2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 16 (Part 1)

When I started this project months ago, 88 teams entered between all the NBA champions since 1952, all the ABA champions, and some conference champions to fill out the field. We're now down to just 16 teams left.

All of our ABA champions are out, but three conference champions from the past 30 years are still alive. Meanwhile, half of our field left is champions from about the past 15 years, while we still have a little representation from the 1970s and 1980s still alive.

Seeding-wise, we had a lot less chalk in the Round of 32 than we did in the Round of 64. Just four of eight group winners remain (incidentally all in the top half of the bracket), while six of eight #2 seeds are still competing. The upset-minded teams at this point are one #3 seed, three #4 seeds, a #5 seed, and a #6 seed. At this point, anything can truly happen.

Maybe most incredibly as I started simulating series, I realized that the top four teams from Group A had all advanced to this stage. Group H was close behind with three teams in, but that includes one that finished in fifth place

As I did in each of the first couple rounds, this round will be broken up into a couple posts. Series being covered in Part 1 will be picked totally at random (with the caveat that I'm going down the selected list to not reveal any quarterfinal matchups at this point).

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 32 (Part 4)

Just four series remain in the Round of 32 in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions, but honestly, I don't know how we top the last four we covered.

After most of our Round of 32 games early on were resolved fairly quickly, we had three separate seven game classics between heavyweights in the last batch. Of those three, two of them were won by the lower seeded team. And with both of those series, both our #2 overall seed and our #3 overall seed are gone.

At this point, four of our matchups for the Round of 16 have been determined, and the remaining four will be decided with the results of this batch.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 32 (Part 3)

We're down to 24 teams left as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

Both of our teams that have won tournament championships were in action in the last batch of games, and as part of that, our defending Champion of Champions was unceremoniously swept out of their title defense. The two-time champion in the 1996 Chicago Bulls, however, remains alive to try and reclaim its throne.

After a set with a couple of upsets though, we were back to chalk in the last set as the higher seeds all prevailed, and all of them with relative ease. The batch of games we're doing today is pretty heavy with group winners, so we'll see if they continue to prevail to maintain home court advantage for yet another round.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 32 (Part 2)

The Round of 32 is underway in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions, and already we've seen a little upheaval.

Our two most recent NBA champions held serve in their series, showing continued dominance for the modern era of the NBA. But we also saw that the gap between teams is closer than it might appear, as we lost both a 2 seed and a 1 seed in the first set of games.

In the Round of 64 the way I'd shuffled series it was set up so that no matchups for the next round would be determined in the first half. The shuffle didn't work out that way this time, but that's okay as if this were happening in reality games would be going on at the same time and we may have some matchups determined sooner than others.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 32 (Part 1)

We started with a playoff field of 64, and now that has been cut in half as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on.

Chalk largely ruled in the Round of 64, as we only had five upsets: three five seeds and two six seeds were able to advance to the Round of 32, otherwise all the teams that finished in the top four of their respective groups held serve. Meanwhile from a historical perspective, the two teams that have won previous Tournaments of Champions are still alive, as are two of the three runners-up, and all of our previous semifinalists. By era, only two teams from before 1980 remain alive, and all but two champions from 2009-onward are still in contention.

Now the road gets a little bit harder as we move to the Round of 32. Since every group's top two finishers remain alive, those teams will continue to carry home court advantage into this round of play. As we did in the Round of 64 (though I don't think I ever specifically mentioned it), all series are best of sevens played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 8)

Just four series remain as we finish out the Round of 64 of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

12 of the 16 matchups for the next round are now set in stone. We had a couple more first round upsets in the last set of games, including a series that went the distance and a game that was easily the highest scoring of the tournament.

As we finish this round out, three of our four one seeds will finally get their series covered, as well the two-time Champion of Champions. Hopefully this round will be able to finish with some dramatic finishes as well.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 7)

We're coming up to the end of the Round of 64 of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions, and in the last set of games, chalk went back to prevailing.

I'm not super surprised that most of the series we've done in this round so far have largely adhered to chalk. Just one five seed and two six seeds have advanced to the Round of 32 to this point. In terms of competitiveness, just three series so far have gone the full seven games and only six others have gone as many as six games.

Eight matchups for the next round of games are determined, and we'll set up four more in today's post.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 6)

Four second round matchups are determined, and today we set four more as we continue with the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

After the first half of the round saw only one lower seed advance, in the last batch we did we had two, including the defending Champion of Champions in the 1985 Lakers. So far two of the three upsets have been by six seeds, with the other being a five seed.

The current second round matchups that are set in stone look to be pretty good, and hopefully we'll have four more that look to be just as compelling once these games are completed.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 5)

Half of the Round of 64 is done. Let's get moving on the second half of this round of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Of the 16 rounds that we've simulated so far, 15 of them have been won by the higher seed, most of them well short of the full seven. The biggest surprise to date was the 1995 Rockets falling in five; they were the highest seeded 3rd place team and won the consolation bracket in the 2016 tournament, and after a 15-5 group play resume, they fall almost immediately.

Initially by happenstance, then in the last part by design, I haven't simulated series yet such that we know what any of the Round of 32 matchups are yet. We'll know what four of the 16 will be following the conclusion of these series.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 4)

We return for more of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions as the Elimination Stage rolls on!

Through the 12 rounds that have been simulated so far, chalk has ruled. Our highest seeds that have their series in the books have largely dominated, and even among the closer series we've only had three go the full seven. Though we did already have a blown 3-1 series lead (and I'm most upset it happened to the Bulls).

I didn't intend it this way, but the way our first 12 simulated series have gone, we don't have a set in stone matchup for the Round of 32 yet, and since it's happened to work out that way so far I'm going to keep it that way for this batch of games. The four series we're covering in this part will establish one team for all series in the round of 32, and the second half of this round will fill out those matchups.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 3)

We continue postseason play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions as the clock has struck midnight for more than one Cinderella.

The series covered so far have all gone chalk, with many of them only lasting four or five games. The last batch though saw a lot of the top seeds play, and we have several more even matchups based on seeding yet to go.

As we've done in the first couple parts of this round, I'm grabbing four series chosen completely at random and simulating through the full series, making sure to save box scores and make note of some of the key players from each game.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 2)

So far chalk has prevailed. Let's see if that trend continues.

We're partway through the Round of 64 in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions. This round will cut the field down to 32 and get us closer to finding the greatest NBA/ABA team of all time.

Our first set of series mostly ended fairly quickly, with the higher seeds needing just five games to win in three of the four series covered. The other was a full seven game donnybrook that went down to the wire in the winner-take-all contest. Hopefully this round will contain more of the latter than the former.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 1)

Let's get postseason play started.

We have 880 games in the books and another several more yet to get to. The 88 teams we started with have been narrowed down to 64, with half of those to be eliminated in this next round.

For the purposes of these first few rounds, I'm going to randomly pick some matchups and simulate the full series. I'll go into a little bit of detail about each game and provide some of the key stat lines from players and teams. This will be a little more in-depth than Group Play since each post will have fewer games to cover.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Introduction

880 games are in the books. 88 teams entered. We've now cut that number to 64 as we're ready to move to the Elimination Stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

This stage is heavily expanded since the last time I did this tournament; we're back to the size of the field from the original NBA Tournament of Champions. These teams are all now 24 wins away from ultimate glory.

Let's take a brief look at some of the numbers around the teams that have made it to this point.

• By League
• 5 ABA Champions
• 4 NBA Conference Champions (did not win their season's NBA championship)
• 55 NBA Champions
• By Decade
• 1950's: 0
• 1960's: 4
• 1970's: 12
• 1980's: 10
• 1990's: 11
• 2000's: 10
• 2010's: 10
• 2020's: 7
• By Previous Tournament Result (Quarterfinals or later)
• 2013, 2015 Champion ('96 Bulls)
• 2016 Champion ('85 Lakers)
• 2013 Runner Up ('05 Spurs)
• 2015 Runner Up ('91 Bulls)
• 2016 Runner Up ('97 Bulls)
• 2013 Semifinalists ('12, '13 Heat)
• 2015 Semifinalists ('86 Celtics)
• 2015, 2016 Semifinalists ('15 Warriors)
• 2016 Semifinalists ('02 Lakers)
• Previous Quarterfinalists ('71 Bucks, '72, '87, '88 Lakers, '92 Bulls)
• By Franchise
• Los Angeles Lakers: 12
• Boston Celtics: 10
• Chicago Bulls: 6
• Golden State Warriors: 4
• San Antonio Spurs: 4
• Detroit Pistons: 3
• Indiana Pacers: 3 (2 ABA Champions, 1 NBA Conference Champion)
• Miami Heat: 3
• Milwaukee Bucks: 2
• New York Nets: 2
• Philadelphia 76ers: 2
• Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder: 2 (1 with Seattle, 1 with Oklahoma City)
• Cleveland Cavaliers: 1
• Dallas Mavericks: 1
• Denver Nuggets: 1
• Houston Rockets: 1
• New York Knicks: 1
• Portland Trail Blazers: 1
• Toronto Raptors: 1
• Utah Stars: 1 (ABA)
• Orlando Magic: 1 (Conference Champion)
• Phoenix Suns: 1 (Conference Champion)
• Utah Jazz: 1 (Conference Champion)

Obviously with this expanded field, we get a much larger sample of teams than we have in years past. In prior tournaments, 15 different NBA Champions made at least one run to the quarterfinals or deeper; all 15 advanced this year. We had nine new NBA Champions since the last time I ran this tournament; all nine advanced. To fill the field, I added five other conference champions who don't have an NBA title to their name; four of them advanced.

Meanwhile, there's a lot in the way of records from group play I want to get out of the way before we get into the seeding and bracketing.

• The worst possible record to get in Group Play and still make the Elimination Stage was 7-13.
• Four teams finished with that record; two of them made it in.
• The best possible record to finish with but still miss the Elimination Stage was 8-12.
• Seven teams finished with that record; five of them made it in.
• Any team that finished 9-11 or better made the Elimination Stage.

Unfortunately for the 1975 Kentucky Colonels and 1994 Houston Rockets, they went 8-12 in the wrong groups. The threshold for getting in ended up being about what I thought it was going to be going in.

From here, we move onto the seeding criteria for the Elimination Stage. I debated for a while about how to handle this, even contemplating a round robin before settling on a somewhat modified format based on finish in group play. Teams were sorted into one of the following tiers of seeds:

• Seeds 1-8: Group winners. These teams are, to borrow a term from Division III football, "top eight protected," meaning they are guaranteed to not have to face each other until at least the quarterfinals. By virtue of winning their groups, they are also guaranteed home court advantage up through the quarterfinals.
• Seeds 9-16: Group runners-up. Finishing second in their respective groups guarantees these teams home court advantage for the first two rounds of the Elimination Stage.
• Seeds 17-32: Group third and fourth place finishers. This was where I decided to change some things up. Finishing in the top four guaranteed you home court advantage in the Round of 64. However, finishing third in your group would not guarantee what was effectively a 3 seed in an eight-team bracket. Better finishes, following the tiebreaker rules used for group play, means that some teams that finished fourth in their group may be seeded ahead of third place teams from other groups.
• Seeds 33-64: All remaining qualifiers. Similar to the above tier, teams here were also seeded using the tiebreaker rules for group play, so teams that finished lower in one group may be seeded higher than teams from another group.
• Tiebreaker procedures among each tier, in order:
• Group Play Record
• Head to Head (for group standings only)
• Point Differential in Group Play
• Points Scored in Group Play
• Rematches from Group Play are allowed

And so without further ado, here is the bracket for the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions Elimination Stage.

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: All Group Teams

Before we officially move onto the next stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions... let's hand out some hardware.

Over the span of a couple months I simulated 880 games. That's a lot of manual score entry and trying to save box scores. And while there are a couple that I unfortunately missed, most of them are accounted for for this stage of the tournament. And with that, let's dig into those 880 games a little bit.

I wanted to make sure that we handed out some accolades for this portion of the tournament. You saw looking through all of the score reportings that I also went into the box scores and provided some of the statistics that went into the game. Every game's Player of the Game as determined by WhatIfSports got included, plus some bonus guys depending on clutch performances or other eye-popping numbers that I happened to catch.

As a way to honor those players, I went back through and charted all mentions from Group Play and named All-Group teams for each group. The criteria for getting named to this team was pretty simple: get mentioned the most, you make the team. I also went through and named a Group Most Valuable Player, though this one went more into the statistics as well as team performance to determine, as opposed to just Player of the Game mentions, though that also carries some weight.

Each group will have a First Team and a Second team, each consisting of eight players (attempting to balance by position as best as possible). Players who make the First Team will be eligible for the All Tournament Team when everything is said and done; I will have more details about that once the tournament is complete.

For now, congratulations to the following All Group players and Group MVP's.

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!