The 2026 NBA Cup begins Friday, October 30, with all 30 teams playing four group-stage games. Six group winners and one wild-card team from each conference will advance to the knockout rounds. The championship is scheduled for Friday, December 11, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The tournament does not replace the regular season. Every Cup game except the championship also counts in the NBA standings.
2026 NBA Cup groups
The NBA divided each conference into three five-team groups. The draw used five record-based pots, preventing all of the previous season’s highest finishers from landing together.
| Group | Teams |
|---|---|
| East Group A | Brooklyn Nets, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors |
| East Group B | Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers |
| East Group C | Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards |
| West Group A | Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz |
| West Group B | Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder |
| West Group C | Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs |
Each team faces the other four teams in its group once, playing twice at home and twice on the road. Those four results—not a team’s full regular-season record—determine its Cup position.
Key dates
- Group Play: October 30; November 6, 13, 20, 24, 25 and 27
- Quarterfinals: December 4–5
- Semifinals: December 8 and/or December 9
- Championship: December 11
Most group games will be played on five consecutive Fridays. The schedule also includes Cup Nights on Tuesday, November 24, and Wednesday, November 25. Only Cup games will be played around the league on designated Cup Nights.
Nationally televised Group Play games
Fifteen of the 60 group games are scheduled for national coverage. Times are Eastern.
Friday, October 30 — Prime Video
- New York Knicks at Philadelphia 76ers, 7:30 p.m.
- Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors, 10 p.m.
Friday, November 6 — Prime Video
- Philadelphia 76ers at Cleveland Cavaliers, 7:30 p.m.
- Portland Trail Blazers at Los Angeles Lakers, 10 p.m.
Friday, November 13 — Prime Video
- New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers, 7 p.m.
- Golden State Warriors at San Antonio Spurs, 9:30 p.m.
Friday, November 20 — Prime Video
- Toronto Raptors at Detroit Pistons, 7:30 p.m.
- Houston Rockets at Denver Nuggets, 10 p.m.
Tuesday, November 24 — NBC and Peacock
- Boston Celtics at Washington Wizards, 8 p.m. on NBC and Peacock
- Dallas Mavericks at Denver Nuggets, 10 p.m. on Peacock
Wednesday, November 25 — ESPN
- Miami Heat at Philadelphia 76ers, 5 p.m.
- Minnesota Timberwolves at Oklahoma City Thunder, 7:30 p.m.
- San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers, 10 p.m.
Friday, November 27 — Prime Video
- Miami Heat at New York Knicks, 7 p.m.
- Los Angeles Lakers at San Antonio Spurs, 9:30 p.m.
The remaining Group Play games are available through NBA League Pass. All knockout-round games will stream on Prime Video.
How teams qualify for the knockout rounds
Winning a group guarantees advancement. That produces six quarterfinalists—three from each conference. The best second-place team in the East and the best second-place team in the West claim the two wild cards.
With only four games per team, ties are likely. Within a group, the NBA breaks them in this order:
- Head-to-head Group Play result
- Group Play point differential
- Total points scored in Group Play
- Record during the 2025-26 regular season
- Random drawing
The wild-card comparison uses the same sequence except for head-to-head record, because the second-place teams may come from different groups and may not have played one another.
There is an important overtime wrinkle. If a Group Play game reaches overtime, the NBA assigns both teams a zero point differential for that game. Points scored during overtime are also excluded from the total-points tiebreaker. A team therefore cannot improve its tiebreaker margin by running up the score during an extra period.
Point differential still creates a strategic difference from an ordinary November finish. When a regulation game is decided but Cup qualification remains unsettled, the final margin can matter across the conference. Coaches must balance that incentive against normal late-game priorities such as workload, injury risk and sportsmanship.
How the knockout rounds work
The quarterfinals and semifinals are single-elimination games played in NBA arenas. In each conference, the two highest-seeded qualifiers host quarterfinals, and the top seed hosts the wild card. The higher seed also hosts the conference semifinal.
The two conference winners then meet at Hinkle Fieldhouse for the championship. Players on every knockout-round team receive prize-pool allocations, with the amount increasing as their team advances.
Why every team’s schedule includes two TBD games
The league cannot set every December matchup until it knows which teams reach the knockout rounds. That is why each team’s initial regular-season schedule contains two games marked TBD.
Quarterfinals and semifinals fill those slots for teams that advance. The 22 teams eliminated in Group Play will instead receive two regular-season games during the knockout window. Quarterfinal losers also receive an additional matchup so every team ultimately completes an 82-game regular season.
The championship is the lone exception. It is an extra game outside the regular season, so its result does not affect the standings and its player and team performances do not count toward regular-season statistics.
Fan reactions
Fan Thread
1 comment from readers.
The point-differential tiebreaker is the part that makes these games feel different. A team up 10 with 40 seconds left may still care about getting a clean catch and using the whole possession, while the defense has to keep helping and rotating like the game is close. The scoreboard can say “over” before the Cup math does.