The NBA’s 2024 in-season tournament tips off on Tuesday, Nov. 12, and will culminate in the championship game on Dec. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Last year’s inaugural event saw LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers win the first NBA Cup on Dec. 9 by defeating the Indiana Pacers, 123-109. After scoring 24 points in the title game, James won tournament MVP.
For this edition, all 30 NBA teams will be randomly drawn into six groups of five within their conference based on win-loss records from the 2023-24 regular season. Each team will play its opponents once, with group stage games on four Tuesdays (Nov. 12, 19 and 26 and Dec. 3) and three Fridays (Nov. 15, 22 and 29).
The knockout will begin with the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Dec. 10 and Wednesday, Dec. 11, followed by the semifinals and championship.
Here’s what you need to know about the in-season tournament.
Jump to a section FAQ | Full Schedule
FAQ (by Tim Bontemps)
Friday night, the NBA unveiled the six groups for the second edition of its in-season tournament — now called the Emirates NBA Cup — on a special edition of ESPN’s NBA Today.
Here’s a look at everything you’ll need to know about the return of the league’s in-season cup competition, after the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers in Las Vegas to claim the first NBA Cup last December.
What is the format?
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has had a long-standing fascination with European soccer, and the idea for having an in-season cup competition within the NBA schedule comes from soccer leagues having both a regular-season title, determined by the team with the most points over the full year, and then a separate tournament (or, in some leagues, multiple tournaments) that runs concurrently with the league season.
In England, for example, there are the various divisions — led by the Premier League — and then there’s also the FA Cup competition. But, unlike those European leagues, which play their cup competitions outside of their league schedules, the NBA Cup is built into the NBA’s regular-season slate.
The 30 NBA teams were split into six five-team groups — three featuring Eastern Conference teams, and three featuring teams from the Western Conference — with each team then playing one game against the other four teams in their group. The winner of each group — plus the team with the best record among the non-group winners — will then advance to the knockout rounds.
How will this impact the regular-season schedule and standings?
Typically, the NBA sends out a full 82-game schedule in mid-August. Now, though, the league only sends out 80 games and leaves a gap for roughly a week to fill in later, depending on how the group stage of the NBA Cup plays out.
For the teams that reach the NBA Cup’s championship game, they’ll actually play 83 games — though the championship game won’t count toward the standings or any statistical markers. For those that lose in the semifinals, they’ll have played their full 82-game schedule, and won’t need anything added to it.
The two teams from both the Eastern and Western Conferences that lose in the quarterfinals will play their 82nd game against one another on one of four dates: Dec. 12, 13, 15 or 16. Meanwhile, the 22 teams that fail to qualify for the knockout rounds of the in-season tournament will have their final two games scheduled — one at home and one on the road — on Dec. 12 or 13 and 15 or 16 against other teams eliminated in the group stage.
Why does the NBA Cup include regular-season games?
Before its launch, one of the biggest questions surrounding the in-season tournament was why any team would be incentivized to compete in it. By making it part of the regular-season schedule, and making every game count toward the regular season — which, given they are all conference games, makes it very important from a playoff tiebreaker standpoint — the NBA ensured teams will be motivated to compete to win these games.
If this had been set up like the cup tournaments in European soccer, there would’ve been nothing stopping NBA teams from opting out literally or figuratively — sitting all of their top players and getting extra rest time. Under this system, though, they’ll have every incentive to play and win.
What teams make up the groups?
To create the groups — which were separated by conferences — the NBA put all 15 teams in each conference into five pots, separated by their finish in last season’s standings. Pot 1 included the teams that finished 1-3 in regular-season record, teams 4-6 went into Pot 2, teams 7-9 in Pot 3, teams 10-12 in Pot 4 and teams 13-15 in Pot 5.
As a result, the following groups were drawn:
East A: New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets East B: Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons East C: Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards West A: Minnesota Timberwolves, LA Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers West B: Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs West C: Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies
Does one group stand out competitively more than the others?
Yes, there is one obvious one: West Group C, featuring the Nuggets, Mavericks, Pelicans, Warriors and Grizzlies.
Because of how the draw is performed, with teams placed into pots based off last year’s standings, teams like Golden State and Memphis, which were lower down the standings due to a combination of suspensions and injuries, should be significantly stronger teams than you would anticipate teams in the bottom two pots to typically be.
But in addition to featuring the reigning MVP in Nikola Jokic and Zion Williamson, it also could offer the first meeting between Klay Thompson and his former team, the Warriors, after Thompson signed with Dallas earlier this month after 13 seasons with Golden State.
What do players get for winning?
Last year, the players on the winning team received $500,000 each, while the runners-up got $200,000 each. The losing players of the semifinals each got $100,000, and the losing players of the quarterfinals each got $50,000.
This year, the prizes will be slightly higher because of negotiated raises year over year to keep pace with increases in the salary cap and Basketball Related Income (BRI) as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association.
Will anyone earn individual honors for their play in NBA Cup games?
There will be a Most Valuable Player award for the in-season tournament, as well as an all-tournament team.
Will this have any impact on the playoffs?
Not beyond the games being regular-season games that count in the standings. While there was some debate among league insiders about guaranteeing a playoff berth as a reward for winning the tournament, ultimately that idea — or any other to further incentivize teams — was not enacted.
There was a similar debate after last year’s tournament played out and the winner, the Lakers, wound up in the play-in tournament, and the runner-up, the Pacers, narrowly avoided landing in it. But, in the end, the only playoff impact remains from the wins and losses accrued throughout the tournament.
Why is it called the Emirates NBA Cup?
The league struck a sponsorship deal with Emirates, the Dubai-based airline, to sponsor the tournament after its initial run. The NBA said last year that it went with the most basic titles for both the tournament and its trophy — the “in-season tournament” and “NBA Cup” — as a way to introduce the concept to fans.
However, using such nondescript names had another clear advantage: It gave the league a blank slate in case the tournament and cup became properties it hoped to sell to a sponsor, and avoided the potential complications that would arise by naming them after someone (for example, the late NBA commissioner David Stern, one possibility that had been floated before the tournament was officially unveiled).
In-season tournament group stage scores
Schedule TBD.
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