The 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament is here, and fans are excited to see the NBA's newest event that will be taking center stage this week. The first slate of games is on Friday, Nov. 3, with 14 teams participating in this first night of group play. This article will explain everything that you need to know about the tournament, as well as how you can watch this slate of games.
What is the NBA In-Season Tournament?
The 2023-24 season is the first year of the NBA In-Season Tournament. It is a tournament that takes place throughout the course of the regular season intended to create more fan engagement as well as ensure players are giving it their all during the long NBA season.
Each team in the NBA will participate. Teams are divided into six groups, with five teams in each group. During the group stage, teams will play each team in their group once. There will be four group stage games, and the winner of each group — along with two wild card teams — will move on to the knockout rounds.
The knockout rounds will consist of single-elimination games that will take place until a champion is crowned. Each NBA In-Season Tournament game will be a part of the normal regular-season schedule, meaning the teams will play their normal 82-game season, with certain games labeled as tournament games.
That is until the championship round.
The championship game will be an 83rd game, and the winner of the game will win the NBA Cup, along with an $18 million dollar prize pool. The significant reward is meant to encourage teams to give it their all during this tournament.
The complete schedule and the NBA In-Season Tournament groups can be found here.
Friday, Nov. 3 NBA In-Season Tournament schedule
There will be seven “Tournament Nights” for NBA In-Season Tournament games. The first set of games is on Friday, Nov. 3. The game times for those games is below.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers, 7 p.m. ET
New York Knicks vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 7:30 p.m. ET
Washington Wizards vs. Miami Heat, 8 p.m. ET
Brooklyn Nets vs. Chicago Bulls, 8 p.m. ET
Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, 8 p.m. ET
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Portland Trailblazers, 10 p.m. ET
Dallas Mavericks vs. Denver Nuggets, 10 p.m. ET
How to watch the NBA In-Season Tournament
Two games will be on national television on Friday night. The Knicks vs. Bucks and the Mavericks vs Nuggets games will be on ESPN. The rest of the games will be broadcast locally.
You can stream the nationally televised games using fuboTV. NBA League Pass is a great way to watch NBA games as well.
*Watch the NBA In-Season Tournament live with fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Eastern Conference Storylines
The first game of the evening will be between the Cavaliers and Pacers. The Cavaliers have been considered one of the biggest up-and-coming teams in recent years. They have a young core headlined by a star-studded backcourt that includes Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell. The backcourt is one of the best scoring duos in the league.
While those two have their defensive limitations, they are backed by an elite defensive frontcourt. Issac Okoro is a great point of attack defender, and the massive duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are elite at protecting the rim. Unfortunately, Allen has been held out with an ankle injury to start the season, while Garland and others have also been banged up. Cleveland is out to a sluggish start due to these injuries.
Meanwhile, the Pacers are a new rising team in the league. Indiana splurged in the offseason and added tons of talent through free agency, the draft, and the trade market. They are on a mission to prove that they can compete with anybody.
Intrigue is still high for the Bucks after they acquired Damian Lillard. The point guard's tenure in Milwaukee has gotten off to a weird start. He scored 39 points in his debut, but he followed that performance up with a six-point outing. It was only the 16th time in his career that he scored fewer than 10 points.
The Bucks are still in the adjustment period, but they are clearly one of the scariest teams in the league going forward. Milwaukee will be playing the Knicks. The Knicks are one of the biggest market teams in the NBA, so this game will see plenty of viewership.
There are three games taking place at 8 p.m. ET. One such game will be between the Wizards and Heat. The Heat were the champions of the Eastern Conference last year. While they lost in the NBA Finals for the second time in four years and lost key role players in Max Strus in Gabe Vincent, expectations remain high. Miami is off to a sluggish start, though, with key injuries already taking a toll. Both Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo have already missed time.
Regardless, the Heat are still expected to beat the Wizards. The team in Washington is in a rebuilding stage, and their struggles have been evident early. Their defense, in particular, has been bad. They have allowed 143 points and 126 points in their two losses this year.
The Nets and Bulls will also face off. Brooklyn seems destined to make Cam Thomas a franchise cornerstone. After years of him coming off the bench, the Nets finally inserted the score-first guard into the starting lineup. So far, the results have paid off. Thomas has scored more than 30 points in each of their last three games.
The Bulls, on the other hand, still have a core of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic. That core has been very average over the last few years, and that has been the case this season as well. Chicago has started off 2-2. The Nets underwent a fire sale when they traded Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving last season. The Bulls have been rumored as a team that might blow things up this season.
Western Conference Storylines
In a battle of old vs. new, the Warriors will play the Thunder at 8 p.m. The Dubs have won four championships with Stephen Curry and company. During that time, the Thunder underwent one of the biggest rebuilds in NBA history. The results of the rebuild are finally starting to pay off. The team has a young core, and they are fully capable of winning games in the present.
After not coming off of the bench for his entire career, Chris Paul has been the Warriors' sixth man since Draymond Green returned to health. That is likely to be the case again against the Thunder, and the veteran should have some tricks up his sleeve against a young and still-learning Thunder bench unit.
The Grizzlies and Trail Blazers will play their first NBA In-Season Tournament game on Friday as well. Both teams have started out slow and are in need of turning things around. The Grizzlies have struggled in Ja Morant's absence due to suspension, and they are the only winless team this year. The Blazers had high expectations for Scoot Henderson, the second overall pick in the draft, and while there is still plenty of time to turn things around, he has struggled in his first handful of games.
The Grizzlies are winless, but the defending champion Nuggets remain the only 4-0 team. They have to get through the Timberwolves to keep their win streak alive first, but they will face the Mavericks in the NBA In-Season Tournament on Friday. Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets are already in midseason form, but former Nugget Bruce Brown credited the Timberwolves with being their hardest matchup during the run to the championship last season.
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