and competitive.
its horrible
The Celtics really disappointed in their game against Orlando. As usual, they came out still rubbing their eyes after halftime. Mazzulla has to stop supplying the team with blankets and pillows for the players. Hey Mazzulla, it’s called halftime, not naptime. Try being a motivator instead of a babysitter.
Celts weakness is now starkly obvious! Celts give up so many more attempts than they get. Like 85 shot attempts for the Heat, versus 76 for us Celts. WTH? That’s primarily because with TimeLord gone we have no offensive rebounding. Heat got 13 offensive boards versus our 4. Or look at the game before against the Bucks. 101 shots for Milwaukee versus 84 for Celts. Say what? Again 13-4 in offensive rebounds. Oshae Brissett came in and got a key offensive board to spark an early game, was praised for that, and hasn’t hardly played since. We need someone to crash the offensive boards! Don’t we have anyone? Go Celtics!
Queta and Knight should probably be used more. Statistically, either one of them are better at offensive rebounding than Porzingis, Horford or Kornet.
The fact is, the Celtics are the only team in the entire NBA which has a point guard leading the team in offensive rebounds. Huge problem
It’s a silly exercise. But Silver had to put effort into something while ignoring all the real issues. A higher level of effort? If so, that’s pretty sad. Fortunately I haven’t seen anything like that.
I don’t care much for the tournament. I am not tuning into more games because of a tournament aspect. I do think NBA TV crew had an interesting aspect to make it more important for the players and teams. Perhaps make the winner be an automatic playoff team. The likely winner anyways is in the playoffs as they would be a good team but guarantee them a top 6 spot.
So, wait…the Raptors are eliminated? Why tf did they say they were heaving up 3s in the final seconds against the Bulls because it helped their point differential? DeMar get angry and was thrown out of the game with <30 seconds left…
This tournament is to please Las Vegas because they will not get a team anytime soon