We’ve reached the knockout round, the quarterfinals of the In Season Tournament, it’s time to look at what to expect over the next 48 hours.
How has the In Season Tournament gone so far?
It’s been fun and entertaining — the games have genuinely been more intense than most regular season games this time of year. While not every game has lived up to the hype, many have and there has been a buy-in from players and coaches. Having unique uniforms and courts helped set it apart (even if some of the courts were blinding). Fans also seem to be into it, ratings have generally been good for this time of year.
While some fans are more curious, the more hardcore NBA fans have been the prophets for the tournament, preaching its advantages to anyone who will listen. It’s been everything Silver and the league could have hoped for to this point.
How did we get here?
For the inaugural tournament, all 30 NBA were divided into six groups of five teams each (three Eastern Conference groups, three West). Each team played four Group Stage games against the other teams in their group, and whoever had the best record in each group — plus one wild card team from each conference — advanced to the knockout round that starts today, Dec. 4.
Those final eight teams are Boston, Milwaukee, Indiana and New York from the East; Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento, New Orleans and Phoenix from the West. The final four teams in the tournament will come to Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and 9 for the semifinals and finals.
What are the quarterfinal games?
Boston at Indiana (7:30 p.m. ET, Dec. 4)
Indiana is what this tournament is for — an underappreciated team that earned its way into the spotlight with its play. The Pacers have the best offense in the NBA (on pace to be the best offense of all time statistically), led by Tyrese Haliburton, who is playing at an All-NBA level (27 points and league-leading 11.8 assists a game). The Pacers also have the 29th-ranked defense in the league — their games are entertaining because it’s like a 1982 score fest. As great a story as the Pacers are, they are about to run into the best team in the NBA so far this season — Boston is deep and very good, led by Jayson Tatum, who is having an MVP-level season averaging 27.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists a game. The Celtics will be without Kristaps Porzingis (calf), which removes some of the rim protection they need and opens the door a little for the Pacers. Can Indiana take advantage?
New Orleans at Sacramento (10 p.m. ET, Dec. 4)
Two more teams that don’t always grab the national spotlight but will be there thanks to the tournament. Zion Williamson has been a force of nature recently — in his last five games he has averaged 26 points a game on 61% shooting, and he is getting to the rim at will. The Kings don’t have great rim protection to start with and stopping this version of Zion will be a big ask, plus the Pelicans just got Tre Murphy and CJ McCollum back from injury and they open the floor up with their shooting. Sacramento brings an elite offense with De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabots, and their defense is better this season, but the team has also stumbled a little in recent weeks (3-3 in their last six). Can being at home and on this stage lift Sacramento? It needs to, New Orleans has won both meetings between these teams this season.
New York at Milwaukee (7:30 p.m. ET, Dec. 5)
This is the kind of marquee matchup Adam Silver — and, more accurately, the league’s broadcast partners — hoped to see with this tournament. The Bucks will have the biggest names on the court in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, but that duo is still finding its chemistry and it’s hard to trust this team right now. Milwaukee has won 9-of-11 but their defense — even after moving Brook Lopez back to drop coverage — has been pedestrian and they have games that make you question them (the recent loss to the Bulls, barely beating the Wizards and Trail Blazers before that).
New York will grind. No doubt. The Knicks have a top-five defense, Jalen Brunson (27.6 points per game in his last nine) and Julius Randle, and they are just difficult to play against. New York comes in having won 7-of-9, including beating the Heat. What gives the Bucks the edge is Lillard in the clutch — Milwaukee is 9-3 in clutch games this season (within five points in the final five minutes) with a league-best +31.9 net rating in those minutes, and it’s all about what Lillard brings to the table. That will be hard for New York to match.
Phoenix at Los Angeles Lakers (10 p.m. ET, Dec. 5)
Another game that answers the prayers of the league office and broadcasters — LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant with something real on the line. Both teams are playing well coming in and we know from their history on big stages that both LeBron and Durant will deliver. What will determine the outcome of this game is which secondary star has the better night — Devin Booker for the Suns or Anthony Davis for the Lakers. Both teams are at their best when those second stars are the team’s best player and the bigger names can play off them. The Lakers are getting healthy and have Jarred Vanderbilt, who can help guard one of the Suns’ stars. Do the Suns have any individual defenders who will step up in those moments? This game should have a playoff feel. (The Lakers are 2-0 against the Suns this season, but Booker missed both those games so they aren’t really predictive.)
What about the other 22 teams in the NBA?
Everybody else got a three-day break with no games Sunday through Tuesday, but starting Wednesday, they will have to play a couple of games to round out the schedule. To make the tournament work, the NBA sent each team an 80-game schedule at the start of the season, and for the teams that didn’t make it out of tournament group play they need to play two more games against other teams that didn’t make it. That schedule is set for Wednesday and Friday.
Here’s the NBA’s schedule for the 22 teams that missed the quarterfinal round of the In-Season Tournament. pic.twitter.com/w4pCvNbtOp
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 29, 2023
Do In Season Tournament games count as regular season games?
Yes. You can look at the tournament games as counting double, toward the regular season and the tournament. Every team will play 82 games, except the two teams that reach the tournament championship will play 83 games this season.
Are the players invested in the tournament?
Yes. The money is part of that. Players on the team that wins the In-Season Tournament get a $500,000 bonus each; after that it’s $200,000 each for the runners-up, $100,000 each for players on the two teams that lose in the semifinal games, and $50,000 each for those on the teams fall in the first round of the knockout stage.
"$500,000 sounds real good to us,” the Lakers’ Davis said. “It’s going to bring that juice, you know what I mean?… I heard one of our players, I’m not going to say who but he was like, ‘Man, when we beat Phoenix, That’s one step closer to this $500 [thousand].’ I’ve never had that before. So it’s like, that’s a little extra motivation.”
What tweaks does the In Season Tournament need?
Outside of going away from the very red tournament courts? The big thing it needs is some kind of stakes to get more buy-in from the majority of fans. There are stakes for the players and coaches — money — but while the fans are invested in winning a title in June how much they care about winning this tournament varies.
That changes if the league adds something for the franchise — an extra draft pick (No. 31) to the tournament winner, or saying they are guaranteed to be at least the No. 7 seed come the playoffs — and that would get more fan buy-in. There are issues with the draft pick and seedings idea, but the league needs to offer fans something more than just a trophy they don’t know to get the buy-in it wants.
