The NBA regular season is going to be a bit different this season as the league announced it will be implementing the first-ever In-Season Tournament.
There will be Group Play and Knockout Rounds similar to the World Cup starting in November, and the league announced that the Los Angeles Lakers will be part of the Western Conference’s Group A, which also includes the Phoenix Suns, Memphis Grizzlies, Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers.
The In-Season Tournament will tip off on Friday, Nov. 3 and culminate with the Championship on Saturday, Dec. 9 with the Semifinals and Championship taking place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
As far as Group Play goes, every team will play the other four teams in their group on Tuesday and Thursdays with two games being at home and two on the road.
The league has announced the Group Play schedule and the Lakers will begin in Phoenix against the Suns before hosting the Grizzlies, traveling to the Trail Blazers and hosting the Jazz to close it out:
Nov. 10 at Suns, 7 p.m. PT on ESPN
Nov. 14 vs. Grizzlies, 7:30 p.m. PT
Nov. 17 at Trail Blazers, 7 p.m. PT
Nov. 21 vs. Jazz, 7 p.m. PT on TNT
Two of the Lakers’ In-Season Tournament games will be on national TV with the Suns game being on ESPN and the Jazz game on TNT. The other two will presumably be on Spectrum SportsNet.
All of these In-Season Tournament games will count towards regular season record, so there is something at stake even if the Lakers don’t advance past the Group Stage. Teams that do not qualify for the Knockout Rounds will continue to play two regular season games each while the others compete for the NBA Cup.
There is also prize money at stake for teams that make the Knockout Rounds. The players on the winning team will receive $500,000 apiece while players on losing team of Championship receiver $200,000 each, players on losing team of Semifinals receive $100,000 each and players on losing team of Quarterfinals receive $50,000 each.
Vincent not in favor of In-Season Tournament
One Lakers player who has already expressed displeasure with the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament is Gabe Vincent, who doesn’t understand what the point is other than earning some extra cash.
It will be interesting to see if other players feel this way too, although it seems the In-Season Tournament is here to stay regardless of what the players think.
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