With the games yesterday, the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament has officially tipped off. The Atlanta Hawks won’t make their debut in the tournament until Tuesday, November 14 in a game at the Detroit Pistons, but they will have a stretch of three games in four being part of group play in mid-November.
So what exactly is group play? And when does the knockout tournament bracket come in view? Here is an Atlanta Hawks-centric explainer of the newest phenomenon this season.
What is all of this?
To start, all 30 NBA teams were put into pots based upon their record in the 2022-23 season and randomly placed into groups of five from those pots.