NBA In-Season Tournament Announces Rebranded Name, New Team Groups
July 13, 2024
4,824
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.
In-Season Tournament trophy before the game between the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on December 18, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. This year’s In-Season Tournament is undergoing some changes. In-Season Tournament trophy before the game between the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on December 18, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. This year’s In-Season Tournament is undergoing some changes. Harry How/Getty Images
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.
More News: NBA Poised to Leave TNT in Massive New Media Rights Deal: Report
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Um die besten Erfahrungen zu bieten, verwenden wir Technologien wie Cookies, um Geräteinformationen zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen. Wenn Sie diesen Technologien zustimmen, können wir Daten wie das Surfverhalten oder eindeutige IDs auf dieser Website verarbeiten. Die Nichteinwilligung oder der Widerruf der Einwilligung kann bestimmte Merkmale und Funktionen beeinträchtigen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
