2023-12-04 17:22:23
For this 2023-2024 season, the NBA has decided to innovate. Locked in its pattern with 82 regular season matches and playoffs at the end of the season to designate the champion, the American league decided to create a new competition to revive interest in the first six months. For the first time, an “In-Season Tournament” has been launched, which will have its epilogue this Saturday, December 9. But what does this tournament look like?
In reality, the competition is already well underway. Since the beginning of November, the 30 NBA teams have competed against each other on Tuesdays and Fridays, on special, extremely colorful floors, in matches with double counting. Indeed, they are both important for this mid-season tournament, but also for the final ranking of the regular season. A total of three groups of five teams were drawn from each conference. The five “hats” in this draw were determined based on last season’s ranking.
$500,000 per player up for grabs
Within each group, all the teams faced each other once each during these famous double-stakes matches. With all matches completed, a ranking has been established. All teams that finished at the top of their pool qualify for the quarter-finals, as does the best runner-up in each conference. It is at this stage of the competition that we are this Monday, just before the start of the quarter-finals, scheduled for next night.
Only eight franchises can therefore still compete for this first “In-Season Tournament”, which offers very interesting prize money. Each player on the champion team will pocket $500,000, while the runners-up will earn $200,000 each. It will be 100,000 dollars for the semi-finalists and 50,000 for the quarter-finalists. For other franchises, they leave empty-handed. This is particularly the case for Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs, who lost in their four matches counting for this new competition.
A Final Four in Las Vegas
The posters for the quarter-finals are therefore known. The Indiana Pacers will host the Boston Celtics on the night of Monday to Tuesday, at the same time as the Sacramento Kings who will host the New Orleans Pelicans. The following night, the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers will face the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns, respectively. Note that these four meetings also count towards the 82 regular season games.
The serious things will then begin in Las Vegas for a Final Four. The four victorious teams at the start of the week will first play the two semi-finals on the night of Thursday to Friday, two days before the grand final. Unlike the previous ones, these last three games do not count for the NBA regular season rankings. But given the announced gains and the title at stake, the teams should still field their best soldiers with a first trophy this season in their sights.
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