More of the Nuggets schedule drops as NBA debuts new tournament
Aug 15, 2023, 1:28 PM
The Denver Nuggets schedule will soon be out in full but a bit more dropped on Tuesday as the NBA announced the dates of their new in-season tournament.
The competition kicks off on Nov. 3, and teams will play group stage games on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the month. The 15 teams in each conference are split into three groups with the winner of each advancing and the fourth-best record in each conference getting a nod to move on. These group stage games will be regular season games as will every game in the tournament up until the championship of the NBA Cup which will not count toward the regular season.
The Nuggets are in a group with Dallas, New Orleans, Houston and the Clippers, here’s when they’ll play each foe, including a Black Friday game:
Friday, Nov. 3 hosting the Mavericks at 8 p.m. on ESPN
Tuesday, Nov. 14 hosting the Clippers at 8 p.m. on TNT
Friday, Nov. 17 at the Pelicans
Friday, Nov. 24 at the Rockets.
The tournament continues on Dec. 4 with the quarterfinals, Dec. 7 with the semifinals which are in Vegas with the Dec. 9 championship.
The NBA is attempting to spice up the regular season and cut back on load management. This soccer-style route is a somewhat odd fix for those issues because in those footie in-season competitions the pool is comprised of a different group than your normal league foes. For example when the Colorado Rapids played in Leagues Cup this year, they faced off in their group with teams from Mexico and when the Burgundy Boys play in the US Open Cup they could play opponents such as the Colorado Springs Switchbacks from the USL or Northern Colorado Hailstorm from an even lower division. Not only will the Nuggets be facing their normal foes, but it’s also the same group of teams they’ll be fighting with for playoff positioning.
The NBA Cup winners will each get cut a $500k check, and don’t underestimate the draw of Vegas but a veteran team like the Nuggets, coming off a championship, may just tank this competition altogether so they don’t have to make extra trips during the knockout stages. But these four games we know about will count for regular season play as well—in total we know about seven Nuggets games thus far.
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