NBA could get dream in-season tournament matchup — but few will be able to watch

The league wants to showcase its in-season tournament, but it's starting one of its semifinal games at 2 p.m. in Las Vegas. That's 5 p.m. Eastern time, which is still early for a premium game, especially on a Thursday.

The reasoning for the odd start time is that the NBA is running the games back-to-back, in the same arena, and they're selling separate tickets for each game. Normally, in a situation with multiple games in the same arena, like in the NCAA Tournament or Las Vegas Summer League, organizers sell one ticket for the day to avoid having to clear out the arena and bring in a whole different crowd.

It was clearly a mistake, as the NBA seems to be having trouble selling tickets for the early game.

The league later amended the deal to "buy three tickets, get one free," but even in Las Vegas, where casinos famously have no clocks, a 2 p.m. start time is a hard sell — especially since the teams playing won't be determined until Tuesday night, less than 48 hours before the event.

The easy solution would be to promote the games as a doubleheader and start them around 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. locally. Otherwise, the league's signature early-season event is starting when most fans are at work, even on the East Coast.

Getting a star-studded team like the Milwaukee Bucks or a popular, large-market team like the New York Knicks to face emerging superstar Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers would seem to be a dream matchup for the NBA. But due to a short-sighted focus on ticket sales, that game is going to be played when a big chunk of the potential audience can't tune in to watch.