NBA Reveals In-Season Tournament Groups: Did Mavs Get Best Draw?

The NBA officially announced the groups for its new In-Season Tournament, and the Dallas Mavericks got a very reasonable draw despite being grouped with the defending-champion Denver Nuggets.

Dalton Trigg | Jul 8, 2023

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Dallas Mavericks

Things are going to be a little bit different in the NBA during the 2023-24 season, as the league will have its first ever In-Season Tournament. So, before we get to the 'who plays who' part of this tournament, how exactly does it work?

All 30 teams are broken up into six groups – three from the Western Conference and three from the Eastern Conference. The groups are random draws based on teams' records from the previous season. Teams will play four games within their groups, and whichever teams have the best records in group play will advance to the knockout round, as well as two wildcard teams (next best record in each conference). In the knockout round, the final four teams standing will go to Las Vegas to battle for the NBA Cup.

The NBA officially announced all the groups for this year's In-Season Tournament on Saturday, and the Dallas Mavericks, despite being looped in with the defending-champion Denver Nuggets, got a pretty solid draw. Here's how each conference shook out.

WEST A: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers. WEST B: Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Houston Rockets. WEST C: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs

EAST A: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons. EAST B: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets. EAST C: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic.

Although the Nuggets are the defending champs, the Mavs have played them well in the regular season over the last few years. Dallas is 4-2 against Denver in the two teams' last six regular-season games against each other. Not only that, but Dallas has improved its roster around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving this offseason with several moves via free agency and trades.

In group play, each team will play two home games and two away games. The Mavs will play the Nuggets and Pelicans on the road, and the games against the Clippers and Rockets will be at American Airlines Center.

Although some critics believe this tournament is unnecessary, we have to admit it does add an extra layer of intrigue to the regular season. And given that these tournament games count as part of the normal season schedule, there shouldn't be any complaints about extra games or travel. If anything, it will be fun to watch regular-season NBA basketball in a new light.

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Published Jul 8, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.