Suns Still Alive in NBA In-Season Tournament

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns are still alive in the league's inaugural in-season tournament after a clutch win over the Utah Jazz last night.

Phoenix dropped their first group stage game against the Los Angeles Lakers, putting them in a 0-1 hole that could have seen them eliminated with a loss to Utah and a Lakers win last night.

As of now, here's how West Group A looks:

1. Los Angeles Lakers (3-0)

2. Utah Jazz (2-1)

3. Phoenix Suns (1-1)

4. Portland Trail Blazers (1-2)

5. Memphis Grizzlies (0-3)

The winners of each group (six total, three in each conference) will advance after playing their initial four games with two "wildcards" that will feature the two best teams that finished second in their groups, which could be Phoenix.

"Don't count out the Suns, who entered Friday without a win in tournament action. Some may have thought Phoenix was going to fall to 0-2, considering it had a difficult road matchup against Utah, which had won each of its first two tourney games," wrote Bleacher Report.

"Instead, the Suns prevailed, and they improved to 1-1 in group play. They're going to need a misstep from the Lakers (3-1) to have a chance to win West Group A by a tiebreaker, and that seems unlikely to happen.

"Phoenix may still have a chance of advancing past group play and into the knockout rounds, though. That will especially be the case if it finishes at 3-1, which will happen if the Suns can beat the Trail Blazers and the Grizzlies later this month."

Tie-breakers for the group stage include, in order:

• Head-to-head record in the Group Stage

• Point differential in the Group Stage

• Total points scored in the Group Stage

• Regular season record from the 2022-23 NBA regular season

• Random drawing (in the unlikely scenario that two or more teams are still tied following the previous tiebreakers)

More from the NBA:

"Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and two “wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group). The Knockout Rounds will be single-elimination games in the Quarterfinals (played in NBA team markets on Monday, Dec. 4 and Tuesday, Dec. 5), Semifinals and Championship. The qualifying teams will compete for a prize pool and the new In-Season Tournament trophy, the NBA Cup."

The Suns are still very much alive, though like B/R said, they'll need the Lakers to drop their final game to win the group while going 2-0 themselves to finish things out.

Phoenix's final two games in group play will be next week against the Portland Trail Blazers (Tuesday at home) and Memphis Grizzlies (Friday away).