How does the In Season Tournament work for the teams that don't play the extra games? Do they replay each other to even the number of games out? All In-Season Tournament games count as regular season games in the standings except for the championship, which exists outside of the regular season. To ensure that every team plays exactly 82 regular-season games, the 22 teams that do not qualify for the knockout round will play two additional regular-season games on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8. The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals of the tournament will play one additional regular-season game on Dec. 8 against the opponent from the same conference.
Big game tonight. Best thing about IST is that it’s something for us to sneak in and win it in comparison to the Larry O’Brien which we have no chance at.
Imagine somebody asked this about the championship. What would you say? OK, now what's the difference?
Blazers don't have a chance but I think they have a chance to make knockout round and get some great pressure game experience. I do love that it's single elimination so to your point has much more variance in what team will win and that lesser talented teams can win. This and the play in are two changes the NBA had a slam dunk execution. Now instant replay.....
Knockout round has quarterfinal game at higher seeds home court than semifinal in Vegas. Meanwhile the other NBA teams add 2 extra games. All of these games count as part of the 82 game schedule. In season final is one extra game two teams play and is not part of 82 games nor regular season - it's an 83rd game for those two teams.
If you look at the Blazers or any NBA teams schedule right now you'll only see 80 games. So the last two get added in the knockout round or for the other 22 loser teams during that early December IST time.
I just think the in season tournament needs a greater/extra incentive. What if the winning team got 2 extra challenges (1 per half) for each game of the playoffs?
I think the winner should get one of the play-in spots, 8, 9, or 10. Then there would be a huge incentive.
Probably a good test for Netflix to see if sports is worth investing in. Not a huge commitment but also would give them enough data to make a decision on full rights for something.
I don’t like that. Winner may not make the playoffs, first of all and something to slow down playoff games isn’t a good idea anyway. The incentive is to win the cup. What’s the incentive to win a title? Rings, I guess?
But what if the winner finishes with a higher seed? And what if the winner sucks the rest of the season? What’s the incentive to win all year if you already have a play-in spot?
I'd give winner HCA and runner up a playoff berth. But I'm fine with them phasing this in for a couple seasons; then adding those benefits later.
Play in #10 spot is not a very big incentive. Must win two road playin games or your season is over. There aren't any teams that would settle for this. But you do have a point this is a potential meaningless benefit for good teams. Perhaps IST champ gets 5 extra wins in the standings or something. Kind of silly right now the IST champ doesn't even get a regular season win for that final game.
