NBA in-season tournament will include semi-finals, championship in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver shared new details about its inaugural in-season tournament at NBACon in Las Vegas on Saturday.

The competition is one that Silver has "wanted for years," according to the Associated Press, to allow players to compete for a trophy during the regular season.

The tournament will have a prize pool of about $18 million and will be capped by a championship game in Las Vegas on December 9, 2023.

“We are excited to introduce the NBA In-Season Tournament as an opportunity to further enhance and innovate around our season structure,” said Joe Dumars, NBA Executive Vice President, Head of Basketball Operations. “With the addition of this new marquee event on the NBA calendar, we are focused on providing players and teams with another competition to win, engaging fans in a different way and driving further interest in the early portion of the regular-season schedule.”

While the championship will not count in the regular season standings, regular season games preceding the tournament will count toward tournament standings.

According to a video tweeted by the NBA, the tournament will begin with group play in which all 30 teams will be split into six groups — three from the Eastern Conference, and three from the Western.

The current ground standings are as follows:

• West Group A — Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers
• West Group B — Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets
• West Group C — Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs
  
• East Group A — Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons
• East Group B — Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets
• East Group C — Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic

Match-ups between teams will be selected by a random drawing based on last year's regular season records, allowing each team to play every team once.
Each team will play a total of four games — two at home and two on the road — on Tuesday and Friday, starting on November 3, 2023. These regular season games will also count as tournament games.

Afterward, the top three teams with the best records will advance to the semi-finals, while the two teams with the next-best record will also advance as wild cards. Those eight teams will then face off in a single-elimination knockout round until only four teams remain.

The final four teams left standing are then headed to the Semi-Finals, which will be held in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and culminate in a Championship game on Dec. 9.

The winning team will be awarded the first-ever NBA Cup along with $500,000 for each player.