NBA In-Season Tournament: can the Warriors still qualify for the quarter-finals?

A starring performance from Steph Curry on Friday evening kept the Golden State Warriors alive in the NBA In-Season Tournament.

Curry notched 35 points in the 118-112 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at Chase Center. That win leaves the Warriors with a 2-1 record in the new tournament, trailing only the Sacramento Kings (3-0) in West Group C.

Fortunately for Golden State, they take on the Kings in their final game of the group stage. They need a victory over the Kings to level their respective records. Then, they need the Minnesota Timberwolves to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the other remaining West Group C fixture.

This would leave the Warriors, the Kings and the Timberwolves with equal records and head-to-heads. Top spot would then be decided by point differential. The Kings currently have the best (+29), ahead of the Warriors (+5) and the Timberwolves (-3).

The Warriors need to beat the Kings by at least eight points, while hoping that the Timberwolves’ win is no greater than seven points better than their own.

Can the Golden State Warriors get a Wild Card place?

In theory the Warriors could also pick up one of the Wild Card spots, but that is unlikely. The second placed teams with the best record in each Conference will also make it through to the quarter-finals.

If the Warriors were to beat the Kings and the Timberwolves beat the Thunder, Golden State could still miss out on the West Group C title on a tiebreaker (points differential). This would put them in play for the Wild Card place.

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However the West’s Wild Card spot is currently held by the Phoenix Suns, who have a +34 point differential. Is is unlikely that the Warriors will be able to overturn that deficit on the final day.

What is the NBA In-Season Tournament?

The new competition for the 2023/24 season includes all 30 teams in the league and lasts just over a month. In inaugural tournament tipped off on 3 November and the Championship game will be held on December 9.

The teams will comPete in a six-division group stage, with eight teams from that round proceeding to the quarter-finals. All knockout rounds will be single-elimination Games, with quarter-finals and semi-finals leading up to the grand final, NBA Cup.

Results in the group stage, quarter-finals and semi-finals will be counted towards the regular season standings. Teams will continue to play 82 games in the 2023/24 regular season, including those in the In-Season Tournament.