Frequently Asked Questions
HOW ARE NONPROFITS SELECTED?
Nonprofits up for the Play It Forward vote are eligible based on their previous Mavs Foundation grant application.
Don’t see your favorite nonprofit? Learn more about grant recipients and apply for Mavs Foundation grants at www.MavsFoundation.com.
WHAT IS THE NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT?
The NBA In-Season Tournament is a new annual competition for all 30 teams that will debut in the 2023-24 season.
WHY IS THE NBA ADDING IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT?
The In-Season Tournament will provide players and teams with another competition to win, engage fans in a new way and drive additional interest in the early portion of the regular-season schedule.
HOW WERE THE GROUPS DETERMINED?
Before the Group Play draw, each team was placed into a “pot” based on its record from the prior regular season (2022-23). In each conference, one team from each pot was randomly selected into each of the three groups in that conference. Pot 1 had the teams with the three best prior-season records in a conference, Pot 2 had the teams with the fourth- through sixth-best prior-season records in a conference, and so on through Pot 5.
WHICH TEAMS ADVANCE TO THE KNOCKOUT ROUNDS
Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and one “wild card” team from each conference. The wild card will be the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group.
HOW DOES THE IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT AFFECT THE REGULAR SEASON?
Every team will still play an 82-game regular season. All In-Season Tournament games will count toward the regular-season standings except the Championship, which will sit outside the regular season.
WHY ARE THERE TWO GAMES LABELED AS “TBD” ON EACH TEAM’S 2023-24 REGULAR-SEASON SCHEDULE?
Every team will play two regular-season games (including the In-Season Tournament Quarterfinals and Semifinals for qualifying teams) during the week of Dec. 4. The 22 teams that do not qualify for the Knockout Rounds will play two regular-season games during tournament off nights that week (Dec. 6 & 8). The four teams that lose in the Quarterfinals will play a regular-season game on Dec. 8.