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!