Spurs in-season tournament schedule: Dates, times, bold predictions
As Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs enter group play in the NBA In-Season Tournament, here's what you need to know.
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Hector Ledesma has been covering the Spurs in San Antonio since 2005, and now at ClutchPoints. An award-winning journalist born and raised in San Antonio, Hector has worked across all types of television and radio platforms. He attended Syracuse University, and also covers the NBA at large.
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The San Antonio Spurs are set for their first NBA In-Season Tournament game. It should prove a tough match-up for Victor Wembanyama and company considering they've lost their last three. The Minnesota Timberwolves head into the Frost Bank Center Friday on a four-game win streak that's included victories over the defending champion Denver Nuggets and an elite Boston Celtics team.
But routine match-up talk gives way to the novel format the NBA is employing this season.
The Details
The Spurs group in the NBA In-Season Tournament includes the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, and Oklahoma City Thunder in addition to the Timberwolves. It is the Western Conference's ‘Group C.'
Like every one of the five other groups that contain five teams (both the Western and Eastern Conference feature three groups each), every franchise will play the other teams in its grouping once, with two coming at home and the other two on the road. Fourteen teams started their In-Season Tournament last Friday. The Spurs group stage of the tourney goes through November 24th.
Rest of the schedule
With all Group Play games occurring on Tuesdays and Fridays in November (with the exception of Election Day back on November 7th), the Spurs follow their first game of the inaugural tournament with the following schedule (all times CT):
At Oklahoma City, November 14 – 6:30 pm
Vs Sacramento, November 17 – 6:30 pm
At Golden State, November 24 – 9:00 pm
Every NBA game scheduled on these designated ‘Tournament Nights' will be Group Play games.
Knockout Rounds
Based on Group Play results, eight teams will advance to a single elimination format. The team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group will qualify as a ‘Wild Card.' They'll join the six group winners in this stage of the tournament, meaning both the West and East will have four representatives.
The Quarterfinals will take place on Monday, December 4th, and Tuesday, December 5th in NBA team markets.
The Semifinals are set for Thursday, December 7th.
The In-Season Tournament Championship is scheduled for Saturday, December 9th, and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will host the semis and title game.
What's at Stake?
Money is on the line.
So is a trophy.
Each player on the In-Season Tournament championship team will receive $500,000. Players on the team that loses the title game will get $200,000 each. Players on teams that lost in the Semifinals take home $100,000 each while players on teams ousted in the Quarterfinal receive $50,000 each.
The champions will also receive the inaugural NBA Cup.
Predictions
It's a tough draw for the Spurs. They start the In-Season Tournament with the worst record among the five teams in Group C.
Though maybe not what they were, a Warriors franchise just a year removed from a championship is clearly better than the Spurs. On the other spectrum is a young Kings squad that fell in a first-round Game 7 to Golden State last season. Sacramento figures to be a year better now. Like San Antonio, the Thunder are young. That match-up should prove Victor Wembanyama and company's best chance at a win in group play that begins with a Minnesota squad coming off a playoff appearance.
Don't expect the Spurs to advance beyond November 24th.