The official NBA championship knockout-round power rankings for the current season
We will be posting information soon about the Kings, but for now, let’s honor De’Aaron Fox: The 25-year-old is undoubtedly among the best six guards in the league and is now a regular member of the All-NBA team.
In addition to his first All-Star and All-NBA (third team) accolades throughout his early career, Fox is averaging a career-best 29.8 points in 36.1 minutes per game, along with 6.1 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.6 steals.
To gauge the influence of the former, look no farther than Fox’s and All-NBA teammate Domantas Sabonis’ net ratings. Boston defeated Chicago 127-94 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Considering they have played 284 minutes together, Cleaning the Glass reports that the Kings are 10.8 points better per 100 possessions in 397 non-garbage minutes with Fox in the floor and 11.2 points better per 100 meaningful possession in 561 minutes with Sabonis on the court.
The Celtics were running up the score late in a deciding game because they knew they had to win by at least 23 points to pass Orlando as well as win their group. It was successful. New York defeated Charlotte 115-91 to secure their spot as the wild card.
Compared to most odd evenings throughout the regular season, it made the night before more fascinating.
Everyone watching League Pass or TNT was glued to the scoreboard. In fact, TNT added game scores at the top of the screen to create an atmosphere reminiscent of the NCAA Tournament!
Were specific scenarios and required point differentials accompanied by any context? Not at all. However, watching the scoreboard was enjoyable.
The Bulls and Celtics, who had been the most vocal opponents of IST point difference being a factor, even engaged in a lengthy point-differential dispute!
To advance, the Celtics have to defeat Chicago handily. When they were up thirty points in the second half, they were playing Hack-an-Andre Drummond, which prompted Billy Donovan with Joe Mazzulla to get together at half court for Donovan could comprehend why.
It’s true that Boston prevailed 124-97 and won East Group C because of point differential. On Thursday, December 7 in Las Vegas, the victors will take on the teams from their respective conferences; the championship match will follow two days later.
Here is the NBA In-Season Tournament bracket. The field for the NBA’s first-ever in-season tournament is being reduced from thirty teams to eight, and the elimination phase will begin early next week.
The homes courts of the four teams with the top seeds—the Bucks and Pacers in the East and the Lakers and Kings in the West—will host the two Monday and two Tuesday quarterfinal games.
In the East, the Bucks (winner of Group B) will take on the Knicks (wild card) on Tuesday, while the Celtics (winner of Group C) will go to the Pacers (winner of Group A) on Monday.
In the West, the Pelicans, who won Group B, will play the Kings, who won Group C, on Monday. The Suns, who received a wild card, will play the Lakers, who won Group A, the following day to wrap up the quarterfinal round.
The NBA announced the flex game schedule early on Wednesday morning. These are the games that the teams that won’t be going to Las Vegas will play.
There will be 11 games on Wednesday, Dec. 8, and 13 games on Friday, Dec. 8. The losing teams of the quarterfinals will decide the final two games.
The NBA Cup final game, which is the culmination of the in-season tournament, is not included in the league’s 82-game ordinary season standings.
Eight teams will move on to the quarterfinals, and this gives us a better idea of who could be the first player to earn the NBA Cup’s Most Valuable Player award.
Superstars like Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have been eliminated, but other well-known players are still in the running.
But we wanted to provide a reliable catch-all metric which contextualized what players did during group play to give us some idea of how everyone performed during seeding games.