There have complaints the past few years that the NBA’s regular season doesn’t matter. Players have plenty of time get their load management in, which makes a full 82-game regular season slate seem meaningless. Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. But if nothing else, the league is sprucing things up in 2023-24 as it introduces the first NBA In-Season Tournament.
The tournament will function much like European soccer in-season tournaments do, but what exactly does that mean? How does it work, when are the games and how will you be able to watch it?
Rules, format, schedule for NBA In-Season Tournament
The inaugural In-Season Tournament officially gets underway on Nov. 3 and runs through the championship game on Dec. 9.
There will be two stages to the tournament: the group stage and knockout stage. This is similar to the World Cup format.
All 30 teams are assembled into five-team clusters for group play. Between Nov. 3 and Nov. 28, each team will play four regular-season games that will count toward the tournament.
The top eight teams in the group play standings will advance to the knockout stage – the five teams that win their respective groups and two wild-cards (the team from each conference with the best record during group play games that finished second in its group).
The knockout round essentially begins the “tournament” as most fans understand the word – single-elimination games between the final 16 teams. The semifinals and final will be played in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and Dec. 9.
The game and broadcast schedule for the In-Season Tournament will be announced in August.
If nothing else, the In-Season Tournament should spice up the regular season, for fans and players alike.