The inaugural edition of the NBA’s In-Season tournament tipped off on November 3rd and will come to a conclusion on December 9th. The tournament’s group stage games, alongside the quarterfinals and the semifinals, are all part of the NBA Regular Season, which means that teams and players simply have an extra reason to be at their best during these matches. However, the Final game will not be counted as a regular season matchup.
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Furthermore, in order to give the group leaders an advantage, the quarterfinals are being hosted by the teams that have the best record among the group leaders. The knockouts will also see 2 further Wildcard entries joining the group leaders, which will be the two teams with the best record amongst those who finished 2nd in their respective groups.
While most of these matches will take place in the arenas of one of the two teams involved, that is not true for the semifinals and the Championship Final. Both of these stages will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which means none of the involved teams will have a home advantage.
The venue for the two final stages of the In-Season tournament is the same i.e. Vegas. The semifinal matchups will be seen as part of the Regular Season. Hence, the entire In-Season tournament is part of the regular season for all 30 teams, except the Championship Final.
Monday’s 5-game slate ‼️
◾️ 7th in West Lakers visit 4th in East Sixers
◾️ Joker (28.8 PPG), Nuggets visit PG (25.4 PPG), ClippersNBA TV, NBA App
https://t.co/j7XaSJX9DR pic.twitter.com/4l39Pzh0MY— NBA (@NBA) November 27, 2023
With the group stage games almost coming to an end, the quarterfinals will start on December 4th, after which the qualified teams will travel to Vegas for the final two stages.
The Championship Final will take place on December 9th and will result in the announcement of the first winners of the NBA In-Season tournament, a competition that the league has envisaged as a yearly tradition.
The NBA has a $18,000,000 prize pool for the In-Season tournament
The league has taken every step to ensure a successful first edition of the In-Season. This means a whopping $18,000,000 prize pool, which will be divided amongst the best teams.
The winning team will see each of its players get a whopping $500k, while the other finalists will receive $200k per team member. The semifinalists will each earn half that while each of the quarterfinalists will get $50k per player contract, according to AP News.
The Championship Final will also be followed by the announcement of the MVP, as well as an All-Tournament team for the competition. That is in addition to the fact that the winning team will get its hands on what will be the first-ever NBA cup. Hence, the In-Season tournament will effectively see its most important games take place in Vegas, at the T-Mobile Arena.
