NBA Cup: schedule, groups, format and playoffs

One month after The NBA officially announced the 'NBA In-Season Tournament', known more colloquially as the NBA Cup, the time has come for the exact schedule of the competition to be made public, as well as those most notable matches that will be broadcast nationally in the United States.

This step, knowing exactly when each match will take place, is the last to certify the preparation of a tournament that will experience its first edition in the 2023-24 season. The NBA Cup will begin on November 3, 2023 and will conclude on December 9, 2023 in Las Vegas.

Regarding the new information communicated by the League, the most notable thing is that the opening day will feature two great games - a Milwaukee Bucks against New York Knicks and a Denver Nugges - Dallas Mavericks - and that every Friday of the month of November and The last three Tuesdays are the days assigned for the group stage matches to be played.

What is the NBA Cup?

The NBA In-Season Tournament, known as the NBA Cup in Spain, is an annual competition that will begin during the 2023-24 campaign and will feature the participation of the 30 teams that make up the NBA.

The format is similar to typical soccer cup tournaments in Europe. The NBA wanted to introduce this new title with two main objectives: to increase competitiveness in the first two months of the regular season and thus attract more fans who can follow both the tournament and the entire NBA season.

NBA Cup calendar: the best games

In the absence of knowing which teams will end up qualifying for the knockout phase of the NBA IN-Season Tournament, the League has marked some games as the most relevant of the competition since they will be the ones that are broadcast nationally in the US. As a curious fact , the team that can be seen the most in this area is Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs, number 1 in the 2023 draft.

Taking a look at these matches, it stands out that on the first night the current champions will play in a stellar European duel between Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, as well as that battles from the last NBA 2023 playoffs will be reissued such as the Warriors – Kings, the Heat – Knicks and the Knicks – Bucks. Here you can consult the complete NBA In-Season Tournament menu with the schedule for North America.

The six groups of the NBA In-Season Tournament

To carry out the distribution of the teams into the six groups of the NBA Cup, and as explained by the League, a method similar to that of the World Cup has been carried out. To be exact, each conference has been divided into five pots according to the previous regular season classification. Pot 1 of the East consisted of the Bucks, Celtics and 76ers. From these seeded teams – both from one conference and the other – the six groups of the championship were shaped. This is how they finally looked:

NBA Cup format and dates

As is done in the NBA, the teams from the East and West will not meet in the new tournament until its final, thus maintaining what is a tradition that has never been broken. By the way, while the quarterfinal phase takes place, the remaining 22 teams will play two matches of regular season on December 6 and 8.

First phase in November

The first phase of the tournament, the group phase, will consist of four matches in which each team will play a match against the other four in its group. To do this, the NBA has selected these seven dates in the month of November: 3, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24 and 28, a combination of four Fridays and three Tuesdays.

Knockout stage: quarterfinals in December

Once the first phase matches have concluded, the winner of each group will advance to the knockout round. The eight-team field will be filled with the best team from each conference that did not finish first in a group. With the qualifiers certified, the quarterfinal matches will take place on December 4 and 5.

Semifinals and final in Las Vegas in December

After these matches, the tournament will move to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the semifinals will be played on December 7 and the final on the 9th of the same month.

Prizes

It has been one of the conflicting points of the new NBA setup for a long time and has now been definitively explained. Each player who wins the NBA Cup will pocket $500.000; those who lose the final will receive 200.000; those who remain in the semifinals 100.000 and those who do not advance to the quarterfinals, 50.000.

Finally, it has been decided that the prizes do not go beyond the economic sphere. At the time, there was speculation about rewarding the players with other incentives, even with the winning team achieving a place in the playoffs. Such options have been discarded.

The NBA Cup champion trophy

The NBA Cup trophy was presented to society at the same time as the tournament became official. With several NBA players such as Trae Young, Anthony Edwards or Cade Cunningham and coach Steve Kerr on stage, we saw for the first time a trophy that has not been given any special name for now, understanding that this great change must be established in through clear and direct words. “We decided that, at least in the early years, you're trying to establish something from scratch and build understanding. So, we felt that the literal terms were the most resonant in the market,” said Evan Wash, NBA executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics.

How does the tournament influence the season classification?

All NBA teams maintain the usual 82-game regular season, with all games in the first phase of the NBA Tournament, quarterfinals and semifinals counting towards the regular season standings. The only exception is the match corresponding to the grand final on December 9. This last game will not count for the regular season classification since it will be the 83rd match played by the two teams that make it this far.

Each League franchise currently has two games pending to be defined in its 2023-24 regular season schedule and which will not be known until the beginning of December. These two matches will be defined like this:

• The 22 teams that do not qualify for the quarterfinal stage (December 4 and 5) will play two regular season games against each other during two days of that week (December 6 and 8).
• The 8 teams that qualify for the quarterfinal phase will add one match in that tie. The losers of those quarterfinal matches will also play each other on December 8. The winners of those quarterfinal matches will play a match in the semifinals.

Further information:

• The official announcement of the NBA Cup.
• The presentation of the trophy in July 2023.
• New court designs
• The NBA Tournament, an idea that has been brewing since at least 2019.

(Photo by Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)