2025 NBA Cup

The 2025 NBA Cup (known as the Emirates NBA Cup for sponsorship reasons) was a multi-stage basketball tournament held as part of the 2025–26 NBA season. It was the third edition of the NBA Cup. All 30 teams participated, each playing four regular season games that counted towards the tournament's group stage standings. All games in the knockout round, except for the championship game, also counted towards the regular season standings. The tournament's semifinals and championship game were played at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Milwaukee Bucks were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage by the New York Knicks, who would go on to beat the San Antonio Spurs in the championship game to win their first NBA Cup. The NBA Finals at the end of this season would feature a rematch of this championship game to become the first teams to face each other in both the NBA Cup and the NBA Finals in the same season; and it was also a rematch of the 1999 Finals. The Knicks went on to defeat the Spurs in that Finals for the league championship, making them the first team to win both the NBA Cup and the Larry O'Brien Trophy in the same season.

Format

In the group stage, each conference was divided into three groups with five teams each, for a total of six groups. Regular season games played on Tuesdays and Fridays between October 12 and November 28 counted in the regular season standings and the NBA Cup standings. Each team played one game against each of the other teams in its group, for a total of four games (two at home and two on the road).

If two or more teams in a group had equal records upon completion of group play, the following tiebreakers applied in this order: Head-to-head record in the group stage Point differential in the group stage (excluding overtime) Total points scored in the group stage (excluding overtime) Regular season record from the 2024–25 regular season Random drawing

Note: Overtime scoring did not count towards the point differential and total points tiebreakers in the Emirates NBA Cup. A team's point differential was "0" in Group Play games that went to overtime, and a team's total points scored excluded points scored in overtime.

Each group's winner then advanced to the knockout stage, and one wild card from each conference—the group runner-up with the best group stage record. The knockout stage was a single-elimination tournament. Quarterfinal games were played in local NBA markets on December 9 and 10, with the teams with the top two group stage records in each conference hosting, and the best team in group-play games hosted the wild-card team. The semifinals were played on December 13, and the championship on December 16. The final two rounds were played at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip.

Quarterfinal and semifinal games counted as regular season games, affecting teams' positions in league standings, but the championship game did not. Statistics from the championship game were also not counted in regular season totals.

To balance the regular season, the teams that did not make the knockout stage played two additional consolation games on December 11 or 12 and 14 or 15, against each other in the same conference, while teams that were eliminated in the quarterfinals played one additional consolation game against each other (from the same conference) on December 14 or 15.

While the knockout stage was played, the 22 teams that did not qualify for the knockout stage each played two additional regular season games, one home and one away, to complete each team's 82 game regular season schedule. Among these 22 total matchups, 20 were intra-conference games, with an attempt by the league to schedule as many pairs of teams that were originally scheduled to only play each other three times during the regular season. The other two matchups were interconference games, as there was an odd number of teams in each conference (11). These two interconference matchups featured four of the six teams that finished last in their respective group.

Prize money Players on teams advancing to the knockout stage received prize money as follows: Players on teams that lost in the quarterfinals: $51,497 each Players on teams that lost in the semifinals: $102,994 each Players on the tournament runner-up team: $205,988 each Players on the tournament championship team: $514,971 each

Draw

Pots Teams were allocated into five pots per conference based on the 2024–25 regular season standings. Pot 1 contained the teams with the top three regular season records in each conference, while Pot 2 contained the teams with the fourth- to sixth-best records and so forth, concluding with Pot 5, which contained the teams with the bottom three (thirteenth through fifteenth) records.

+ Pot # Team Record W L 1 1 Cleveland Cavaliers 2 Boston Celtics 3 New York Knicks 2 4 Indiana Pacers 5 Milwaukee Bucks 6 Detroit Pistons 3 7 Orlando Magic 8 Atlanta Hawks 9 Chicago Bulls 4 10 Miami Heat 11 Toronto Raptors 12 Brooklyn Nets 5 13 Philadelphia 76ers 14 Charlotte Hornets 15 Washington Wizards

+Western Conference in the 2025 NBA Cup Pot # Team Record W L 1 1 Oklahoma City Thunder 2 Houston Rockets 3 Los Angeles Lakers 2 4 Denver Nuggets 5 Los Angeles Clippers 6 Minnesota Timberwolves 3 7 Golden State Warriors 8 Memphis Grizzlies 9 Sacramento Kings 4 10 Dallas Mavericks 11 Phoenix Suns 12 Portland Trail Blazers 5 13 San Antonio Spurs 14 New Orleans Pelicans 15 Utah Jazz

Draw results The groups were revealed on July 9, 2025.

+ Eastern Conference Group A Group B Group C1Cleveland Cavaliers2Boston Celtics3New York Knicks4Indiana Pacers6Detroit Pistons5Milwaukee Bucks8Atlanta Hawks7Orlando Magic9Chicago Bulls11Toronto Raptors12Brooklyn Nets10Miami Heat15Washington Wizards13Philadelphia 76ers14Charlotte Hornets + Western Conference Group A Group B Group C1Oklahoma City Thunder3Los Angeles Lakers2Houston Rockets6Minnesota Timberwolves5Los Angeles Clippers4Denver Nuggets9Sacramento Kings8Memphis Grizzlies7Golden State Warriors11Phoenix Suns10Dallas Mavericks12Portland Trail Blazers15Utah Jazz14New Orleans Pelicans13San Antonio Spurs

Group stage East group A