Sunday, August 3, 2025

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!

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

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!

Monday, July 28, 2025

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!

Friday, July 25, 2025

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.


Monday, July 21, 2025

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!

Friday, July 18, 2025

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!

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

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!