2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 22

And so for several teams, it all comes down to this.

Just 40 games remain in the group stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions. For eight teams, their group stage is over; three of them are done for the tournament, while the other five have all locked up spots in the Elimination Stage. For 80 other teams, this round is their last change to either make the dance, affect their seeding, or for some, just play for some level of pride.

Of the 40 games left on the docket, only two are completely meaningless for the postseason. The remaining 38, at a minimum, are for positioning within groups, which could determine who gets home court advantage in the first round of the Elimination Stage. We also have two games between contenders for a 2nd seed, which would guarantee home court in the first two rounds. This accounts for half of the games this round.

By my count, we have 11 teams fighting for the final six spots in the tournament to be determined in this set. Nine games will determine those outcomes, including one win-or-go-home game. Meanwhile, only three of the eight groups have had their championships clinched; ten games will determine the fate of the other five, including one straight up title game. These include one game of overlap, so 18 of the 40 games have huge implications.

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 21

As the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions nears the conclusion of this stage, eight teams will close out their 20 game slate. Many of them are either already advancing, though some are still fighting for some of the final spots in the bracket.

Another eight teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage, leaving just 18 spots left to be claimed with two rounds left to go. 29 teams are still fighting for those spots, so for 11 squads these next two rounds will be the end of the line.

No group championships have been clinched yet, but a number of them will officially be up for grabs in this round, including a couple de-facto title games on the docket this go-around.

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 20

Time is running out as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

Just three rounds remain, but a lot still remains to be determined at this stage. Only five more teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage in the last round, but that leaves 26 spots open. 39 teams are still mathematically alive for those spots, though some of those doors are likely to be closing over the next few days.

Meanwhile, group championships are all still up for grabs at this point. One or two might get clinched in this batch of games, but others will probably come down to the final round.

We continue to have several instant classics as the tournament rolls on; this last round alone saw four games go to overtime, and we continue to have dramatic finishes aplenty as we come to our final 120 games of this stage of the tournament.

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 19

Four rounds remain, and time is running out for teams to either punch their ticket or get their best possible seeding for the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Eight more spots got locked up in the last round, so with that the field is just over half filled. Seedings, however, are very much still up for grabs as the gap between the top two teams in each group ranges from as many as two games to a dead heat in a couple (though one is already settled via head to head tiebreaker).

On the other end of the spectrum, just five teams have been eliminated from postseason contention, so even some folks at the bottom still have a shot to sneak into the Elimination Stage over these final four sets of games, though a lot of them will need help to get there.

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 18

Tickets are getting punched left and right as we come into the home stretch of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Last round saw 12 different teams clinch a berth in the next stage of the tournament, meaning 25 of the 64 spots have been claimed with five rounds of games left to go. Meanwhile, only a few teams have been eliminated from contention. That number will likely increase as well with so few contests left to make up that ground.

As we move into this next round, we'll see how many of the 39 remaining spots in the postseason get taken. 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 17

Just a few rounds remain as we hit the three-quarter pole in group play of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Five more teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage in the last round, leaving 51 spots still up for grabs. At present, most teams are still mathematically alive, though some of them will likely face elimination in this upcoming round and more spots are on the verge of being claimed.

We had a handful of triple-doubles in the previous set of games, and while no games went to overtime, we had a few photo finishes again as well, as well as a stunning collapse in one game. We'll see what kind of drama and phenomenal performances are on tap for us this 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 16

The postseason picture is starting to take shape as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

With seven rounds of games left to play, 56 of the 64 spots in the Elimination Stage remain up for grabs. Most groups still have seven spots left, with one group still having all spots open while another only has six. A lot of these groups are looking like they're going to come down to the final round, given that no one has yet been eliminated from contention, though some teams face that danger as we approach the next round. The positive for those teams in the last round was that several teams still looking for that elusive first win finally broke through, and now just two winless teams remain.

More spots in the Elimination Stage are up for grabs as we get set for our next batch of 40 games, and we hope to have more compelling games as we continue.

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 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!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 10

This may be one of the most anticipated rounds as we near the end of the first half of the round robin stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions.

Eight teams will play their tenth game this round before getting their bye. The remainder will play their ninth, and with how the schedule was set up, our top eight teams from prior tournaments will now get to measure themselves against some of the more recent NBA champions.

Our undefeated team count is down to three now, with one of those going away as two of them will take the court against each other in this round. The third is on its bye in this set. By contrast, we have just four winless teams to this point.

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 9

The tournament rolls on as we continue our quest to find the greatest team of all time!

Attrition continues to take its toll as we are down to just four undefeated teams remaining. We near the time when that will drop to three, as two of the four teams are in the same group. Meanwhile as the elimination stage picture starts to take shape, through eight rounds three wins seems to be enough to advance.

We had some high scoring games in the last round, and that was without any overtimes, though we had a pair of games decided at the buzzer. There have been some phenomenal individual performances that we continue to see, and I'm excited to see what else we have in store as the tournament continues.

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 8

We return with another round of games as the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

Attrition continues to hit as we are now down to just four unbeaten teams remaining, though at least one will fall as two of those are in the same group and have yet to play each other. Further down the standings lists, at this point a roughly .500 record is easily enough to get you into the elimination stage that is still several rounds away from beginning. The current threshold for getting in is roughly a 2-4 mark, although that does require tiebreaker help. That means teams are going to need to have either head to head wins or a good point differential in order to advance.

Round seven had a couple thrilling overtime games, as well as a game that ended on a late in regulation game-winning shot. Hopefully we continue to have moments like that as we continue.

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 7

We continue with our quest to find the greatest team of all time as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions resumes!

With five or six games in the books for all teams so far, we're starting to get some separation in each of our eight groups. A handful of undefeated teams still remain, but we actually have more winless teams left than we do unbeaten's.

Last round really only saw one instant classic game that went to overtime, though we did have some tightly contested games in amongst the bigger blowouts. Triple-double's continue to pop up from time to time along with a fair number of quadruple-nickels. Still waiting to see some possible records fall, maybe as we continue through we'll see those.

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 6

Many of our teams have hit the quarter pole so far in this edition of the Tournament of Champions, and today the remaining teams will hit that mark of group play.

The last round was a phenomenal one, as we had two games go to overtime thanks to game-tying shots at the buzzer (plus a third that would have had that shot go in), while two other games were won on shots in the closing seconds.

At this stage looking at standings, all of our recent champions are playing incredibly well; the worst record among champions since our last Tournament is by the 2019 Raptors, and even they are 3-2 so far. By my count, nine undefeated teams remain in the tournament at this point, while just seven are still in search of their first victory.

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 5

For a large chunk of our teams, today marks the quarter pole of this tournament as we enter round five of group play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

The number of unbeatens continues to drop as the pecking order starts to take shape. But since this is only the quarter pole or thereabouts, there is still a ton of time for teams that are off to a sluggish start to right the ship.

Most of the tournament to this point has not seen a ton of tight finishes; we've only had two overtime games to date, though one came in this last round on a three at the buzzer; ignore that the overtime period was fairly one-sided. Several phenomenal individual performances continue to be had and we'll continue to track those as the tournament progresses.

As we continue, 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 4

We continue onward with our fourth round of games in the group stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

We had a pretty good drop from last round in terms of unbeaten teams; only 19 remain at this point. There are also still a large number of teams still looking for their first win. But this early in the tournament, anything can still happen.

After I mentioned it last time, we ended up almost getting the tournament's first quadruple-double via Wilt Chamberlain, who might be the most likely candidate to pull it off. We'll see if it ends up happening at some point before this is all said and done.

As we prepare for our next 40 game slate, 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 3

With the holiday behind us, we move on to our third round of games in this Tournament of Champions.

We're still very early in this, so for the 33 teams that remain unbeaten to this point, they should not start planning the parade yet, while the 31 without a win to this point should not yet be entering panic mode. After all, 64 of the 88 teams will advance to the next stage and there is plenty of time for everyone to make their case.

This last round of games also saw the tournament's first buzzer beater as well as our first 30-30 game. I'm waiting for the first quadruple-double to drop, as given we've already seen a quintuple-nickel in this tournament nothing else would really surprise me at this point.

As we move into our next round of games, standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!