The group stage of the NBA Cup was completed on Friday, determining the matchups for the knockout round.
In the East, Group B winner — the Magic — captured the No. 1 seed. The Raptors, the Group A victor, snared the No. 2 seed with the Knicks, who emerged from Group C, in the No. 3 slot. The Heat earned the wild card bid and No. 4 seed.
On the West side, the Thunder grabbed the No. 1 seed after taking Group A. The Lakers, who won Group B, got the No. 2 seed with the Spurs, the Group C winner, nailing down the No. 3 seed. The Suns collected the wild card bid and No. 4 seed.
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Here is the knockout round schedule, per NBA.com:
Quarterfinals
- December 9
- No. 4 Heat at No. 1 Magic (6:00 p.m. ET)
- No. 3 Knicks at No. 2 Raptors (8:30 p.m. ET)
- December 10
- No. 4 Suns at No. 1 Thunder (7:30 p.m. ET)
- No. 3 Spurs at No. 2 Lakers (10:00 p.m. ET)
Semifinals
Saturday, Dec. 13 (Las Vegas)
Championship
Tuesday, Dec. 16 (Las Vegas)
Meanwhile, the 22 teams who did not advance to the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup have each had two regular season games added to their initial 80 to fill that mid-December gap on their schedules.
Here are the newly added games for those clubs, according to the league:
December 11:
- L.A. Clippers at Houston Rockets
- Boston Celtics at Milwaukee Bucks
- Portland Trail Blazers at New Orleans Pelicans
- Denver Nuggets at Sacramento Kings
December 12:
- Chicago Bulls at Charlotte Hornets
- Atlanta Hawks at Detroit Pistons
- Indiana Pacers at Philadelphia 76ers
- Cleveland Cavaliers at Washington Wizards
- Utah Jazz at Memphis Grizzlies
- Brooklyn Nets at Dallas Mavericks
- Minnesota Timberwolves at Golden State Warriors
December 14:
- Washington Wizards at Indiana Pacers
- Philadelphia 76ers at Atlanta Hawks
- Charlotte Hornets at Cleveland Cavaliers
- Milwaukee Bucks at Brooklyn Nets
- Sacramento Kings at Minnesota Timberwolves
- Golden State Warriors at Portland Trail Blazers
December 15:
- Detroit Pistons at Boston Celtics
- New Orleans Pelicans at Chicago Bulls
- Dallas Mavericks at Utah Jazz
- Houston Rockets at Denver Nuggets
- Memphis Grizzlies at L.A. Clippers
Regular season games for NBA Cup quarterfinalists:
- If Toronto and Orlando advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the Miami at New York game will be played on Dec. 14
- If Toronto and Miami advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the Orlando at New York game will be played on Dec. 14
- If New York and Orlando advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the Toronto at Miami game will be played on Dec. 15
- If New York and Miami advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the Toronto at Orlando game will be played on Dec. 15
- If San Antonio and Oklahoma City advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the L.A. Lakers at Phoenix game will be played on Dec. 14
- If San Antonio and Phoenix advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the L.A. Lakers at Oklahoma City game will be played on Dec. 14
- If L.A. Lakers and Oklahoma City advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the Phoenix at San Antonio game will be played on Dec. 15
- If L.A. Lakers and Phoenix advance to the NBA Cup Semifinals, the Oklahoma City at San Antonio game will be played on Dec. 15
I like the NBA Cup but I don’t like that a few teams will have unequal home-road splits, and a few teams will play each other a fifth time. O well
I think Orlando will win the East, and, of course, OKC will win the West. It will be a good final game but in the end, I can see OkC winning the cup and a back-to-back championship this year.
The “November champions cup” lol what a joke
Damn Davey, how did your warriors miss the cup? Golden state not looking so good. Makes a lot of your trash talking before the season look pretty foolish.
Ah yes, my “trash talking” in saying the Kings are garbage and run bad. That remains…true. “Looking foolish” doesn’t matter at all if the person calling the other person a fool is one themselves.
Steph Curry is on fire, Kerr is purposely playing lineups that cannot win in this league. Hard to win when your coach hates winning and has even said so. You would know about this if you werent some low rent troll.
Also: fans are allowed to talk trash. What you are doing is whataboutism, which is entirely worthless to any discourse, as proven throughout history. You are butt hurt about whatever I said, and that emotional response is driving your posting. It also proves you have no taste, style, or fandom. Says more about you than anything, really. You have proven time and time again you do not care about basketball and NBA rumors discourse and its more about “proving posters wrong”, which violates TOS. Enjoy your muting, you are worthless to me. If you say anything to me after muting, everyone will know you are a coward.
Stay out of my mentions, you don’t matter to me, troll!
Saudi Emirates Cup feels like a distraction and cheapens the game—but hey, Silver and his agenda driven banking buddies can squeeze more for themselves.
How are they squeezing anything for themselves. When it’s ONE extra game (83) for the two teams in Finals.
They do get extra money by hosting in Vegas and selling the viewing rights.
Yeah … most of that goes to the teams. I mean for the league it’s all marketing and selling their product. It’s one extra game. I just don’t get the criticism. One extra game that players get well compensated for.
Thunder have to be favored to win it. Magic are playing well. Knicks should be 100% by then. Spurs and Lakers playing well. I like these teams. All playing well right now. For all the young players and minimum contract players. This is a nice check to cash. …
“Players on the team that wins the NBA Cup final receive $530,933 each, while players on the losing team in the final get $212,373 each. This is part of the larger prize money distribution for the knockout rounds, with smaller amounts for teams eliminated in the semifinals ($106,187) and quarterfinals ($53,093).”
Since OKC has only lost 1 game, agreed they’re the favorites. That said, they’re due for a loss, and the Lakers and east winner could beat them (they barely outlasted the Suns last night by 4 pts.
OKC please treat the cup like a wtf is this if you win.
The east is so awful when your top seed is the magic. Still love to see Suggs guard SGA and all his flailing flops.