What is the tournament in the NBA season?
The NBA season tournament is already in the knockout rounds, which will culminate with one team lifting the NBA Cup and each of its players will win $500,000.
After the 30 teams were divided into six groups and played four pool games throughout November, eight qualified for the quarterfinals and four quintets are now on their way to Las Vegas.
The Indiana Pacers beat the visiting Boston Celtics 122-112 on Monday night to clinch a spot in the semifinals, while the New Orleans Pelicans also booked their spot in the ‘Final Four’ with a 127-117 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
The Pacers will face the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday on ESPN Deportes, who defeated the visiting New York Knicks 146-122 on Tuesday. The Pelicans will face LeBron James and the Lakers, who defeated the Phoenix Suns in a 106-103 thriller in Los Angeles.
The semifinals will take place Thursday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, followed by the championship game on Saturday.
So what exactly is the NBA Cup? How will the tournament work? Why is it happening? What does the NBA hope to get out of this?
Why is this happening?
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has wanted to implement it for years, for a variety of reasons. However, just like the play-in, it took him a long time to convince everyone involved to give it a try.
The first hope, obviously, is that it generates income. The NBA believes that the seasonal tournament can eventually become a very lucrative franchise due to the ability to sell its television rights, as was the case with the WNBA version of the event. The other hope is to attract more eyes to the league. The time period in which the tournament takes place, from early November to the first week of December, might be the most irrelevant part of the NBA calendar. It’s after the initial rush of the start of the season, and alongside the college football and NFL regular seasons. If this tournament manages to attract more attention to the sport during the 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 foundation of the NBA’s seasonal tournament lies in cup tournaments across Europe. In those leagues, there is a regular-season championship, determined by the team with the most points throughout the year, and then a separate tournament (or, in some leagues, multiple tournaments) that takes place at the same time as the season. . . the league.
However, unlike European soccer tournaments, which are played outside the league schedule, the NBA Cup is integrated into the NBA’s regular season schedule. The 30 teams were divided into six groups of five teams.
The four group stage matches will be played on seven dates in November: four Fridays (November 3, 10, 17 and 24) and three Tuesdays (November 14, 21 and 28).
The quarterfinals will be played on December 4 and 5 for the highest-ranked team, and the semifinals and championship will be played on December 7 and 9 in Las Vegas.
How will this affect the regular season schedule and standings?
Teams will have to adapt on the fly to new games being added to their seasons.
The NBA typically sends out a full 82-game schedule in mid-August. This year, however, the league will send each team only 80 games. Because? Because each team’s final two regular season games will be determined by how the season’s tournament plays out.
The 22 teams that do not qualify for the knockout rounds of the season’s tournament will have their final two games scheduled, one home and one away, on December 6 and 8 against other teams eliminated in the group stage.
The Eastern teams that lose in the quarterfinals and the Western teams that lose in the quarterfinals will meet on December 7. Teams that lose in the semifinals in Las Vegas will have played all 82 games, while teams that reach the championship game will play all 82 games. they will actually end up playing 83 games, and the championship game will not count towards the regular season standings.
