Heat opens new In-Season Tournament on Friday. The rules, format and what players are saying

Friday’s game against the Washington Wizards will carry a little extra meaning than the typical sixth game on the schedule for a few different reasons.

First, the Heat is off to its worst five-game start since opening the 2007-08 season at 0-5. Wednesday night’s bad 109-105 loss to the short-handed Brooklyn Nets to begin a three-game homestand dropped the Heat to 1-4 this season.

Second, Friday’s matchup against the also struggling Wizards (1-3) at Kaseya Center (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) marks the Heat’s first of four group play games as part of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament.

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“I’m open to it and excited about it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the league’s new In-Season Tournament. “I remember five years ago when they started talking about the play-in [tournament], everybody said it’s a horrible idea. Fast forward, obviously we were a great beneficiary of that play-in [last season] and I wish our team from 2016-17 would have had the play-in.

“So I think the league understands that you have to continually evolve. And when it has to deal with competition and sparking more competition, I’m all for it. I’m looking forward to participating in it this year.”

How does the In-Season Tournament work?

Each of the NBA’s 30 teams will play four group play games — one game against each opponent in their randomly drawn five-team group within their conference. Two of those games will be played at home and the other two on the road. Those games will take place every Tuesday and Friday in November.

The Heat was drawn into a five-team group that also includes the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards for the In-Season Tournament.

After Friday’s matchup against the Wizards in Miami, the Heat’s other three group play games are: Nov. 14 vs. Hornets in Charlotte, Nov. 24 vs. Knicks in New York and Nov. 28 vs. Bucks in Miami. Group play games will count as regular-season games.

The winner of each of the six groups and two wild cards (the team from each conference with the best record in group play that finished second in its group) will advance to the knockout quarterfinal round.

If two or more teams are tied within a group, the tie among the teams will be broken according to the following tiebreakers (in sequential order): head-to-head record in group play, point differential in group play, total points scored in group play, regular-season record from last regular season and random drawing.

If two or more teams are tied for the wild card in a conference, the tie among the teams will be broken following the same tiebreaker protocol, with the exception of the head-to-head record in group play. Ties within groups will be broken before the calculation of wild card tiebreakers.

The knockout rounds will consist of single-elimination games for the eight teams that advance from group play, starting with the quarterfinals on Dec. 4-5 played in NBA markets. The four teams that win quarterfinal games advance to the neutral-side semifinals on Dec. 7 and then two teams will play in the championship game on Dec. 9.

The semifinals and championship game of the event will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

What’s at stake? The new NBA Cup and bonus money for the quarterfinalists, semifinalists, runner-up and champion. Players on the championship team will get $500,000 each, players on the team that loses in the championship will get $200,000 each, players on the team that loses in the semifinals will get $100,000 each and players on the team that loses in the quarterfinals will get $50,000 each.

The 22 teams not advancing to the quarterfinals will play two regular-season games on Dec. 6 and 8 against opponents still to be determined to fill the missing two games in its standard 82-game schedule. The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals will play a regular-season game against an opponent still to be determined on Dec. 8 to complete its 82-game schedule.

Every game in the NBA’s In-Season Tournament will count toward regular-season stats and standings, except the championship game in Las Vegas on Dec. 9. The two teams that advance to the championship game will play 83 games during the regular season, which is why the In-Season Tournament final does not count toward the regular season.

Because of the uncertainty surrounding which teams will advance past the group stage, each team currently only has 80 of its 82 regular-season currently scheduled — 76 non-In-Season Tournament regular-season games and four In-Season Tournament group play games. The remaining two regular-season games will be at some point during the week of Dec. 4 based on how each team fares during group play.

Will In-Season Tournament games like the Heat’s matchup against the Wizards carry extra meaning to players?

“I like basketball,” Heat wing Jimmy Butler said. “In season, out of season, I just love to hoop, I love to compete with my guys, I love to wear the Miami Heat uniform and compete for this city and this organization. So In-Season Tournament, sign me up.”

But Heat guard Tyler Herro sees it a bit differently.

“I’m looking at it as a regular game. Another game,” Herro said.

The difference between the NBA’s In-Season Tournament and other Cup tournaments overseas, including soccer’s Leagues Cup that Inter Miami won this summer, is that all but the championship game of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament count as regular-season games.

“I really hope that players are going to take it differently,” said Heat forward Nikola Jovic, who is familiar with such Cup events during his time playing in Europe and growing up in Serbia. “It just brings something else to the table. The difference is the tournament games are going to be basically the regular games, just with a different floor. So that’s the only thing, I’m not sure how the big names will handle that and stuff.

“But how we do it in Europe is you have separate games. So during the season, you stop and you have a little Cup where every game is win or go home. Here is the same, but you don’t feel that way because it’s just regular games and all of a sudden it’s a tournament game. I don’t know how it will look.”

In order to make In-Season Tournament games feel different than other regular-season games, there will be special courts for tournament games “featuring vibrant and bold colors.” The Heat’s court, which will be used for any group play and quarterfinal games played at Kaseya Center, is painted red from edge to edge with an image of the NBA Cup at center court.

“I’m not sure how it will be here, but I think it brings something else to the table,” Jovic continued. “It’s a little different and I hope it will make people watch a little bit more.”