The NBA Cup will begin its second year as the league’s in-season tournament on Tuesday, November 12, and will feature a handful of interesting matchups right off the bat.
Opening night On Thursday, the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks will play in a rematch of their 2024 first-round playoff series. Later that night, Klay Thompson will return to Golden State to face his former team when the Dallas Mavericks take on the Warriors.
The second night of games, on November 15, will see LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama, who faced off in the Olympic gold medal game, square off when the inaugural NBA Cup champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, visit the San Antonio Spurs.
You can check the Full group schedule here.
These are the six groups for the 2024 NBA Cup:
Group A East:New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets
Eastern Group B:Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons
Eastern Group C: Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards
Group A West: Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers
Group B West: Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs
Group C West: Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies
For the tournamentThe 30 NBA teams were drawn into groups of five within their conferences and based on their 2023-24 regular-season records. Each team plays one game against the other four opponents in its group.
The 2024 NBA Cup group stage will take place on Tuesdays and Fridays from November 12 to December 3. No regular season games will be played on those nights, only tournament games.
Tuesday “Cup Nights” are scheduled for November 12, 19, 26 and December 3, and Fridays for November 15, 22 and 29.
The eight teams that emerge from the group stage (the winners of each group, along with one wild-card team from each conference) will face off in single-elimination rounds on Dec. 10 and 11 before advancing to the semifinals (Dec. 14) and championship game (Dec. 17) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The 22 teams that do not qualify for the knockout round quarterfinals will have two regular-season games added to their schedules, to be played on Dec. 12-13 and Dec. 15-16. The losing teams from the quarterfinals will face each other in regular-season games on Dec. 12-16.
The NBA Cup champions and the second-place team shared the prize money from a prize pool. Each player on the winning team received $500,000, while the runners-up received $200,000 each.