The NBA has officially announced the six groups of five teams apiece for the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup, also known as the in-season tournament (Twitter link).
In order to set the groups, the league splits the Western and Eastern Conferences into five three-team tiers based on last season’s regular season standings, with one club from each tier randomly drawn into each of the conference’s three groups.
For instance, the top three teams from the West will all be in separate groups, with each of those three groups also featuring one team in the 4-6 range, one in the 7-9 range, and so on.
Here are the groups for the 2025 NBA Cup:
- West Group A: Oklahoma City Thunder (1), Minnesota Timberwolves (6), Sacramento Kings (9), Phoenix Suns (11), Utah Jazz (15)
- West Group B: Los Angeles Lakers (3), Los Angeles Clippers (5), Memphis Grizzlies (8), Dallas Mavericks (10), New Orleans Pelicans (14)
- West Group C: Houston Rockets (2), Denver Nuggets (4), Golden State Warriors (7), Portland Trail Blazers (12), San Antonio Spurs (13)
- East Group A: Cleveland Cavaliers (1), Indiana Pacers (4), Atlanta Hawks (8), Toronto Raptors (11), Washington Wizards (15)
- East Group B: Boston Celtics (2), Detroit Pistons (6), Orlando Magic (7), Brooklyn Nets (12), Philadelphia 76ers (13)
- East Group C: New York Knicks (3), Milwaukee Bucks (5), Chicago Bulls (9), Miami Heat (10), Charlotte Hornets (14)
The round-robin group play games will be starting a little earlier than usual this season and will run from October 31 to November 28. Each team will face the other four clubs in its group once, with the winners of each group and one wild card team from each conference advancing to the eight-team, single-elimination knockout round.
The full schedule of group play games can be viewed right here.
The quarterfinals will be played on December 9-10, with the semifinals and final to follow on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16, respectively, in Las Vegas. The knockout round games will all be aired by one of the NBA’s new broadcasting partners, Amazon Prime.
The Bucks won last season’s NBA Cup, with star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo earning MVP honors after leading Milwaukee to a victory over the Thunder in the championship game.
East A is a bloodbath
West C as well
West A and West C go WAY harder than East A, who have the crappy Wizards…what a joke
Calling east A a bloodbath is…something
Definitely one of the quotes of all time
Wow I forgot about the NBA Cup entirely
There’s gunna be 3 bad teams in the West and 3 good teams in the East this season. Maybe the worst disparity in decades, in a league that has had this disparity for decades now too.
Why does the East always suck? Where are the 48 win teams who miss the playoffs in the East? Never happened in the last 2+ decades, but happened to GSW in 07/08.
If only the NBA already had six convenient groups of five
I thought that west group b in west would be the more closer interesting group. Could see anyone but Pels winning.
Group A should come down to thunder or t Wolves.
Group C should come down to Rockets or Nuggets…with Spurs an interesting rough bet
Another interesting group is east B, due to Boston taking steps back. This one is up for grabs, even Philly may have a shot IF Embiid healthy.
Fetch is never gonna happen Silver.