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MEMPHIS — A smile spread over Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy's face as he leaned into the recorder to make sure he wasn't misheard.
"It's the most important thing to happen to basketball," a very sarcastic Hardy said. "It's the most important development in basketball since the peach basket went up."
With that, NBA commissioner Adam Silver may just have his best endorsement of the inaugural In-Season Tournament.
The tournament tipped off last week with a sea of colorful courts, and some pleasantly-surprising competitive games. Turns out, where there's some extra stakes involved — a trophy, a trip to Las Vegas, and a not-insignificant amount of money — the competition goes up.
"These are competitors at the highest level, and it doesn't matter if it's we're going to shoot free throws for $5 or we're going to play a tournament for a lot more than $5," said a more serious Hardy. "If there's something on the line, the guys are very competitive, they're gonna go after that. I have no doubt this will be the same."
On Friday in Memphis, the Jazz will get their first taste of the In-Season Tournament when they play the Grizzlies on their specialized gray-color court.
That game will begin what you could call the tournament portion of Utah's schedule. The Jazz's next three games — and four of their next five — will be tournament contests.
As a quick refresher, the tournament is made up of six five-team groups (three per conference). Each team will play a single game against the other four members of its group, and the group winners will advance to a quarterfinal knockout stage. The best second-place team in each conference will advance to that round.
If you're curious about tiebreakers, they go in the following order: head-to-head record in group play, point differential during group contests, total points scored in group games, regular season record from the 2022-23 NBA regular season and random drawing.
Utah is in Group A of the West, which also includes the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, and Grizzlies.
When the group was announced in the summer, it seemed like one of the more daunting ones. A few months later, it seems downright manageable. Damian Lillard has been traded from Portland, Ja Morant will still be serving his suspension, and the Lakers have even stumbled out of the gate.
The Blazers, Jazz, Grizzlies and Lakers are all under .500, and the Suns are just 4-4. There won't be a winning record in the group come Friday night.
The group got started last week with Portland topping Memphis. So a Utah win Friday would ultimately end any hope the Grizzlies have of advancing out of the group stage. The Jazz defeated the Grizzlies last week in a non-tournament game.
Will this game feel bigger than that contest? Hardy sure think so.
"It is important. I think any opportunity you get to win something is great for your organization, and your program and your team," Hardy said.
The Jazz coach said he wasn't sure, however, how much to play up the game to his team. Is it like a playoff game or a play-in game? Just a more meaningful regular season one? He's curious how things will feel as the game draws near.
"It's gonna be interesting as a coach, how do you approach those games in terms of like how do I talk to the team pregame? It is a regular season game, but it also counts towards something else as well," Hardy said. "Our intention is to go after it and try to win like everybody else. It should be fun."
The tournament will end with the semifinal games and final in Las Vegas in early December. Each member of the winning team — including the head coach — will receive $500,000.
"I'd like another watch, and spend some money on some cars or something," Jordan Clarkson said about the appealing cash prize.
Jazz center Walker Kessler — who will miss the group stage games after being ruled out for at least two weeks with a sprained elbow — said that he thinks it could be like an NCAA Tournament feel, just with the added benefit of some money involved.
"Different than college, where you're just playing for pride," he said. "You're paying for pride and I guess some money — a couple of steak dinners. A lot of steak dinners."
Group A standings
- Portland Trail Blazers 1-0
- Los Angeles Lakers 0-0
- Phoenix Suns 0-0
- Utah Jazz 0-0
- Memphis Grizzlies 0-1
Jazz In-Season Tournament schedule
- @ Memphis, Nov. 10
- vs. Blazers, Nov. 14
- vs. Suns, Nov. 17
- @Lakers, Nov. 21
