On Friday, the Timberwolves will play in their first NBA in-season tournament game when they take on the Spurs in San Antonio. The tournament is an addition to the league this year as it attempts to drum up interest during a time of the season when fans might not be paying much attention to basketball.
Players like Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns don't seem to be buying into the hype just yet.
"My mindset has always been, even in the World Cup, every game matters just as much as the next one or the one previous," Towns said Wednesday. "It's the in-season tournament. I know we're going to try to sell the narrative that it's way bigger than a regular-season game, but all these games matter just as much."
The way this tournament works can be confusing for fans and even for the players themselves. Here's a primer:
- There are six groups of five teams (the Wolves are in West Group C with Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Golden State and Sacramento) with each group winner plus two wild cards advancing to an eight-team knockout tournament.
The league has designated certain regular-season games on the schedule as tournament games. Some teams have already played their first tournament games, and the league is using special courts for tournament games. For the Wolves, their tournament games are Friday at San Antonio, Tuesday at Golden State, home Nov. 24 against Sacramento and home Nov. 28 against Oklahoma City.
2. Should they advance to the knockout rounds, the Wolves would play in the quarterfinals Dec. 4 or 5, with the semifinals and finals taking place Dec. 7-9 in Las Vegas. All games count as regular-season games except the finals, with each player on the winning team receiving $500,000. Second place gets $200,000 each. If the Wolves don't make the final eight, the league will schedule two other regular-season games for them to play around that time, one home, one road game.
3. Tiebreakers for seeding will be determined first by head-to-head play during the group stage (no other regular-season games will factor into seeding), followed by point differential and then total points. So teams might have a reason to completely blow the doors off an opponent, depending on how seriously they are taking this tournament.
