2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 15

The races are tight as we get closer to the end of group play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Several games in the last batch went down to the final possession, including a couple last-second makes that turned the result upside-down.

Most groups have more or less settled into a general pecking order. At present, 11 wins is the threshold to win your group, and many of those teams are on the verge of locking up their spots in the knockout stage, if they haven't already like the 2020 Lakers. Most groups have a team or two that aren't mathematically eliminated but would need an absolute miracle to make their way in, and many of those will likely have their last spots come down to the final round.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 14

The tournament continues as we seek to find the greatest basketball team of all time!

We had some more thrilling games in the last round, including our last unbeaten team taking its first loss, so no one will run the table. At this point the goal still is to at least make the knockout stage, which still has all 64 of its spots up for grabs and no teams mathematically eliminated quite yet. On the other side, we still have four winless teams, though they all still have time to get in the win column for the first time.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 13

We continue our second round of round robin play as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

We had some phenomenal individual performances in the last round, including a near quadruple-double as well as quintuple-nickel. No buzzer beaters or overtime games in the last round, but we did still have some games come down to the final possession.

Perhaps the most notable result was one of our two remaining undefeated teams suffer their first loss of the tournament. At this point, the only team with an unblemished record is the 1996 Chicago Bulls, though they were on their second bye in the past round.

We're going to start keeping an eye on the standings a little more heavily as the next few rounds get going, as the top teams will start punching their tickets to the knockout stage. We will probably still see spots up for grabs as late as the final round though.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 12

The second half of group play is about to get underway as we continue the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

At the halfway mark, a minimum record of 8-2 is what's required to win a group, but there are several 8-2 teams that are either tied at the top of trail someone who had an even better first half. Two undefeated teams still remain through a single round robin. Meanwhile down towards the bottom, there is a little bit of an imbalance among the groups. As a general rule, 4-6 halfway through would be good enough to advance to the postseason, but in some groups you would need five wins, and if the tournament ended today, two 4-6 teams would be knocked out while some teams at 3-7 are on the right side of the bubble. Based on this I'd anticipate needing eight wins total to advance, maybe seven depending on the group.

We're still waiting for some tournament-firsts; we've had several overtime games and buzzer beaters, as well as some 50 point outbursts, triple-doubles, and an early quadruple-nickel, but no quintuple-nickels (though we've come close). We'll see with another set of 440 games if any more of these outstanding performances come into play.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 11

Let's finish up this first half of round robin play.

Eight of our 88 teams have already played everyone in their groups to this point. The remaining 80 will all play their tenth game in this round.

The hype surrounding the last round of games truly did not disappoint. Five games went to overtime, including our most hyped one, with a sixth game being decided in the final second of regulation.

The pace we're currently looking at, an 8-12 record looks like it will be enough to guarantee an advance into the next round, with six or seven wins maybe being enough. We are in fact down to just two undefeated teams left, though whether they will be able to knock off their one unfaced opponent then proceed to repeat their feat remains to be seen. We'll see how tight the races at the top to avoid facing other group champions until the quarterfinals goes across the field.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!