NBA In-Season Tournament Announces Rebranded Name, New Team Groups

The 2024-25 NBA In-Season Tournament is slated to reinvigorate the regular season for the second straight year — with a few key changes.

The event is now re-branding itself as the Emirates NBA Cup, as the league announced in a recent press statement.

The group play stage will tip off with “Cup Nights” on November 12, 15, 22, 26, and 29, as well as December 3. Each of the 30 current NBA teams is split into six groups of five, dictated by their relative finish in 2023-24. Groups will all include one club that had a top-three record in its conference, a team that was between a No. 4 and No. 6 seed, etc. All teams within each group will play their fellow group members once during this phase of play.

There will be three group winners, plus one wild card finisher, in each of the two conferences. Following the group play stage, these top eight squads will move on to a single-game elimination knockout round, which will happen on December 10 and 11. The victors will then move on to Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, last year’s location, for a semifinal round on December 14, followed by a December 17 final.

Each of the 22 squads to miss the knockout round phase, meanwhile, will suit up for a home and a road game, on December 12-13 and December 15-16. Losers of the quarterfinal knockout round will face off against each other.

During the first-ever In-Season Tournament championship matchup last fall, Anthony Davis’ Los Angeles Lakers vanquished Tyrese Haliburton’s Indiana Pacers, 123-109, behind the All-NBA center’s 41 points and 20 boards.

The league just announced its six groups for this year’s festivities, via a press statement on Friday.

• Western Conference Group A: Minnesota Timberwolves, L.A. Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers
• West Group B: Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs
• West Group C: Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies
• Eastern Conference Group A: New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Charlotte Hornets
• East Group B: Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons
• East Group C: Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards

Aware that processing the exact breakdown of matchups during the group play stage could get convoluted, the NBA’s PR team has released a helpful bracket for fans.

The Boston Celtics, the reigning NBA champions, ran roughshod through the postseason, with a stupendous 16-3 record in the playoffs. On paper, their path to an Emirates Cup final seems fairly easy, especially with the lowly Bulls, Hawks, and Wizards in their group. But the single-game elimination element in the later rounds could inject some randomness into the proceedings, as it did last season with the Lakers’ frisky run to the title.

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