NBA in-season tournament: Pacers and Lakers become 1st teams to clinch groups

The Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers became the first teams to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals of the NBA's inaugural in-season tournament on Tuesday. Both teams got there in style.

The Pacers reached via the biggest offensive explosion of the season and in franchise history, defeating the Atlanta Hawks by the comical score of 157-152 to improve their tourney record to 3-0 and clinch East Group A.

The team's last group play game will be against the last-place Detroit Pistons on Friday.

How do the Indiana Pacers score 157 points in a game and erase a 20-point deficit on the road in the process? It started with Tyrese Haliburton, who is well on his way to in-season tournament MVP honors (yes, that is a real thing). Entering the game averaging 25.5 points and 14 assists per game, Haliburton went off for 37 points on 11-of-18 shooting and 16 assists.

Tyrese Haliburton went off in Atlanta to win our group.

— Indiana Pacers November 22, 2023

The wildest part of Haliburton's night: 26 of those points came in the third quarter.

Buddy Hield was the hero of the fourth quarter, scoring 13 points in the final five minutes, making the game-tying and game-winning shots.

let him COOK

Buddy Hield sinks another three for the lead. pic.twitter.com/R3WTYusIba

— Indiana Pacers November 22, 2023 Seven different Pacers players ended up scoring in double-figures, which was enough to hold off a 38-point, eight-assist night from Trae Young, plus another 28 points from Dejounte Murray and 26 points from Bogdan Bogdanovic.

While the Pacers' win was alternatively fun and stressful, the Lakers' group-clinching win went down as smooth as possible. Los Angeles clobbered the second-place Utah Jazz 131-99 in the final steps of a leisurely stroll into the knockout stages.

The Lakers were up by 18 points late in the first quarter, 21 points at halftime and 27 points at the end of the third quarter, riding a 26-point, 16-rebound night from Anthony Davis plus 17 points and nine assists from LeBron James. The 38-year-old James became the first player in NBA history to reach 39,000 career points in the process.

LeBron throws it DOWN then hits a deep three

In-Season Tournament pic.twitter.com/UskN7FhiFi

— NBA on TNT November 22, 2023 The Lakers finished their group undefeated with wins over the 4-9 Jazz, the 3-11 Portland Trail Blazers, 3-10 Memphis Grizzlies and 8-6 Suns (who were without Devin Booker).

Tuesday's NBA in-season tournament scores NBA in-season tournament standings In the in-season tournament, every team will face the other four teams in its randomly selected group once. The top team in each group and a wild card in each conference will advance to a single-elimination knockout stage, with quarterfinals played on Dec. 4 and 5 in team arenas and the final two rounds played in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and 9.

All games, save for the championship game, will count toward regular-season records. Tiebreakers are, in order: head-to-head record, point differential, total points scored, 2022-23 regular-season record and a random drawing.

East Group A

East Group B

East Group C

West Group A

West Group B

West Group C