Trail Blazers Announce In-Season Tournament Schedule

Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe (17) reacts after dunking against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Ore., Sunday, March 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)

By 750 THE GAME STAFF

Training camp opens for the Trail Blazers on October 3rd.

There are still a lot of questions surrounding the team and who will be on the roster, but Tuesday we learned the opponents for the first-ever NBA in-season tournament and what the Blazers’ schedule will be.

did someone say… NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE RELEASE VIDEO 🍾 pic.twitter.com/k5zm6r80yP

— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) August 15, 2023

The NBA is going to have an in-season tournament this season for the first time in league history. Each team has been assigned to a different five-team pod. Each team will play one another. Not only will the games count for the in-season tournament, but the results of these games also count toward your regular season record.

The Trail Blazers are in Group A along with the Grizzlies, Suns, Lakers, and Jazz. The schedule looks like this for the Trail Blazers:

November 3 vs Memphis at 7 p.m.

November 14 at Utah at 6 p.m.

November 17 vs Los Angeles Lakers at 7 p.m.

November 21 at Phoenix at 6 p.m.

After those four games, we will find out who won Group A and advances to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals will be played Dec. 4thand 5th at the higher-seeded team, and the semifinals and championship game will be Dec. 7th and 9th in Las Vegas where a champion will be crowned and awarded the first-ever NBA Cup.

The four group stage games will be played on seven November dates: four Fridays (Nov. 3, 10, 17 and 24) and three Tuesdays (Nov. 14, 21 and 28). Then the winners of the groups and two wild card teams will make an eight-team bracket where it’s single elimination.

The games will have no impact on the playoffs except for your overall record. The players on the winning team will each get $500,000, while the runners-up will get $200,000. The losing players of the semifinals will each get $100,000, and the losing players of the quarterfinals will each get $50,000.

There still is some unknown whether this idea will work for the NBA. It works in European soccer which is where NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, got the idea. But we now know who the Blazers are podded up against and when they will play them.

@750TheGame