Imagine sitting down on the edge of your couch watching an NBA Cup game that has playoff-like intensity. This is what the Emirates NBA Cup generates. It is an annual basketball tournament that occurs during the regular season. It was first introduced in 2023 with the Los Angeles Lakers becoming the inaugural champions. It consists of two stages: Group Play and Knockout Rounds. All 30 teams are randomly drawn into groups of five within their conference based on the win-loss records from the previous season. Each team plays four designated group stage games with two at home and two on the road keeping in mind they count as regular-season-games too. Eight teams advance to the knockout stage: the winners of each of the six groups and two “wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record in group stage games that finished second in its group).
With the group play in the books, the quarterfinals arrived. The Bucks knocked out the Magic on December 10th in the first quarterfinal game in a five-point win against a shorthanded Orlando squad. OKC followed it up with a comfortable win against the Mavericks. The following day, the Hawks knocked out the Knicks with an upset victory at MSG. That sameNow, just four teams remain with their sights set on Las Vegas, where the semifinals will be held on Saturday, December 14th. The Bucks will meet the Hawks in the first semi-final with Oklahoma taking on the Rockets later in the evening. The winners of those match-ups will play the championship game on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC. The winning team will also leave with a juicy $500,000 for everyone. At the conclusion of the final, a media panel will select the Most Valuable Player of the competition and the All-Tournament Team. Selection will be based on the players’ performance in both Group Play and the Knockout Rounds.
That championship game will be the only one in the entire tournament that won’t count toward teams’ regular-season record and statistics. For those two teams, it will count as Game 83 since the regular season consists of only 82 games. Stay tuned!