NBA in-season tournament: On the last day of group play, the knockout stage field is almost complete.
The NBA in-season tournament’s last day of group play featured the thrilling tiebreaker drama and scoreboard watching that the league had been waiting for months.
Right now in the West, the Sacramento Kings the Golden State Warriors are battling to determine who will win Group C.
The result was an East quarterfinal matchup between the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics, with the top-seeded Bucks of Milwaukee hosting the wild-card New York Knicks.
The Celtics defeated Orlando thanks only to that 27-point differential. In the West, the New Orleans Pelicans won Group B, and the Los Angeles Lakers as well as Phoenix Suns both made it out of Group A.
The Celtics’ only goal going into Tuesday’s game was to defeat the Chicago Bulls as much as they possibly could.
Boston needed to destroy the Bulls in order to surpass the idle Magic’s +22 margin, as they were in a three-way tie against the Orlando Magic the Brooklyn Nets.
The first few minutes of the game were very evenly balanced, but the Celtics quickly took the lead. They led by 11 points at the end of their initial quarter, 19 points at the half, and then put on a dominant third quarter to win 124–97.
If you watched an NBA game on TV on Friday night, you might have been taken aback to see that it was taking place on a court that looked more like a swimming pool or a traditional illustration of hell.
It’s possible that you were unaware of the significance of the broadcasters’ mention of this being a “in-season tournament game.”
With the Brooklyn Nets providing a little assistance, the Boston Celtics defeated the Chicago Bulls handily on Tuesday night, improbably securing their place in the NBA’s first-ever in-season tournament.
Following Boston’s commanding 124-97 victory against Chicago and Brooklyn’s 115-103 defeat of the Raptors a few minutes later, the Celtics were moved from being a long chance to make it to the tournament’s quarterfinals to the unexpected victors of East Group C.
Tuesday’s wins by Boston and Brooklyn put them in a three-way tie alongside Orlando for the top slot in Group C. In the end, the Celtics’ point difference (+27) gave them the advantage over the Nets and Magic.
Joe Mazzulla and his team continued to try to build a significant lead even with a victory all but assured in order to inflate Boston’s point differential.
They started the fourth quarter with all of their starters and fouled Chicago big man Andre Drummond on consecutive possessions to force the unlucky free-throw shooter to miss the charity stripe.
Boston is currently one of the eight teams that will move on to the in-season tournament’s knockout phase, proving that the Celtics’ strategy of piling up points paid off.
Starting on December 4, the six group winners and two “wild card” teams—those with the best records among the second-place teams for group play—will compete in the quarterfinal round.
It was just food for thought at that moment, but Malone had the potential to think about crossing the bridge sooner than he had anticipated.
The Nuggets’ final group game is scheduled for Black Friday at Houston, so they will have an uphill struggle to secure a playoff position.
They are tied with the Pelicans at 2-1 in Group West B following a defeat at New Orleans, and they lost the head-to-head tiebreaker.
If the Nuggets win in Houston and the Pelicans lose at the Clippers, that is the only way they can win their group.
If not, Denver (plus-nine) needs to defeat the Rockets by a significant enough margin to surpass other 3-1 teams in order to qualify for the Western Conference wild card.