NBA In-Season Tournament scores: Live updates, analysis from the opening night of group play (2024)

The road to Las Vegas begins tonight

The brand new NBA In-Season Tournament arrived on Friday, and with seven games now in the books, we have a far better idea of what to expect out of the league's grand experiment to emulate soccer. So far, so good. All seven games were competitive. Four underdogs covered the spread and two won their games outright. Given the attention paid to what could have been a night of typical regular-season basketball, the NBA has to be happy with the results.

Before we dive into some of our biggest takeaways from the beginning of the tournament, here's everything you need to know about how the tournament works and what to expect from it moving forward.

• IST explainer
• Full IST schedule and standings
• IST Power Rankings
• What players and coaches are saying about the IST
• IST courts explainer
• IST courts, ranked

So, with that in mind, let's dive into our major takeaways from Friday's action:

An incredible night of basketball

Myles Turner and the Indiana Pacers won the very first game of In-Season Tournament play, and he led his team in scoring with 27 points. After the game, he gave a quote that the NBA was surely thrilled to see. "It's playoff basketball man." Turner said when interviewed on the Indiana broadcast. "That's what it's about."

A lot of the consternation about this tournament has revolved around the fear that nobody, not the fans, not the teams and not the players, would treat this like playoff basketball. If this is going to become an important part of the league calendar, everybody has to give it the importance the league is hoping for. It's too early to say whether or not they ultimately will, but the league couldn't have asked for a better night of basketball to launch this event.

Six of the seven games were decided by single digits, and the seventh was won by 11 points. Blazers-Grizzlies went to overtime, while Warriors-Thunder and Nets-Bulls both came down to a final possession, and Knicks-Bucks and Pacers-Cavaliers almost did. Nearly every game was close throughout, and the quality of basketball was high throughout.

Did the teams treat it like playoff basketball? No, not yet. Stephen Curry played only 31 minutes, for example. No team ran its stars into the ground as it would for a postseason affair. But give it time. As far as first nights go, the league couldn't have asked for much better.

The courts were ... a mixed bag

You can check out all 30 courts for the In-Season Tournament above, but early on Friday, the general consensus was that the courts weren't working. In fairness, the league started off with some of its worst designs. The neon yellow and bright blue in Indianapolis was downright distracting, and the green stripe down the center of the court in Milwaukee made it look like there was something wrong with your television.

But as the night progressed? Things got a bit better. A yellow stripe worked far better with Denver's darker blue than Indiana's brighter floor. Chicago's all-red court worked well, aside from the contrast with the ball. Oklahoma City's blue and black scheme is among the best of the 30.

None of the top six courts in our rankings were used tonight. When teams like Boston, Phoenix and Utah take the floor, fans might feel differently. But, for now, the league is fighting an uphill battle from an aesthetic standpoint. Some of these bright colors just hurt the eyes too much to focus on a basketball game.

The Grizzlies are cooked

It's not necessarily impossible to make the playoffs at 0-6. The Lakers were 0-5 (and then 2-10) early last season and reached the Western Conference Finals. The Kings were 0-4 and earned the No. 3 seed. But, remember, those teams had their full rosters at their disposals. The Grizzlies are 0-6 and won't get Ja Morant back for 19 games. Steven Adams isn't coming back, period.

The Lakers and Kings needed a historically packed Western Conference to make their runs last season. The Western Conference remains dominant, but with better health and a heavier top, it's just not especially likely that 45 wins earns a top-4 seed. If the Grizzlies can even rally their way back to .500 or so, their best case scenario is probably a play-in route to the playoffs. More likely, this is a lottery team.

That might not be the worst thing. With Adams injured and Morant needing to re-earn the organization's trust, a gap year in which the team can assess the rest of the roster before regrouping over the summer could be beneficial. Right now, the Grizzlies don't have the talent to compete for a playoff spot. If a loss to the lowly Blazers doesn't prove that, then nothing will.