NBA In-Season Tournament: Group Stage Details Announced

The NBA has revealed more details about its in-season tournament. There had been rumors for a while about the league wanting this tournament, and now we finally have an idea of how it will work.

NBA In-Season Tournament Group Stage

Each team was drawn into a group of five teams in their conference. They will all face each other one time, and the winner of the group will advance to the knockout round. There will also be two wild card teams, and they will be the two squads that had the best winning percentage among non-group winners -- giving us a knockout stage of eight teams.

The group stage tips off on November 3rd and finishes on November 28th. Here's the way the draw shook out:

NBA In-Season Tournament Knockout Round

Once the teams all play each other, we'll be down to eight teams for the knockout round. The knockout round games will begin on December 4th and will initially be played in the team's home cities. The advancing teams will then head to Las Vegas and play the semi-finals and finals on Dec. 7th and 9th.

The teams that reach the knockout stage will compete for a prize pool, and the winner will be awarded the NBA Cup, a new trophy.

Extra Details

There are a few more things fans should know about the tournament. First, all of the games up until the Championship will count toward the regular-season standings. Likewise, all player stats will count toward their regular-season numbers with the exception of the Championship game.

The group stage games will take place on Tuesdays and Fridays, and those will be the only NBA games happening on those days.

With this being the inaugural tournament, there will be a lot of intrigue in regard to how things will play out. This may add some more interest among fans to the first half of the NBA regular season.

Be sure to keep checking the NBA odds at FanDuel Sportsbook to see what betting markets are released for the tournament.

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