Below is a format summary and rules explainer for Emirates NBA Cup 2024. For more information, read the NBA Cup FAQ article.
I. Summary
The Emirates NBA Cup 2024, the NBA’s second annual in-season competition, will tip off on Tuesday, Nov. 12 in team markets and conclude with the Semifinals (Saturday, Dec. 14) and Championship (Tuesday, Dec. 17) staged at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The complete schedule will be announced in August.
There will be two phases to the Emirates NBA Cup: Group Play and the Knockout Rounds.
> A. Group Play
For the first time, all 30 teams have been randomly drawn into groups of five within their conference based on regular-season win-loss records from 2023-24. Starting Tuesday, Nov. 12 and running through Tuesday, Dec. 3, each team will play four designated Group Play games on “Cup Nights” – one game against each opponent in its group, with two games at home and two on the road.
> B. Knockout Rounds
Eight teams will move to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and two “wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group). The Knockout Rounds will include single-elimination games in the Quarterfinals, which will be played in NBA team markets on Tuesday, Dec. 10 and Wednesday, Dec. 11; and Semifinals and Championship, which will be played in Las Vegas on Dec. 14 and Dec. 17, respectively. The Knockout teams will compete for a prize pool and the NBA Cup championship trophy.
All 67 games in both stages of the Emirates NBA Cup will count towards the regular-season standings, with the exception of the Championship. Each team will still play 82 regular-season games in the 2024-25 season, including those games that are part of Group Play and the Knockout Rounds.
In all, 14 games during Group Play (two games on each Cup Night) and all seven games in the Knockout Rounds will air nationally. Game and broadcast schedules for the Emirates NBA Cup Group Play stage will be announced in August.
Additional information about the Emirates NBA Cup is below.
II. Tournament Detail
> A. Group Play Draw
The 15 teams in each conference were separated into three groups of five teams through a random drawing to determine each team’s opponents in the Group Play games. ESPN will announce the six groups – three in each conference – on Friday, July 12.
Before the draw, each team had been placed into a “pot” based on its record from the prior regular season of 2023-24. In each conference, one team from each pot was randomly drawn into each of the three groups in that conference. The pots were as follows:
• Pot 1: The three best prior-season records in a conference.
• Pot 2: The teams with the fourth- through sixth-best prior-season records.
• Pot 3: The teams with the seventh- through ninth-best prior-season records.
• Pot 4: The teams with the 10th-through 12thbest prior-season records.
• Pot 5: The teams with the 13th-through 15th-best prior-season records.
Western Conference
West Group A
Minnesota Timberwolves
LA Clippers
Sacramento Kings
Houston Rockets
Portland Trail Blazers
West Group B
Oklahoma City Thunder
Phoenix Suns
Los Angeles Lakers
Utah Jazz
San Antonio Spurs
West Group C
Denver Nuggets
Dallas Mavericks
New Orleans Pelicans
Golden State Warriors
Memphis Grizzlies
Eastern Conference
East Group A
New York Knicks
Orlando Magic
Philadelphia 76ers
Brooklyn Nets
Charlotte Hornets
East Group B
Milwaukee Bucks
Indiana Pacers
Miami Heat
Toronto Raptors
Detroit Pistons
East Group C
Boston Celtics
Cleveland Cavaliers
Chicago Bulls
Atlanta Hawks
Washington Wizards
> B. Group Play
“Cup Nights” will be every Tuesday and Friday from Nov. 12 – Dec. 3. The only NBA games played on Cup Nights will be Group Play games. Group Play games will count as regular-season-games for all purposes.
One Group Play game will be played between a team and each of the other four teams in its group. The qualification of a team to the Knockout Rounds will be determined by the team’s record in these four intraconference games.
In case of a tie between two or more teams within a group, the tie between the teams will be resolved using the following criteria (in this order):
• Head-to-head record in Group Play;
• Point differential in Group Play; ^^
• Total points scored in Group Play; ^^
• Record from the 2023-24 NBA regular season; and
• Random drawing, in case two or more teams remain tied after all of the above tiebreakers apply.
^^ Overtime scoring will not count toward the point differential and total points tiebreakers in the Emirates NBA Cup. A team’s point differential will be “0” in Group Play games that go to overtime, and a team’s total points scored will exclude points scored in overtime.
Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and one wild card team from each conference. The wild card will be the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group.
In the case of a tie between two or more teams for the wild card in a conference, the tie between the teams is to be broken utilizing the same tiebreaker system as described above – excluding head-to-head record in Group Play. Ties within groups are to be broken before calculation of wild card tiebreakers.
>C. Knockout Rounds
The Knockout Rounds – for the eight teams advancing from Group Play – will be single-elimination games, starting with the Quarterfinals on Dec. 10-11. Winners will advance to the neutral-site Semifinals on Dec. 14 and then the Championship on Dec. 17.
For all purposes, games played in the first and second rounds of the Knockout Rounds-i.e., Quarterfinals and Semifinals, respectively-, will be counted as regular-season-games. The Championship shall not be considered a regularseason game for the purposes of paragraph 1 hereinabove, and the game shall not be included towards a team’s regular-season record, and any player or team performance in said game shall not be taken into consideration for the regular-season statistics.
In each conference, Quarterfinal games will be hosted by the two teams with the best record in Group Play games and the team with the best record in Group Play games hosting the wild card team. In the event two or more teams are tied for the higher seed in a conference, the tie among the teams will be broken following the same tiebreaker protocol as described above.
On days when there is no Emirates NBA Cup action on the scheduled Knockout Rounds dates (Dec. 12-13 and Dec. 15-16), each of the 22 teams not participating in the Knockout Rounds will play a pair of regular season games.
Pairings for those games will be determined by a formulaic process among the teams that finish 5th-15th in each conference’s Group Play standings. Since there will be an odd number of teams in each conference that do not advance to the Quarterfinals, two of the 22 games will be scheduled crossconference. These cross-conference games will be scheduled between bottom-finishing teams in the Group Play stage subject to travel constraints, and no team will play more than one of its two games cross-conference. The other 20 games will be slotted into conference play between teams that are otherwise scheduled to play each other three times over the course of the season where possible. The losing teams from the Quarterfinals in each conference will play each other in a regular-season game on Dec. 12, 13, 15or 16.
III. Prizing and League Honors
The prize pool from the Emirates NBA Cup will be divided among the players in the teams participating in the Knockout Rounds, with allocation increasing the further a team advances in the tournament.
According to NBA rules, a media panel will vote for the Most Valuable Player of the competition and select the All-Tournament Team at the end of the Emirates NBA Cup. Selections shall be based on performance in both Group Play and the Knockout Rounds.
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