Explained: 2023 NBA In-Season tournament format, groups, teams, dates, rules and all you need to know

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced that an In-Season tournament will take place from the upcoming 2023-24 season. The tournament, going to be played by all 30 teams, has been scheduled between November and December. Here are all the details about this new addition to the NBA.

What is NBA In-Season tournament?

The In-Season tournament is an additional event introduced by the NBA and would be played from the upcoming 2023-24 season. This additional event will be played during the regular NBA season. All 30 NBA teams will take part in the In-Season tournament.

How many games does it have?

The NBA In-Season tournament will have a total of 67 games including the final. All the games, except for the final, will count towards regular season games of the NBA teams, including the quarterfinals and semifinals.

What is the format of the In-Season tournament?

The NBA In-Season tournament will be played in Group Play and Knockout games format. The Group stage will have 60 games, 30 in each conference. The knockout stage will have seven games, that is, four quarterfinals, two semifinals and one final.

All the games, except the final, would be played by the teams within the conference. The final would be an inter-conference showdown, much like the NBA Championship.

How are the teams divided?

Each conference has three groups: A, B and C, comprising of five teams each from its own respective conference. There are a total of six groups.Here are the groups from each conference:

How are the groups decided?

NBA used the world-cup-styled draw to determine the teams in each group. For starters, five pots (sub-groups) were formed in each conference of three teams each. The teams in these pots were divided on the basis of their 2022-23 regular season standings.

For example, Teams finishing first to third were put in the first pot, teams finishing fourth to sixth were placed in the second pot, seventh to ninth in the third pot, 10th to 12th in the fourth pot and 13th to 15th in the fifth pot. The process is done for both conferences.

After putting teams in the pot, the NBA picked one team each from the five pots of the single conference and put them in a group. The process was done thrice in each conference, resulting in three groups of five teams in both, the Eastern and Western conferences.

How is Group stage round played?

Each team in its group will play the other four once, twice on the road and twice at home. After the 60 group games, 30 in each conference, winners of all groups will subsequently move to the knockout round.

Apart from the six winners of six groups from both conferences, two teams, one from each conference will also move forward. The team, which will advance apart from the three winners in a single conference, is the one which has finished best among the rest of the 12 teams. These two teams will be called wild card teams.

A total of eight teams, four from each conference (three group winners and one wild card), will move forward into the knockout round.

How is the Knockout round played?

The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played by the teams of the same conference. The two quarterfinals will be hosted by two teams with the best record in the Group stage.

The team with the best record in the Group stage among the three group winners in each conference will host the wild card team. The second quarterfinal will be played between the other two group winners of the same conference. The process is the same for the other conference as well and a total of four teams, two from each conference, will advance to semis.

The semifinals between the two same-conference teams will be played at a neutral site, and the winners, one from each conference, will face off in the final, also at a neutral site.

What if two teams finish with same record in a group?

In case two teams finish with the same record in a group, then the winner will be determined by the following steps:

• Head-to-head record in the Group Stage;
• Point differential in the Group Stage;
• Total points scored in the Group Stage;
• Regular season record from the 2022-23 NBA regular season; and
• Random drawing (in case two or more teams are still tied following the above tiebreakers)

The same tie-breaker steps will be used to determine the wild card team from each conference if two or more teams finish with the same record apart from the three group winners.

The same steps will also be in effect to determine which team will play the wild card team in the quarterfinals in case two or more group winners finish with the same record in a conference.

When and where will the games be played?

The group stage of the NBA In-Season tournament will be played every Tuesday and Friday, starting November 3. The quarterfinals will be played on December 4-5. The semifinals will be played on December 7 and the final will take place on December 9, in Las Vegas for the 2023-24 season.

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