What is it?
The NBA Cup is an annual competition that
takes place during the NBA regular season.
It consists of a group stage with all 30
teams, and an eight team single-elimination
knockout round.
How does it work?
The teams in each conference have been
divided up into three groups of five based on
their records from last season. Every team
will play four games against each opponent in
their group. These games will be played on
"Cup Nights", which will take place from
Oct. 31st through Nov. 28th.
In each conference the winner of each group
will advance to the knockout round, along
with the best of the three second place
teams. The tiebreakers are:
- Head-to-head (within group only)
- Point differential
- Total points scored
- Regular season record from previous season
- Random drawing
The top two seeds in each conference will
host the quarterfinal games. The semifinals
and the championship game will be played in
Las Vegas.
Do these games count as regular season games?
The group stage games, the quarterfinals, and
the semifinals all count as normal regular
season games, but the championship does not.
The teams that do not reach the knockout
round will each play two games regular
season games during the off-days of the
knockout round. The losers of the
quarterfinals games in each conference
will also play each other as an additional
regular season game.
This way, every team will end up playing 82
regular season games. The two finalists will
play an 83rd game (the championship), but it
will not count toward their regular season
record.