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Can the Brooklyn Nets make it out of Group C of the In-Season Tournament?

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Now that the entire 2023-24 schedule for the Brooklyn Nets has been released, and Nets Wire has done the major takeaways from the schedule, it’s time to look into the nuisances of the regular-season slate. For the purposes of this article, we will be discussing the Nets’ prospects in the In-Season Tournament.

In the first iteration of the In-Season Tournament in NBA history, teams like Brooklyn will have to keep certain matchups in mind as they progress through the season if they want to care about the mid-season angle. For the Nets, every game matters, so they will not be taking the schedule lightly since they want to make it to the playoffs.

When it comes to Brooklyn’s In-Season schedule, they will be facing the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, and the Orlando Magic. Games against the Raptors, Bulls, and Magic will be more important because not only will those games count for the In-Season Tournament, but the Nets will most likely be competing with those teams for spots in the play-in tournament.

Nets In-Season Tournament Prediction

The good thing for the Nets (45-37) is, they are one of two teams in the Group C bracket that made the playoffs last season, along with the Celtics (57-25). Boston is one of the best teams in not only the conference, but in the league so that will probably be a loss for the Nets.

The Raptors (41-41) and the Bulls (40-42) finished the regular season within a game of each other and even faced each other in the play-in tournament, which Chicago won. Other than adding Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig, Chicago’s roster is mostly the same.

The Raptors have lost Fred VanVleet in free-agency and with rumors that Toronto could be trading star forward Pascal Siakam, it’s possible that the Raptors enter a rebuild by the time the teams face each other on Nov. 28.

The Magic have added three players in Joe Ingles, Anthony Black, and Jett Howard that can contribute to the team right away and possibly vault the team into playoff contention. Orlando was the only team that Brooklyn had a winning record against last season (2-1).

Ultimately, the prospects do not look good for Brooklyn as they had a combined 8-7 record against those four teams last season and some of those games were when the Nets had Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the roster.

Verdict: Brooklyn will finish the In-Season Tournament group play with a 2-2 record.

Group C Schedule

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