NBA In-Season Tournament

[Kryptonic]

It has meaning if you give it meaning. You’re simply just refusing to give it meaning..your loss. I chose to give it meaning and it’s made my investment and enjoyment of these games increase.

And yes of course the real prize is the championship…I don’t know why people keep thinking this is trying to replace that or take some of the value away from that…it’s not.

I was skeptical at first but it’s because it’s new and never seen it before…. I’m with you on the mindset part and am doing that too and actually enjoying it more. It’s the first year of the tournament, and they’re at least trying to shake things up. I’m sure if we had a more dominate standing in it right now more of us would care but since we’re just hanging in; it feels “meh”. If they make it to the final round, you mean to tell me you guys wouldn’t be a little bit excited if they win it?

[Split T]

Orlando just beat Boston by 17 to take over the lead in their group for the in-season tourney. Brooklyn still alive too as all those teams have 1 loss. Need to catch Orlando in point differential(+22) though. Brooklyn needs to beat Toronto by 15 and Boston would need to beat Chicago by 23

[Split T]

We might have to watch out for Houston…they are up 23 on Denver

[Split T]

Not loving the way tonight is going…we kinda wanted Denver to beat Houston…Pels blowing out Clippers is not good either as it’ll put them above us in point differential. We’ll need Houston to lose to Dallas

[Wally_West]

Clippers making it a game with the Pels now

[Wally_West]

[Split T]

All you haters that wanted us to pull the starters were wrong haha…we needed every last point

[Split T]

We’re almost definitely in now…only way we can be knocked out is if Minny catches us in point differential. They’d have to beat OKC by 38…Golden State could also catch us in point differential(they’d have to win by 30), but they play Sacramento so beating them would create a tie for 1st in their group and would either be decided by h2h if Minny loses(Warriors win) or point differential if Minny wins(Warriors would need to win by 12 and hope Minny wins by 20 or less. So if Warriors do catch us in point differential they’d jump to 1st in their group and knock Sacramento way down and out of contention. Only way GS gets the wildcard is if they catch us in point differential and Minny catches both of us in point differential.

So really the only game that still matters is Minny-OKC for us. If Minny wins by 37 or less, we’re in.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Won't Houston jump the Suns if they beat Dallas by 19 or more?

[Carno]

If they beat Dallas, Houston wins their group. The Suns would then own the tie breaker over the Pels for the wildcard.

[BKinSJC]

Won't Houston jump the Suns if they beat Dallas by 19 or more?

No, if Houston wins that final game then they tie New Orleans at 3-1 and win that group because they beat the Pelicans head-to-head. Suns take the wildcard over the Pels on point differential in that case.

[Split T]

By 1 point…so thank you Booker for that last 3 point shot

[JeremyG]

We still don't know if we'll even need to rely on point differential, though. We could still win the wildcard outright, by being the only team with just 1 loss.

[Split T]

Here’s the rundown of what Can still happen:

Lakers have clinched Group A and the 1 seed as long as Sacramento doesn’t beat GS by 46 points.

Group B is down to Houston or New Orleans. If Houston beats Dallas, they have the tie-breaker over New Orleans and win the group. If they lose, New Orleans takes the group. Neither team can be the wildcard.

Group C still has 3 teams alive. If Sacramento beats Golden State they win the group outright and GS is eliminated from wildcard contention. Minny would need to outscore OKC by 38 to pass us in the wildcard.

If GS beats Sacramento we go to tiebreakers and it depends on if Minny wins or not. If Minny loses to OKC, they are eliminated from contention and GS would win the h2h tiebreaker over Sacramento. Sacramento can only be group winner, they can’t get a wildcard spot as their differential is already below us and a loss would push them further down.

If GS beats Sac and Minny beats OKC, we get a 3 way tie and point differential becomes the tiebreaker. Currently it’s

Sacramento +29
GS +5
Minny -3

So GS needs to beat Sacramento by 12 to win the tie breaker. Minny could jump ahead if they beat OKC by 9 more points than GS beats Sacramento(Assuming GS wins by 12 or more). If GS wins by 11 or less, Minny would have to catch Sacramento. An 11 point win would mean Minny needs to win by 22, a 10 point win means they need to win by 23, etc.

There is one crazy scenario where GS beats Sac by 30 or more and Minny beats OKC by 38 or more and both get in and kick out the suns.

What it comes down to is Minny is basically eliminated though. It’s basically down to whether the Warriors can beat the Kings by 12 or more.

My guess:

1. Lakers
2. Kings
3. Rockets
4. Suns

We play at Lakers and then face the winner of Kings/Rockets in Vegas. Winner faces East Champion for the Cup.


The east is a bigger mess and I won’t go into detail on it, but right now it’s:

1. Pacers
2. Bucks(Will take 1 seed if they beat Miami)
3. Magic(Nets take it if they beat Toronto and Boston loses to Chicago. Point differential comes into play if Nets and Celtics both win. Currently it’s ORL +22, BRK +8, and Boston 0)
4. Knicks(2-1 and +18, but they get CHA for their last game)

Brooklyn, Orlando, Boston, Milwaukee, Miami, and Cleveland are all still alive in the wildcard as well. Milwaukee and Miami still play eachother, so Miami is eliminated with a loss. But most will all come down to point differential:

Milwaukee is 3-0 and +39
Orlando is 3-1 and +22
NY is 2-1 and +18
Miami is 2-1 and +11
Brooklyn is 2-1 and +8
Cleveland is 2-1 and +6
Boston is 2-1 and even.

3 of those teams will get in, 2 will win their group and then whatever 3-1 team has the highest differential will get the wildcard.

[Split T]

We still don't know if we'll even need to rely on point differential, though. We could still win the wildcard outright, by being the only team with just 1 loss.

Yes that’s true, but it made the Houston game irrelevant to us. But if Houston loses to Dallas, Sacramento beats GS, and Minny loses to OKC, we would be the only 2nd place team to go 3-1

[Mori Chu]

I appreciate all the info, but I find it complicated and can't really follow all of it. I'm just going to watch the games as normal and if we qualify for tournament stuff, so be it. Maybe once it goes to the actual tournament bracket it will feel more simple and understandable to me.

[Superbone]

By 1 point…so thank you Booker for that last 3 point shot

Good thing it was an early game and that the bank was still open.

[Split T]

I appreciate all the info, but I find it complicated and can't really follow all of it. I'm just going to watch the games as normal and if we qualify for tournament stuff, so be it. Maybe once it goes to the actual tournament bracket it will feel more simple and understandable to me.

Well you can pretty much lock it in that we qualified. Minny isn’t beating OKC by 38. We are in if that doesn’t happen.

It is complicated…I kinda love it though. It makes it more interesting to me. It will be very simple once the field of 8 is set though.

[Superbone]

I appreciate all the info, but I find it complicated and can't really follow all of it. I'm just going to watch the games as normal and if we qualify for tournament stuff, so be it. Maybe once it goes to the actual tournament bracket it will feel more simple and understandable to me.

Well you can pretty much lock it in that we qualified. Minny isn’t beating OKC by 38. We are in if that doesn’t happen.

It is complicated…I kinda love it though. It makes it more interesting to me. It will be very simple once the field of 8 is set though.

We're just happy to have you so you can tell us what's going on. The permutations seems quite complex.

[1tinsoldier]

i'm good with the tourny. I think more players will take as seriously as Booker does, and as they should, next season.

this phase is too complicated right now because it's only 4 games and there are too many ties. It should probably be 10 games before advancing.