For its second year in existence, the NBA in-season tournament has been rebranded to the grander Emirates NBA Cup.
The league’s effort to add competitive juice to the early part of the regular season before Christmas begins on Nov. 12, and will build toward the tournament’s finale in Las Vegas, with the semifinals on Dec. 14 and the championship final on Dec. 17.
For the tournament, all 30 NBA teams are drawn into groups of five within their conference and based on their 2023-24 regular-season records. Each team plays one game against the other four opponents in its group.
Group play games will be played on Tuesdays and Fridays through November into early December, according to the league’s official release. The Tuesday “Cup Nights” are scheduled for Nov. 12, 19, 26 and Dec. 3, and the Fridays on Nov. 15, 22, and 29.
The eight teams that emerge from group play (winners of each group, along with a wild-card team in each conference) will match up in single-elimination knockout rounds on Dec. 10-11 before advancing to the semifinals and championship game held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The NBA Cup’s six groupings were announced Friday night on ESPN and are divided up as follows:
Western Conference
West Group A
West Group B
West Group C
Eastern Conference
East Group A
East Group B
East Group C
The 22 teams that don’t qualify for the knockout round quarterfinals will have two regular-season games added to their schedules, played on Dec. 12-13 and Dec. 15-16. Losing teams from the quarterfinals will be matched up in regular-season games on Dec. 12-16.
Last year’s inaugural in-season tournament was won by the Lakers, who defeated the Pacers in the championship game, 123-109. LeBron James was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
The NBA Cup champions and second-place club split money from a prize pool. Each player from the winning team received $500,000, while the runners-up each got $200,000.