What's at stake in Friday's games

November 25, 2023 ndowd

Tim Bontemps, ESPNNov 24, 2023, 07:45 PM ET

The NBA announced on Aug. 15 its schedule for the group stage of the inaugural in-season tournament, which will see the winning team earn the NBA Cup and its players $500,000 each.

The tournament — whose final will be on Dec. 9 in Las Vegas — will see each NBA team play a four-game group stage in November, with the group winners advancing to the knockout rounds.

Two teams, the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers, have already clinched their spots in the quarterfinals, which will take place Dec. 4 and 5. Six more teams will join them after the final two days of group stage games.

So what, exactly, is the NBA Cup? How will the tournament work? Why is it happening? What is the NBA hoping to get out of it?

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Magic win complicates East C scenarios; Suns stay in wild card mix

The Orlando Magic became the latest team to play spoiler for a favorite’s in-season tournament hopes Friday afternoon by claiming a 113-96 victory over the East-leading Boston Celtics.

With the victory, Orlando moved to 3-1 in East Group C play, securing a critical head-to-head tiebreaker over Boston in the process and setting up a potentially very complicated set of circumstances in Tuesday’s final day of group play.

Orlando, which now has a point differential of plus-22 after Friday’s win, will win Group C if either the Brooklyn Nets lose to the Toronto Raptors Tuesday or the Celtics win by 22 or fewer points. For Boston to win Group C, the following things will need to happen Tuesday:

Boston will have to beat the Chicago Bulls at home by at least 23 points in its final group stage game
Brooklyn will have to beat Toronto at home in its final group stage game
Brooklyn will have to win that game by a margin of 15 or fewer points than Boston’s eventual margin of victory.

So, for example, if Boston beats Chicago 100-70, Brooklyn would have to beat Toronto by a margin of 22 points or less for the Celtics to win the group.

For Brooklyn to win Group C, it needs to win and Boston to either lose, or win by at least 15 points against Toronto and by within 8 fewer points than Boston’s margin of victory.

So, for example, if Boston beats Chicago 100-70, Brooklyn would have to beat Toronto by a margin of 23 or more points for the Nets to win the group.

Get all that? Good, because we barely do.

The one thing Orlando’s win did guarantee is that if the Indiana Pacers win at home against the Detroit Pistons Friday night, they will host a quarterfinal for the right to move on to the semifinals in Las Vegas on either Dec. 4 or 5.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix Suns cruised to a 110-89 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in their final group stage game, improving to 3-1 in West Group A and going a long way toward securing the wild card spot in the quarterfinals.

Phoenix finished group play with a plus-34 point differential. While the Suns could be tied with as many as four other teams for the lone wild card spot in the Western Conference, currently none of the other teams in that mix — the New Orleans Pelicans, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors — are nearly that high in terms of point-differential, with only New Orleans (plus-23) residing over even 20 points so far in the tournament.

Because the wild card will play the top seed in the quarterfinals, Phoenix would all but certainly rematch with the Lakers in Los Angeles in the quarterfinals on either Dec. 4 or 5. Given the Lakers already have gone 4-0 in group play, and have a point differential of plus-74, the only way the Lakers will not be the top seed is if either Sacramento (plus-16) or Minnesota (plus-10) wins both its final two games by an average of 30 points.

The Pelicans play their final group stage game later Friday at the LA Clippers.

Quarterfinals spots on the line Friday

As the NBA’s in-season tournament returns for the sixth nights of group stage action, there is a lot on the line for teams hoping to qualify for December’s knockout round.

We’ll go through each group one at a time and lay out what’s at stake.

East Group A

The Indiana Pacers have clinched the group after beating the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday. If Indiana wins against the Detroit Pistons — who come into the contest losing 12 in a row — the Pacers would improve to 4-0 in group play, and put themselves in strong position to host a quarterfinal game on Dec. 4 or 5. Indiana, the Boston Celtics and either the Milwaukee Bucks or Miami Heat could all finish 4-0 in group play. If that happens, the three teams would be ranked in order of their point differential, which is the next tiebreaker after head-to-head records. Indiana has a point differential of plus-17 through three games. Boston is plus-17 through two games, Milwaukee is plus-36 through two games and Miami is plus-13 through two games.

East Group B

Miami heads to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Knicks (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN). If Miami wins, it sets up a winner-take-all showdown Tuesday against the Bucks, regardless of what happens in Milwaukee’s game Friday against the Washington Wizards.
If the Knicks win and improve to 2-1 in group play, it opens up a variety of scenarios. Presuming Milwaukee beats Washington and improves to 3-0, New York — which enters Friday’s game with a plus-16 point differential — will be in strong position to advance by either winning the group or claiming the East’s wild-card spot with another victory Tuesday at home against the Charlotte Hornets.

East Group C

The Magic’s win over the Celtics means this group won’t be decided until Tuesday. Orlando, Boston and Brooklyn are all still alive to potentially win the group, or qualify as the East’s wild card.

West Group A

The Los Angeles Lakers clinched the top spot in the group and a home game in the quarterfinals on Dec. 4 or 5. The Suns took a big step toward the West’s wild-card spot with their win Friday night over the Grizzlies.

West Group B

One of the most consequential games of the night is the final one, with the New Orleans Pelicans traveling to Los Angeles to take on the LA Clippers. If the Pelicans win and improve to 3-1 in group play, they will clinch the group if the defending champion Denver Nuggets prevail at the Houston Rockets. While the Pelicans and Nuggets would be 3-1 in that scenario, New Orleans beating Denver last week will give them the tiebreaker and the group victory.
If Houston beats Denver, however, the Rockets would have a chance to capture the group if they can win in Dallas next Tuesday no matter what happens in the New Orleans contest, as the Rockets gave the Pelicans their only tournament loss earlier this month.
The wildest scenario, though, comes if the Clippers beat the Pelicans and the Rockets beat the Nuggets. That would leave open the possibility of a five-way tie at 2-2, if the Mavs beat the Rockets on Tuesday. In that case, the winner of the group will be decided by point differential.

West Group C

The Minnesota Timberwolves can clinch Group C with a home win over the Sacramento Kings. Both teams are 2-0 in group play, and if either claims their remaining two games — Minnesota plays Oklahoma City on Tuesday and Sacramento plays Golden State Warriors — they’ll guarantee themselves a home game in the quarterfinals.
If Sacramento wins, it opens the door for Golden State to potentially win the group. The Warriors would have to beat the San Antonio Spurs, who have lost 10 in a row, then win Tuesday’s game in Sacramento, which will put the Warriors and Kings at 3-1 and will give Golden State the tiebreaker.
Minnesota beat Golden State last week and will win a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Warriors. If all three teams tie at 3-1, point differential will determine their finishing order. The Kings are plus-16, the Timberwolves are plus-10 and the Warriors are minus-1.

Friday’s games

Magic 113, Celtics, 96
Suns 110, Grizzlies 89
Heat at Knicks, 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
Bulls at Raptors, 7:30 p.m. ET
Pistons at Pacers, 8 p.m. ET
Nuggets at Rockets, 8 p.m. ET
Wizards at Bucks, 8 p.m. ET
Kings at Timberwolves, 8 p.m. ET
Spurs at Warriors, 10 p.m. ET on ESPN
Pelicans at Clippers, 10:30 p.m. ET

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FAQ

Why is this happening?

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has wanted to implement it for years, for a variety of reasons. Much like the play-in games, though, it took a long time for him to convince everyone involved to give it a shot.

The first hope, obviously, is that it generates revenue. The NBA believes the in-season tournament can become a significant moneymaking franchise over time because of the ability to sell its television rights — as it did with the WNBA’s version of the event.

The other hope is to draw more eyeballs to the league. The stretch of time the tournament is set within — from the start of November through the first week of December — might be the most irrelevant part of the NBA schedule.

It’s after the initial rush of the season starting, and alongside the college football and NFL regular seasons. If this tournament can bring more attention to the sport during its least relevant time of the year, it will be seen as a victory.

What is the format?

Silver has long been fascinated with European soccer, and the basis for the NBA’s in-season tournament lies in the cup tournaments across Europe. In those leagues, there is a regular-season championship, determined by the team with the most points over the full year, and then a separate tournament (or, in some leagues, multiple tournaments) that runs concurrently with the league season.

Unlike European soccer tournaments, though, which all are played outside of the league schedule, the NBA Cup is built into the NBA’s regular-season schedule. The 30 teams were split up into six five-team groups.

The four group stage games will be played on seven November dates: four Fridays (Nov. 3, 10, 17 and 24) and three Tuesdays (Nov. 14, 21 and 28).

The quarterfinals will be played Dec. 4 and 5 at the higher-seeded team, and the semifinals and championship game will be Dec. 7 and 9 in Las Vegas.

How will this impact the regular-season schedule and standings?

Typically, the NBA sends out a full 82-game schedule in mid-August. This year, though, the league only sent 80 games, with a gap in the schedule from Dec. 3-10. Each team’s final two regular-season games will be determined by how the in-season tournament plays out.

The 22 teams that fail to qualify for the knockout rounds of the in-season tournament will have their final two games scheduled — one at home and one on the road — on Dec. 6 and 8 against other teams eliminated in the group stage.

The East teams that lose in the quarterfinals and the West teams that lose in the quarterfinals will play each other on Dec. 7. The teams that lose in the semifinals in Las Vegas will have played their full allotment of 82 games, while the teams that reach the championship game will actually wind up playing 83 games — with the championship game not counting toward the regular-season standings.

Why does the NBA Cup include regular-season games?

Before its launch, one of the biggest questions surrounding the in-season tournament was why any team would be incentivized to compete in it. By making it part of the regular-season schedule, and making every game count toward the regular season — very important from a playoff tiebreaker standpoint — the NBA created a situation in which it is in teams’ interest to win these games.

If this had been set up like the cup tournaments in European soccer, there would’ve been nothing stopping NBA teams from opting out literally or figuratively, sitting all of their top players and getting extra rest time. Under this system, though, they’ll have every incentive to play and win.

What teams make up the groups?

To create the groups — which were separated by conferences — the NBA put all 15 teams in each conference into five pots, separated by their finish in last season’s standings. So: Pot 1 included the teams that finished 1-3 in regular-season record, teams 4-6 went into Pot 2, teams 7-9 in Pot 3, teams 10-12 in Pot 4 and teams 13-15 in Pot 5.

As a result, the following groups were drawn:

East Group A: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons

East Group B: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets

East Group C: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic

West Group A: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, LA Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers

West Group B: Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets

West Group C: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs

What do players get for winning?

The players on the winning team will each get $500,000, while the runners-up will get $200,000. The losing players of the semifinals will each get $100,000, and the losing players of the quarterfinals will each get $50,000.

Will anyone earn individual honors for their play in NBA Cup games?

There will be a Most Valuable Player award for the in-season tournament, as well as an all-tournament team.

Will this have any impact on the playoffs?

Not beyond the games being regular-season games that count in the standings. While there was some debate among league insiders about guaranteeing a playoff berth as a reward for winning the tournament, ultimately that idea — or any other to further incentivize teams — was not enacted. The only playoff impact will come from the wins and losses accrued throughout the tournament.

Why is it called the NBA Cup?

Because it’s easy enough to change. In the short term, the NBA has said it went with the most basic of titles for both the tournament and its trophy — the “in-season tournament” and “NBA Cup” — as a way to introduce the concept to fans. However, using such bland, nondescript names has another clear advantage: When the league looks to sell the naming rights to both, it’ll be an easier transition from an unremarkable name than one connected with a specific individual (such as the late David Stern, one possibility that had been floated before the tournament was officially unveiled).