Which two teams will face off inside Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup?
This summer, the league unveiled the full group stage schedule for this year's in-season tournament, with action taking place every Friday from Oct. 30 to Nov. 27 and on special Cup nights during Thanksgiving week (Nov. 24-25).
After the New York Knicks became the first team to win the NBA Cup and Finals in the same season, can Jalen Brunson & Co. keep their championship run going? They'll have plenty of competition, specifically within the star-studded East Group B.
Here's what you need to know about the in-season tournament, now in its fourth year.
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Schedule | Groups | FAQ
Lakers 124, Blazers 118
Luka's latest 50-ball powers Lakers to Cup win over Blazers
The Los Angeles Lakers' NBA Cup hopes are still alive thanks to Luka Doncic's latest offensive explosion.
Doncic, the NBA's early scoring leader, poured in a season-high 53 points to help Los Angeles defeat the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, marking the sixth time he has topped 40 points and the second time he has reached 50 in the Lakers' first nine games.
After the Lakers fell behind by 16 points in the second quarter, the Slovenian star set the table for their comeback by banking in a 62-foot heave to beat the halftime buzzer. Portland, which shot 10-of-20 on 3-pointers, went cold in the third quarter en route to its second loss of the season.
Doncic has thrived since assuming his new role as the undisputed face of the Lakers following the offseason departure of LeBron James. While the season is still young, he's averaging a career-best 40.1 points per game and is on pace for the highest scoring average since Wilt Chamberlain in 1962-63. The six-time All-Star now ranks fifth among active players with 11 career 50-point games, trailing only James Harden, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard and James.
"[Doncic] is the MVP right now," Blazers coach Micah Nori said during his pregame comments. "Hands down."
Sure enough, the Crypto.com Arena crowd serenaded Doncic with "MVP" chants during the second-half comeback. Austin Reaves added 25 points in the Lakers' win.
With point differential serving as a key tiebreaker to determine which teams advance to the Cup's knockout round, the Lakers badly needed a win over the Blazers after a 17-point loss to the Golden State Warriors in their Cup opener.
Los Angeles, which won the inaugural Cup in 2023-24 and reached the quarterfinals in 2025-26, will seek to advance for the third time during its final Group C games against the San Antonio Spurs and Sacramento Kings later this month.
Lillard and Deni Avdija scored 22 points apiece for the Blazers in their Cup opener. -- Ben Golliver
Cavaliers 119, 76ers 95
LeBron, 76ers fall into NBA Cup hole with blowout loss to Cavaliers
LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers (8-2) have dug themselves a hole they might not be able to climb out of in the NBA Cup's "Group of Death" thanks to a blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.
After beating the defending champion New York Knicks in their Cup opener last week, the 76ers were blown off the court by the Cavaliers in James' first return to Cleveland as a Sixer. The four-time MVP scored a season-low eight points on 3-of-12 shooting as Philadelphia fell to 1-1 in Group B.
Philadelphia, which entered the contest with the NBA's best record, picked a bad time to suffer its worst defeat of the season. Point differential is a key tiebreaker to determine which teams advance to the Cup's knockout round, and the 76ers' 24-point defeat could easily come back to bite them.
The new-look 76ers, who added James and Jaylen Brown during a transformative offseason, were drawn into a challenging Group B that includes the Knicks, Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat. New York and Cleveland faced off in the 2026 Eastern Conference finals, Indiana reached the 2025 Finals and Miami added two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo over the summer. Additionally, the Knicks were 2025-26 Cup champions, and the Pacers reached the 2023-24 Cup final.
James wasn't the only former Cavalier to struggle for the 76ers; Dean Wade, who signed with Philadelphia this summer, went scoreless in 24 minutes off the bench. Meanwhile, 76ers center Joel Embiid scored a season-low six points on 0-of-9 shooting and failed to make at least one field goal for just the second time in his 11-year career.
By contrast, the up-and-down Cavaliers (5-4) picked a good time to score a convincing victory. Donovan Mitchell led the way with a team-high 23 points, and Evan Mobley added 22 points and six rebounds in Cleveland's Cup opener. -- Golliver
2026 Emirates NBA Cup schedule
Group Play
Oct. 30
Nov. 6
Nov. 13
New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers, 7 p.m. ET (Prime)
Milwaukee Bucks at Orlando Magic, 7 p.m. ET
Cleveland Cavaliers at Miami Heat, 8 p.m. ET
Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls, 8 p.m. ET
Memphis Grizzlies at New Orleans Pelicans, 8 p.m. ET
Utah Jazz at Houston Rockets, 8:30 p.m. ET
Golden State Warriors at San Antonio Spurs, 9:30 p.m. ET (Prime)
Portland Trail Blazers at Sacramento Kings, 10 p.m. ET
Oklahoma City Thunder at LA Clippers, 10:30 p.m. ET
Nov. 20
Charlotte Hornets at Atlanta Hawks, 7 p.m. ET
Orlando Magic at Brooklyn Nets, 7:30 p.m. ET
Indiana Pacers at Cleveland Cavaliers, 7:30 p.m. ET
Toronto Raptors at Detroit Pistons, 7:30 p.m. ET (Prime)
Washington Wizards at Chicago Bulls, 8 p.m. ET
New Orleans Pelicans at Oklahoma City Thunder, 8 p.m. ET
Phoenix Suns at Utah Jazz, 9:30 p.m. ET
Houston Rockets at Denver Nuggets, 10 p.m. ET (Prime)
Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Lakers, 10 p.m. ET
Nov. 24
Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic, 7 p.m. ET
Boston Celtics at Washington Wizards, 8 p.m. ET (NBC)
Dallas Mavericks at Denver Nuggets, 10 p.m. ET (NBC)
Nov. 25
Miami Heat at Philadelphia 76ers, 5 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Chicago Bulls at Charlotte Hornets, 7 p.m. ET
Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks, 7:30 p.m. ET
Minnesota Timberwolves at Oklahoma City Thunder, 7:30 p.m. ET
LA Clippers at Memphis Grizzlies, 8 p.m. ET
Brooklyn Nets at Milwaukee Bucks, 8 p.m. ET
Phoenix Suns at Houston Rockets, 8:30 p.m. ET
Sacramento Kings at Golden State Warriors, 10 p.m. ET
San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers, 10 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Nov. 27
Miami Heat at New York Knicks, 7 p.m. ET (Prime)
Milwaukee Bucks at Detroit Pistons, 7:30 p.m. ET
Philadelphia 76ers at Indiana Pacers, 7:30 p.m. ET
Brooklyn Nets at Toronto Raptors, 7:30 p.m. ET
Atlanta Hawks at Boston Celtics, 8 p.m. ET
Memphis Grizzlies at Minnesota Timberwolves, 8:30 p.m. ET
Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns, 9 p.m. ET
Los Angeles Lakers at San Antonio Spurs, 9:30 p.m. ET (Prime)
Denver Nuggets at Utah Jazz, 9:30 p.m. ET
New Orleans Pelicans at LA Clippers, 9:30 p.m. ET
Golden State Warriors at Portland Trail Blazers, 9:30 p.m. ET
Knockout rounds
Dec. 4-5: Quarterfinals
Dec. 8 and/or Dec. 9: Semifinals
Dec. 11: Championship
NBA Cup FAQ: Everything to know
What is the format?
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has had a longstanding fascination with European soccer. Establishing an in-season cup competition within the NBA schedule came from soccer leagues having both a regular-season title, won by the team with the most points over the full year, and a separate tournament (or, in some leagues, multiple tournaments) that runs concurrently with the league season.
In England, for example, there are the various divisions -- led by the Premier League -- and also the FA Cup competition. But unlike those European leagues, which play their cup competitions outside of their league schedules, the NBA Cup is built in to the regular-season slate.
The 30 NBA teams are split into six five-team groups -- three featuring Eastern Conference teams and three comprising Western Conference teams -- with each team then playing one game against the other four in its group. The winner of each group, plus the team with the best record among the non-group winners, advances to the knockout stage of the competition.
How will this impact the regular-season schedule and standings?
Typically, the NBA sends out a full 82-game schedule in mid-August. Now, the league sends out only 80 games and leaves a gap of roughly a week to fill in later, depending on how the group stage of the NBA Cup plays out.
The two teams from the East and West that lose in the quarterfinals will play their 82nd game against each other. Meanwhile, the 22 teams that fail to qualify for the knockout rounds will have their final two games scheduled -- one at home and one on the road against others eliminated in the group stage.
The teams that reach the NBA Cup final will actually play 83 games -- though the championship game won't count toward the standings or any statistical markers. The four teams that reach the semifinals will have completed their 82 games and won't need any other games added to their schedule.
Any team that makes it to the semifinals will have that game moved later in the schedule to avoid back-to-back games. The NBA made this change in an effort to avoid having empty days on the calendar while attempting to minimize back-to-backs for all teams as much as possible.
Where are the semifinals and final being played?
In a shift from previous tournaments, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played at home sites. The Dec. 11 title game, meanwhile, will move from Las Vegas to the storied Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. NBA commissioner Adam Silver previously said the league was searching for "storied college arenas" to play host to the Cup final. (No venue has been announced for 2027.)
Why does the NBA Cup include regular-season games?
Before its launch, one of the main questions surrounding the in-season tournament was why any team would be incentivized to compete in it. The NBA ensured teams will be motivated by making every game part of the season and, as in-conference matchups, potentially important to playoff tiebreakers. If this had been set up like the cup tournaments in European soccer, there would have been nothing stopping NBA teams from opting out by sitting their top players for extra rest.
Which teams make up the groups?
To create the groups, the NBA put the 15 teams in each conference into five pots, separated by their finish last season. Pot 1 included the teams that finished in the top three in the regular-season standings, Nos. 4-6 in the standings went into Pot 2, Nos. 7-9 into Pot 3, Nos. 10-12 into Pot 4 and Nos. 13-15 into Pot 5. As a result, the following groups were drawn:
East Group A
East Group B
East Group C
West Group A
West Group B
West Group C
Does one group stand out the most from the others?
East Group B is a monster.
All five teams -- defending NBA Cup and Finals champion New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Miami and Indiana -- are among the favorites to win the conference in 2026-27. The group stage will also feature reunion games for LeBron James, when the 76ers face the Cavs and Heat. And after guard Tyrese Haliburton missed the entire 2025-26 season while rehabbing a torn Achilles, the Pacers will be back among the East elite and hungry to reach the title game in Indianapolis.
What do players get for winning?
In 2023, the first year the tournament was held, the players on the winning team received $500,000 each and the runners-up got $200,000. The losing players of the semifinals each got $100,000, and those ousted in the quarterfinals got $50,000. Now, in each subsequent year, the prizes will be slightly higher, as a result of negotiated raises year over year to keep pace with increases in the salary cap and basketball-related income as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association.
Will anyone earn individual honors for their play in NBA Cup games?
There will be an MVP award, as well as an all-tournament team.
Will this have any impact on the playoffs?
Not beyond the games counting in the regular-season standings (and toward tiebreakers). The only playoff impact comes from the wins and losses accrued throughout the tournament. Though there was debate among league insiders about guaranteeing a playoff berth for winning the tournament, ultimately that idea (or any other to further incentivize teams) was not enacted.
Why is it called the Emirates NBA Cup?
The league struck a sponsorship deal with Emirates, the Dubai-based airline, to sponsor the tournament after its initial run. The NBA said last year that it went with the most basic titles for both the tournament and its trophy -- the "in-season tournament" and "NBA Cup" -- as a way to introduce the concept to fans. However, using such nondescript names had another clear advantage: It gave the league a blank slate in case it sold the naming rights for the tournament and cup to a sponsor and avoided the complications that could arise by naming them after someone (for example, late NBA commissioner David Stern, one possibility that had been floated before the tournament was officially unveiled).
Previous NBA Cup champions
2025
New York Knicks defeat San Antonio Spurs, 124-113
Tournament MVP: Jalen Brunson, Knicks
2024
Tournament MVP: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
2023
Los Angeles Lakers defeat Indiana Pacers, 123-109
Tournament MVP: LeBron James, Lakers