Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes had a hilarious answer when asked to explain the NBA In-Season tournament rules
Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes dropped a helpful hint when asked how he would explain the NBA In-Season Tournament rules, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.
Said Barnes, “They could go on Google …”
Maybe the Raptors star doesn’t have time to explain it all. Maybe he doesn’t fully understand it all himself. Either way, that’s probably pretty good advice for the inaugural season of the tournament.
The NBA In-Season Tournament, put simply, has each team play four games in the group stage, with the top eight teams advancing to the knockout stage. The winner of the tournament will win the newest NBA trophy, the NBA Cup, as well as a pool prize of $18 million dollars ($500,000 for each player). The tournament starts on Friday, Nov. 3, and will conclude with the championship game on Saturday, Dec. 9. The championship game will be at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. the Raptors play in East Group C
The winner of each group – along with two wild card teams – will advance to the second part of the tournament, the knockout stage. The knockout rounds will be single-elimination games until the In-Season Tournament champion is crowned. The quarterfinals of the knockout stage will be on Dec. 4 and 5, with the semifinals on Dec. 7 before the championship game on Dec. 9.
All in all, there will be 67 games during the tournament. The games will count towards the regular season records, and every team except for those in the championship game will play their normal 82 regular season games. The teams in the championship game will end up playing an 83rd game – with the championship game only counting towards the tournament and not the regular season.
Barnes and the Raptors, interestingly, won’t play their first game of the tournament until Friday against the Boston Celtics. The Celtics are far and beyond the best team in Group C and will be the Raptors’ toughest opponent in the In-Season Tournament. They follow that game up with a tournament game against the Orlando Magic on Nov. 21.
