The groups and Group Play schedule have been confirmed for the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup.
All 30 NBA teams have been placed into six groups of five, with three groups in each conference. Every team will play four Group Play games, facing each of the other teams in its group once.
Group Play begins on October 30 and concludes on November 27, with eight teams advancing to the knockout rounds.
The quarterfinals will be played on December 4 and 5, followed by the semifinals on December 8 and/or 9.
The NBA Cup Championship will take place on December 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Lean Edge Thoughts...
The NBA Cup is entering its fourth season, and one thing has become increasingly clear.
The draw matters.
Four games leave almost no room for a slow start. One defeat can put enormous pressure on the remaining schedule, while point differential can become decisive when teams finish with identical records.
That makes some of this year's groups considerably more interesting than others.
West Group A immediately stands out.
Denver, Houston, Phoenix and Dallas all bring very different roster constructions into the competition, creating a group where there should be very few comfortable nights.
Houston visiting Denver on November 20 is particularly interesting.
A short tournament rewards teams capable of treating an ordinary regular-season game with something closer to playoff intensity, and both teams should have reason to take that matchup seriously.
West Group C provides the star power.
The Lakers open their Cup campaign at Golden State on October 30, putting Luka Dončić against Stephen Curry in one of the first showcase games of the tournament.
The same group also contains San Antonio.
That produces another major matchup on the final night of Group Play when the Lakers visit Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs on November 27.
The Eastern Conference has its own heavyweight group.
East Group B contains New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami and Indiana.
That means the reigning NBA Cup champion Knicks have been placed alongside several teams with realistic ambitions of making deep postseason runs.
Miami's trip to New York on the final night could be particularly significant, with Giannis Antetokounmpo facing Jalen Brunson and the defending champions at Madison Square Garden.
Philadelphia also adds another layer of intrigue.
LeBron James returns to Cleveland on November 6 as a member of the 76ers, turning an NBA Cup group game into one of the more notable individual storylines of the early season.
The format itself continues to create something the NBA wanted when the tournament was introduced: consequences during the first two months of the regular season.
Every Group Play game still counts towards the normal regular-season standings, but the Cup gives those games a second purpose.
Point differential strengthens that effect.
Teams cannot necessarily coast through the final minutes of a comfortable win because every additional basket could affect qualification later.
That has occasionally produced unusual late-game situations, but it also ensures the tournament cannot be approached like a conventional November schedule.
There is another significant change this year.
The championship game moves away from Las Vegas and will instead be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Using one of American basketball's most historic arenas gives the final a very different identity.
Ultimately, the NBA Cup still has to earn its place in basketball culture.
Winning it does not carry the weight of an NBA championship, and it probably never will.
It does not need to.
If the tournament can consistently create meaningful games, unusual matchups and genuine competitive pressure before Christmas, it is doing something the ordinary regular-season schedule often struggles to achieve at that time of year.
LEAN EDGE VERDICT: The NBA Cup works best when the draw produces games that feel bigger than their place on an October or November calendar. This year's schedule has plenty of them. East Group B looks particularly unforgiving, while Lakers-Warriors, Lakers-Spurs and Houston-Denver give the West immediate intrigue. The Cup does not need to imitate the playoffs to justify itself. It simply needs to make early-season basketball matter a little more.
