Sports
NBA in-season tournament quarterfinal matchups, game times, how to watch – The Washington Post
The NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament will take center stage this week, when the league has cleared its schedule for four days to showcase the event’s knockout round.
After a round-robin group stage trimmed the field from 30 teams to eight, the single-elimination quarterfinals will take place Monday and Tuesday. The four winners of the quarterfinal games will then advance to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for Thursday’s semifinals and Saturday’s championship. In addition to $500,000 bonuses for each player on the winning team, the champions will take home the NBA Cup and bragging rights as the tournament’s first winner.
The knockout round field features blue bloods such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics as well as superstar headliners in LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo, but several small-market underdogs loom as potential spoilers. Here’s a game-by-game preview of the quarterfinals, which will be televised by TNT.
All times Eastern.
Boston Celtics (15-4) at Indiana Pacers (10-8): 7:30 p.m. Monday
The quarterfinal round’s juicy opener pits the NBA’s most dominant team (Boston with a plus-9.5 net rating) against the league’s most potent attack (Indiana with a 123.8 offensive rating). While Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics have reached the Eastern Conference finals in four of the past six seasons, their title hopes remain unfulfilled because they have come undone with turnovers and stilted flow in late-game situations. For that reason, the in-season tournament could help Boston get over the hump in clutch moments or further long-standing concerns about their chemistry and mettle. The Celtics will be without center Kristaps Porzingis, who has been sidelined since Nov. 26 with a calf injury.
While Tatum entered the season as a strong MVP candidate, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton has been making his own case to enter the conversation. The fourth-year point guard is averaging 27 points and a league-best 11.8 assists while directing the NBA’s fastest and highest-scoring offense. Even so, the Celtics are the deeper and more experienced team, and they should be favored to advance after exploiting the Pacers’ poor defense during a 155-104 victory in Boston on Nov. 1.
Indiana claimed home-court advantage by going 4-0 in the group stage, but it’s worth noting that the Celtics have a better record on the road (6-4) than the Pacers have at Gainbridge Fieldhouse (6-5). Boston also went 6-3 on the road in last year’s playoffs.
New Orleans Pelicans (11-10) at Sacramento Kings (11-7): 10 p.m. Monday
Don’t be surprised if the least glitzy of the four quarterfinal games winds up being the most entertaining. Sacramento and New Orleans can both claim they’re better than their records: The Kings went 2-3 when star guard De’Aaron Fox was sidelined by an ankle injury in November, and the Pelicans have gone 1-3 without Zion Williamson while also juggling the longer-term absences of Trey Murphy and CJ McCollum. Nevertheless, both teams seem poised to compete for one of the West’s six guaranteed playoff spots.
The Pelicans scored two home victories over the Kings in November, but Sacramento went 4-0 in the group stage and will host Monday’s game at Golden 1 Center, where it is 6-2 this season. After helping snap the Kings’ 16-year playoff drought last season, Fox is averaging a career-high 30.3 points and all-star center Domantas Sabonis is adding 18.6 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. The Kings’ defense still leaves something to be desired, but it has improved from 24th last season to 19th this season.
Williamson’s stellar start for New Orleans hasn’t gotten enough attention, perhaps because recurring injury issues limited the 2019 No. 1 pick to just 104 games during his first four seasons. Regardless, the bruising forward applies immense pressure to opposing defenses in the paint, and he has been a more willing distributor this season. That growth has helped New Orleans go 7-2 in his past nine appearances.
“I don’t think we have a ceiling,” Williamson said after a recent road win over the Los Angeles Clippers. “We’re just trying to become one of those championship-contending teams.”
New York Knicks (12-7) at Milwaukee Bucks (14-6): 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
The Bucks hold big edges in star power and offensive firepower over the Knicks thanks to Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, but they have been arguably the NBA’s most enigmatic contender. After years of elite defenses under longtime coach Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee has dropped to 21st in defensive efficiency during Adrian Griffin’s first year at the helm. Without a reliable defensive identity, the Bucks suffered some ugly early-season losses and have regularly played down to lesser competition.
But it’s not all bad news: Milwaukee is 9-3 in games that were within five points in the final five minutes, and Lillard leads the NBA with 67 points in clutch situations. The shaky late-game execution that doomed the Bucks in their first-round loss to the Heat last year has been replaced by a more diverse and decisive closing attack that could certainly prove useful in a single-elimination setting.
New York, meanwhile, hasn’t changed its formula much since it won its first playoff series in a decade in April: Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle continue to drive an unspectacular offense, while Coach Tom Thibodeau presides over a top-five defense.
The Bucks and Knicks both advanced to the quarterfinals from East Group B, and Milwaukee secured home-court advantage Tuesday with a 110-105 home victory over New York on Nov. 3. That victory could pay dividends because Milwaukee is 9-1 at Fiserv Forum and hasn’t lost at home since the opening week of the season.
Phoenix Suns (12-8) at Los Angeles Lakers (12-9): 10 p.m. Tuesday
When the NBA conceived the in-season tournament, pitting James against Durant in a do-or-die matchup had to be the dream. The two basketball legends played four elimination games during their three Finals matchups, evenly splitting those contests with two wins apiece. While Tuesday’s stakes will be considerably lower, James and Durant can be counted on to bring their best.
“At some point, y’all non athletes [are going to] realize that friends compete harder against one another,” Durant wrote on social media alongside a photograph of him and James smiling.
The Lakers scored wins over the Suns on Oct. 26 and Nov. 10 this season, but Durant went for 39 points and 38 points in defeat. Both games were memorable: The first was their first regular season matchup since Christmas 2018, and the second helped Los Angeles clinch West Group A with a 4-0 record. The Lakers are 8-2 at home and just 4-7 on the road this season, so they will be glad to play host at Crypto.com Arena.
Health will be the big story for the Suns, who have yet to have their Big Three of Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal appear together. Booker missed both losses to the Lakers, and he appeared to suffer an ankle injury in a Wednesday loss to the Toronto Raptors before returning to 34 points in a Saturday win over the Memphis Grizzlies. Los Angeles has had its own availability issues; the absences of Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent and Cam Reddish have compromised the team’s perimeter defense.