What is the NBA In-Season Tournament? Explainer - format, groups, schedule, how the inaugural 2023 edition works
Find out everything you need to know about the inaugural In-Season Tournament - the battle for the NBA Cup - tipping off on Friday 3 November 2023.
Basketball
Basketball fans will have even more competition to enjoy this NBA 2023-24 season with the new In-Season Tournament, or NBA Cup.
The competition, which is intended to give more emphasis to regular season games, will begin on Friday 3 November and will see all 30 teams compete in a tournament-style format until a winner is crowned on Saturday 9 December.
The games also count towards the NBA regular season
How does the NBA in-season tournament work?
Franchises have been randomly drawn into six groups of five within their conference based on their won-loss record for the 2022-23 regular season.
From 3 November to 28 November, each team will play the four teams in their group across seven set dates known as 'Tournament Nights'.
Eight teams will then advance to the knockout rounds.
The six teams with the best standing in their respective groups plus two “wild cards”, i.e., the team from each conference with the best record in the group round that finished second in its group. In the event of two or more teams being tied within a group, the following will be used (in order):
- Head-to-head record in the group stage
- Point differential in the group stage
- Total points scored in the group stage
- Regular season record from the 2022-23 NBA regular season
- Random drawing
The knockout rounds will be single-elimination games which will be played on 4 and 5 December at the higher-seeded team’s venue.
The winners of those games will advance to the semi-final on the 7 December before concluding with a final on 9 December, where the NBA Cup will be won.
How will the in-season tournament affect the NBA regular season?
All games played in the in-season Tournament will count toward the regular season standings, apart from the Championship.
This also means that the Championship game would not count toward a player or team's regular season statistics.
Each team will play 82 regular-season games in the 2023-24 season, which include the games that are played as part of the in-season tournament group stage and the knockout rounds.
2023 NBA in-season tournament: Groups
Eastern Conference
Western Conference
2023 NBA in-season tournament: Schedule
All times are ET (UTC-4).
How to watch the 2023 NBA in-season tournament
A total of 14 group games and all seven knockout round games will be televised in North America, with coverage also available outside the US and Canada via the NBA's broadcast partners.
More information on the broadcast schedule can be found here.
What is the prize for the 2023 NBA Cup?
All players on the winning team will each get $500,000 while the runners-up will receive $200,000.
There will also be a Most Valuable Player award for the in-season tournament, as well as an all-tournament team.