The second edition of the NBA In-Season Tournament, now known as the Emirates NBA Cup, will tip off in this 2024-25 NBA season.
Check out everything you need to know about the schedule and how to watch below.
2024 Emirates NBA Cup Schedule
Group Play
Group play matchups will become clearer as the 2024-25 NBA regular season schedule is released later this summer. For now, here are the group play dates:
- Tuesday, November 12
- Friday, November 15
- Tuesday, November 19
- Friday, November 22
- Tuesday, November 26
- Friday, November 29
- Tuesday, December 3
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Knockout Rounds
Quarterfinals
- Tuesday, December 10
- Wednesday, December 11
Semifinals
Finals
Where will the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup take place?
Group play will take place in normal NBA arenas depending on who is home and away. Once play reaches the semifinals and finals, play will take place in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena.
How to watch the Emirates NBA Cup
The 2024 Emirates NBA Cup will be shown nationally and will be announced in August.
What is the Emirates NBA Cup?
The Emirates NBA Cup is a tournament that will take place during the regular season and feature all 30 NBA teams competing for a championship title. The goal is to provide additional excitement and engagement for fans, especially during the early part of the regular season which has suffered in recent years, as well as create new revenue streams for the league. In the first year, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers in the finals.
What’s the format?
The tournament will be divided into six pools with five teams apiece, and pools will consist of teams within the same conference, but not necessarily the same division. Teams will play four group games, matching up with each team in their pool once, with winners advancing to a single-elimination stage.
Eight teams advance to the knockout rounds: the six group winners and two wild card teams. Knockout rounds consist of single-elimination games.
Each squad will have 80 games on their initial regular-season schedule, while those who don’t qualify for elimination games in the tournament will have two more games added. The two teams who compete for the championship will play 83 total regular-season games. In addition, statistics for the games will count towards regular season totals, aside from the championship game.
How are groups determined?
Before group play begins, a group play draw will take place on Friday, July 12. Each team was placed into a “pot” based on its record from the prior regular season (2023-24). In each conference, one team from each pot was randomly selected into each of the three groups in that conference.
Pot 1 has the teams with the three best prior-season records in a conference. Pot 2 has the teams with the 4th-6th best records in a conference. This three-group system continues until all 5 Pots are full.
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