Celtics Regular Season News

[ChillyWilly]

I’m only one who doesn’t care bout the in season tournament?

No was totally fine with Boston losing a tournament game. I have 0 interest in watching us play an extra game and getting someone hurt in the process. Banner 18 or bust everything else is nonsense.

[Surferdad]

I’m only one who doesn’t care bout the in season tournament?

No was totally fine with Boston losing a tournament game. I have 0 interest in watching us play an extra game and getting someone hurt in the process. Banner 18 or bust everything else is nonsense.

Agreed. I'm trying to appreciate the IST but can't seem to catch on to the excitement.

So to win the group the C's need the Nets to win, and they need to beat the Bulls by at least 23+ to have a shot.

Scal made this point last night. That means players could push themselves too hard even as they likely blow out the Bulls. I don't like it. If they are blowing out the Bulls on Tuesday, I expect and want to see the bench.

[celticinorlando]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

[Celtics2021]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

There’s no rest for missing it.  A team that doesn’t make it to the next round will play two regular season games against other teams who don’t make it during the same week as the tournament quarters and semis.

[Roy H.]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

There’s no rest for missing it.  A team that doesn’t make it to the next round will play two regular season games against other teams who don’t make it during the same week as the tournament quarters and semis.

Teams that make the finals play one extra game, right?  Everybody else sticks at 82?

[SHAQATTACK]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

I would just play the bench and plan on losing that game .Just a corporate boondoggle for the NBA money grab  at the expense of players health.

[tazzmaniac]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

There’s no rest for missing it.  A team that doesn’t make it to the next round will play two regular season games against other teams who don’t make it during the same week as the tournament quarters and semis.

Teams that make the finals play one extra game, right?  Everybody else sticks at 82?

Correct.  The one extra game doesn't count in the standings. 

[Vermont Green]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

There’s no rest for missing it.  A team that doesn’t make it to the next round will play two regular season games against other teams who don’t make it during the same week as the tournament quarters and semis.

Teams that make the finals play one extra game, right?  Everybody else sticks at 82?

Correct.  The one extra game doesn't count in the standings.

Do the stats count for the players or is this completely an exhibition game?  This might end up being closer to an All-Star game level of intensity than a playoff game level.  For a regular season game, if a player is banged up at all, they keep him out  where if it was a playoff game, maybe they play.  I don't see any player being pushed to play in this game by the team, even less than a run of the mill regular season game.

[Roy H.]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

There’s no rest for missing it.  A team that doesn’t make it to the next round will play two regular season games against other teams who don’t make it during the same week as the tournament quarters and semis.

Teams that make the finals play one extra game, right?  Everybody else sticks at 82?

Correct.  The one extra game doesn't count in the standings.

Do the stats count for the players or is this completely an exhibition game?  This might end up being closer to an All-Star game level of intensity than a playoff game level.  For a regular season game, if a player is banged up at all, they keep him out  where if it was a playoff game, maybe they play.  I don't see any player being pushed to play in this game by the team, even less than a run of the mill regular season game.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how seriously teams take it. 

Prizing and League Honors

For the 2023-24 season, the In-Season Tournament prize pool will be allocated to the players on the teams that participate in the Knockout Rounds, with allocations increasing depending on how far a team progresses in the tournament.

At the conclusion of the In-Season Tournament, the NBA will name the Most Valuable Player of the competition and the All-Tournament Team. Selection will be based on the players’ performance in both Group Play and the Knockout Rounds.

What do players get for winning? 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.

I guess it depends mostly on how serious players are about that extra $300,000 for winning (or extra $100,000 - $400,000 for making the Finals).

[tazzmaniac]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

There’s no rest for missing it.  A team that doesn’t make it to the next round will play two regular season games against other teams who don’t make it during the same week as the tournament quarters and semis.

Teams that make the finals play one extra game, right?  Everybody else sticks at 82?

Correct.  The one extra game doesn't count in the standings.

Do the stats count for the players or is this completely an exhibition game?  This might end up being closer to an All-Star game level of intensity than a playoff game level.  For a regular season game, if a player is banged up at all, they keep him out  where if it was a playoff game, maybe they play.  I don't see any player being pushed to play in this game by the team, even less than a run of the mill regular season game.

I haven't seen anything definitive about the stats for the championship game.  Since the game itself isn't part of the regular season, I wouldn't think the stats would count as regular season stats. 

The NBA will lower the hammer if the teams try to sit healthy star players.  I wouldn't expect players with injuries to be treated any different than a regular season game.  I'd expect the play to be at high level regular season since the 2 teams playing should be amongst the top teams.
The star players are going to want to compete.  The game is going to get a lot of publicity and a lot of viewers as there is nothing else going on that Saturday.  Players on the winning team get 500k a piece; I think the losers only get 200k.  That's a significant difference for bench players. 

[Celtics2021]

As for this IST....I hope Boston misses it. They need the rest and not two extra games for a meaningless made up marketing ploy.

There’s no rest for missing it.  A team that doesn’t make it to the next round will play two regular season games against other teams who don’t make it during the same week as the tournament quarters and semis.

Teams that make the finals play one extra game, right?  Everybody else sticks at 82?

Correct.  The one extra game doesn't count in the standings.

Do the stats count for the players or is this completely an exhibition game?  This might end up being closer to an All-Star game level of intensity than a playoff game level.  For a regular season game, if a player is banged up at all, they keep him out  where if it was a playoff game, maybe they play.  I don't see any player being pushed to play in this game by the team, even less than a run of the mill regular season game.

Stats will “count” for the finals, in that they will be official, but not as a regular season thing.  In the NBA’s perfect world, 20 years from now you’d be able to say “who averaged the most points in the in-season tournament in 2034?” and that would seem like a perfectly normal question rather than a gimmick.  But if a team and player wanted to, they could probably structure a contract incentive for making it to the in-season finals, for example, and my guess is that if it sticks for a couple of years, you will see such incentives included in contracts.

[ozgod]

How will they manage to play the knockouts before Dec 9 without putting extra games on for teams that happen to make the elimination rounds, but might only play each other once or twice a season and may have already done so? Are they going to manipulate the schedule?

[Celtics2021]

How will they manage to play the knockouts before Dec 9 without putting extra games on for teams that happen to make the elimination rounds, but might only play each other once or twice a season and may have already done so? Are they going to manipulate the schedule?

Not quite sure your question, but next week 28 teams will play two games and 2 teams will play three games, as follows:

If you do not make the elimination rounds, you will play a home game against a fellow team that did not make it, and an away game against another such team.  They will prioritize matching up teams that only play each other three times, but there will be some inter conference third games or maybe some divisional fifth games.

If you make the quarterfinals and are eliminated, you’ll play an extra game against the other quarterfinalist from your conference. 

If you make the semis, you play one game in Vegas.

If you make the finals, you play two games in Vegas and the second counts only for the in-season tournament and not the regular season.

[keevsnick]

I actually like the idea of the in season tournament. Group play rounds are fine, at the very worst they still count as regular seaosn games so of course you want to try to win them. But they give just a little extra bit of intrigue imo.

The knockout rounds I think will be fun. The best regular season games are non-B2B's involving good teams in the league and the IST knockout rounds will be basically that.

Right now in the west you have LAL, one of NOP/HOU, one of SAC/GSW/MIN and probably PHO as the wildcard. Thats a fun field. In the east its still to jumbled to tell but IND/MIL/ORL will probably be in and one of MIA/BOS. Again, good teams.

[keevsnick]

How will they manage to play the knockouts before Dec 9 without putting extra games on for teams that happen to make the elimination rounds, but might only play each other once or twice a season and may have already done so? Are they going to manipulate the schedule?

Not quite sure your question, but next week 28 teams will play two games and 2 teams will play three games, as follows:

If you do not make the elimination rounds, you will play a home game against a fellow team that did not make it, and an away game against another such team.  They will prioritize matching up teams that only play each other three times, but there will be some inter conference third games or maybe some divisional fifth games.

If you make the quarterfinals and are eliminated, you’ll play an extra game against the other quarterfinalist from your conference. 

If you make the semis, you play one game in Vegas.

If you make the finals, you play two games in Vegas and the second counts only for the in-season tournament and not the regular season.

Yes the only teams that will play an "extra" game are the finalist, everybody else will end up at 82. Its why on ever teams schedule there's an "empty" week between the 4th and 9th of December.