The 2023-24 NBA season is finally on the horizon, so let’s talk about basketball! The new regular season will start on October 24th and it will have a new championship in the calendar: The so-called “In-Season Tournament”. It will be an annual competition and this year it’s going to take place from November 3rd to December 9th.
We now know when it will be, but what is this tournament? How does it work? Here’s everything we know about it:
Tournament Format
First of all, the championship is going to have all 30 NBA teams (15 from each conference) and they are all divided into 6 groups of 5 squads.
Each team will play against everyone in its own group in the “Tournament Nights”. That is the first part of the tournament, the “Group Play”.
Then, only eight teams will advance to the “Knockout Rounds”: The best qualifying team in each of the 6 groups, the “Group Winners”, plus two “WildCards”, which are the second-best qualified from each conference.
The semifinals and final game will take place at T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, baby.
Unlike the regular season, the finals will be single-elimination games and the winner will get to lift the new “NBA Cup” trophy.
To motivate all teams to play in this competition, it was declared that all the In-Season games would count in standings for the regular season, except for the championship final. Another incentive is the prize money: The winner will get $500,000.
Predictions
Bleacher Report, an American sports website, made an entire article about their predictions for each round of the tournament. They believe that the final will be decided between the Sacramento Kings and Boston Celtics. They also think the Boston team will lift the trophy.
Unlike the Bleacher, USA Today has a feeling that the Sacramento Kings will win against the Celtics.
We don’t know who the winner of the tournament will be, but we do know that this season is promising a lot of fun games for the fans!
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The article above was edited by Giullia Cartaxo.
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