Los Angeles, Nov 19: The NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament has officially reached the midway point of the group stage portion of the event. Seven teams remain undefeated, but the NBA champion Nuggets are no longer in that club after the host Pelicans beat Denver Friday night.
With the win New Orleans moved to 2-1, but more importantly took over the top spot the West B group by virtue of now owning the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Nuggets and by seeing the Clippers post their first victory of the James Harden era after Los Angeles beat the Houston Rockets who had been 1-0 in group play.
In other West action, the Lakers (3-0) now standalone atop Group A after the Suns beat the Jazz.
And the Kings (2-0) vaulted into first place in Group C on the strength of +16 point differential, which is six points better than the +10 of the Timberwolves (2-0). Those two teams will square off in a West C battle on Friday in Minnesota. The current wild card leader are the Jazz who with their +19 point differential have a 10-point cushion over the Nuggets’ +9.
With a monster 31-point victory over the Hornets, the Bucks (2-0) leapfrog over the Heat (2-0) to take command of the East B group based on a point differential of +36 for Milwaukee to +13 for Miami. Should both teams move to 3-0, the head-to-head matchup on Nov. 28 in Miami would determine who wins that group.
The Pacers (East A) and Celtics (East C), who were both idle on Friday, remain the leaders in their groups at 2-0.
If the group play ended today, the Heat (2-0) would advance as the wild card just nudging out the 76ers (2-0) due to having a one-point edge in point differential.
The league has divided each conference into three five-team groups. Those teams will play group stage games on Tuesdays and Fridays in November. The teams are debuting this season’s city edition uniforms and the games will be played on specially-designed courts. (Agencies)
