2025 NBA Cup

2025 NBA Cup

The 2025 NBA Cup (known as the Emirates NBA Cup for sponsorship reasons) was a multi-stage basketball tournament held as part of the 2025–26 NBA season. It was the third edition of the NBA Cup. All 30 teams participated, each playing four regular season games that counted towards the tournament's group stage standings. All games in the knockout round, except for the championship game, also counted towards the regular season standings. The tournament's semifinals and championship game were played at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Milwaukee Bucks were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage by the New York Knicks, who would go on to beat the San Antonio Spurs in the championship game to win their first NBA Cup.

Format

2025 NBA Cup

Panoramic view of the NBA Cup court of the Dallas Mavericks as seen during their West Group B game against the Los Angeles Clippers on November 14 at American Airlines Center.

In the group stage, each conference was divided into three groups with five teams each, for a total of six groups. Regular season games played on Tuesdays and Fridays between October 12 and November 28 counted in the regular season standings and the NBA Cup standings. Each team played one game against each of the other teams in its group, for a total of four games (two at home and two on the road).

If two or more teams in a group had equal records upon completion of group play, the following tiebreakers applied in this order:

• Head-to-head record in the group stage • Point differential in the group stage (excluding overtime) • Total points scored in the group stage (excluding overtime) • Regular season record from the 2024–25 regular season • Random drawing

Note: Overtime scoring did not count towards the point differential and total points tiebreakers in the Emirates NBA Cup. A team's point differential was "0" in Group Play games that went to overtime, and a team's total points scored excluded points scored in overtime.

T-Mobile Arena in 2020

Each group's winner then advanced to the knockout stage, and one wild card from each conference—the group runner-up with the best group stage record. The knockout stage was a single-elimination tournament. Quarterfinal games were played in local NBA markets on December 9 and 10, with the teams with the top two group stage records in each conference hosting, and the best team in group-play games hosted the wild-card team. The semifinals were played on December 13, and the championship on December 16. The final two rounds were played at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip.

Quarterfinal and semifinal games counted as regular season games, affecting teams' positions in league standings, but the championship game did not. Statistics from the championship game were also not counted in regular season totals.

To balance the regular season, the teams that did not make the knockout stage played two additional consolation games on December 11 or 12 and 14 or 15, against each other in the same conference, while teams that were eliminated in the quarterfinals played one additional consolation game against each other (from the same conference) on December 14 or 15.

While the knockout stage was played, the 22 teams that did not qualify for the knockout stage each played two additional regular season games, one home and one away, to complete each team's 82 game regular season schedule. Among these 22 total matchups, 20 were intra-conference games, with an attempt by the league to schedule as many pairs of teams that were originally scheduled to only play each other three times during the regular season. The other two matchups were interconference games, as there was an odd number of teams in each conference (11). These two interconference matchups featured four of the six teams that finished last in their respective group.

Prize money

Players on teams advancing to the knockout stage received prize money as follows:

• Players on teams that lost in the quarterfinals: $51,497 each • Players on teams that lost in the semifinals: $102,994 each • Players on the tournament runner-up team: $205,988 each • Players on the tournament championship team: $514,971 each

Draw

Pots

Teams were allocated into five pots per conference based on the 2024–25 regular season standings. Pot 1 contained the teams with the top three regular season records in each conference, while Pot 2 contained the teams with the fourth- to sixth-best records and so forth, concluding with Pot 5, which contained the teams with the bottom three (thirteenth through fifteenth) records.

Draw results

Group A	Group B	Group C
1	Cleveland Cavaliers	2	Boston Celtics	3	New York Knicks
4	Indiana Pacers	6	Detroit Pistons	5	Milwaukee Bucks
8	Atlanta Hawks	7	Orlando Magic	9	Chicago Bulls
11	Toronto Raptors	12	Brooklyn Nets	10	Miami Heat
15	Washington Wizards	13	Philadelphia 76ers	14	Charlotte Hornets

Group A	Group B	Group C
1	Oklahoma City Thunder	3	Los Angeles Lakers	2	Houston Rockets
6	Minnesota Timberwolves	5	Los Angeles Clippers	4	Denver Nuggets
9	Sacramento Kings	8	Memphis Grizzlies	7	Golden State Warriors
11	Phoenix Suns	10	Dallas Mavericks	12	Portland Trail Blazers
15	Utah Jazz	14	New Orleans Pelicans	13	San Antonio Spurs

Group stage

East group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Toronto Raptors	4	4	0	458	403	+55	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Atlanta Hawks	4	2	2	468	472	−4
3	Cleveland Cavaliers	4	2	2	492	466	+26
4	Indiana Pacers	4	1	3	431	431	0
5	Washington Wizards	4	1	3	443	520	−77

East group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Orlando Magic	4	4	0	484	420	+64	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Boston Celtics	4	2	2	441	458	−17
3	Detroit Pistons	4	2	2	462	441	+21
4	Philadelphia 76ers	4	1	3	431	470	−39
5	Brooklyn Nets	4	1	3	421	450	−29

East group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	New York Knicks	4	3	1	512	477	+35	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Miami Heat	4	3	1	507	458	+49
3	Milwaukee Bucks	4	2	2	467	463	+4
4	Charlotte Hornets	4	1	3	461	500	−39
5	Chicago Bulls	4	1	3	468	517	−49

West group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Oklahoma City Thunder	4	4	0	512	437	+75	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Phoenix Suns	4	3	1	463	432	+31
3	Minnesota Timberwolves	4	2	2	479	434	+45
4	Utah Jazz	4	1	3	433	518	−85
5	Sacramento Kings	4	0	4	430	496	−66

West group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Los Angeles Lakers	4	4	0	499	453	+46	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Memphis Grizzlies	4	3	1	464	450	+14
3	Los Angeles Clippers	4	2	2	465	485	−20
4	Dallas Mavericks	4	1	3	455	476	−21
5	New Orleans Pelicans	4	0	4	465	484	−19

West group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	San Antonio Spurs	4	3	1	483	457	+26	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Denver Nuggets	4	2	2	484	461	+23
3	Houston Rockets	4	2	2	463	449	+14
4	Portland Trail Blazers	4	2	2	454	485	−31
5	Golden State Warriors	4	1	3	436	468	−32

Ranking of wild card teams

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Miami Heat	4	3	1	507	458	+49	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Atlanta Hawks	4	2	2	468	472	−4
3	Boston Celtics	4	2	2	441	458	−17

Western Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Phoenix Suns	4	3	1	463	432	+31	Advanced to knockout rounds
2	Memphis Grizzlies	4	3	1	464	450	+14
3	Denver Nuggets	4	2	2	484	461	+23

Knockout rounds

Bracket

	Quarterfinals		Semifinals		Championship game
	December 9 – Orlando, FL
	1Orlando	117
	December 13 – Las Vegas, NV
	4Miami	108
	1Orlando	120
	December 9 – Toronto, ON
		3New York	132
	2Toronto	101
		December 16 – Las Vegas, NV
	3New York	117
	3New York	124
	December 10 – Oklahoma City, OK
		3San Antonio	113
	1Oklahoma City	138
	December 13 – Las Vegas, NV
	4Phoenix	89
	1Oklahoma City	109
	December 10 – Los Angeles, CA
		3San Antonio	111
	2LA Lakers	119
	3San Antonio	132

Quarterfinals

Note: Times are Eastern Standard Time (UTC−5) as listed by the NBA. If the venue is located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.

Championship game

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>0</th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Starters:</td><td>Pts</td><td>Reb</td><td>Ast</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>1</td><td>Jalen Brunson</td><td>25</td><td>4</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>25</td><td>Mikal Bridges</td><td>11</td><td>5</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>3</td><td>Josh Hart</td><td>11</td><td>8</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>8</td><td>OG Anunoby</td><td>28</td><td>9</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>C</td><td>32</td><td>Karl-Anthony Towns</td><td>16</td><td>11</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Reserves:</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>00</td><td>Jordan Clarkson</td><td>15</td><td>2</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>23</td><td>Mitchell Robinson</td><td>4</td><td>15</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>13</td><td>Tyler Kolek</td><td>14</td><td>5</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>C</td><td>55</td><td>Ariel Hukporti</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>4</td><td>Pacôme Dadiet</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>51</td><td>Mohamed Diawara</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>12</td><td>Tosan Evbuomwan</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>C</td><td>50</td><td>Trey Jemison</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>9</td><td>Kevin McCullar Jr.</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>28</td><td>Guerschon Yabusele</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>Head coach:</td></tr><tr><td>Mike Brown</td></tr><tr><td>New York</td><td></td><td>San Antonio</td></tr><tr><td>New York</td><td>Statistics</td><td>San Antonio</td></tr><tr><td>49/105 (46.7%)</td><td>Field goals</td><td>41/99 (41.4%)</td></tr><tr><td>15/40 (37.5%)</td><td>3-point field goals</td><td>14/39 (35.9%)</td></tr><tr><td>11/15 (73.3%)</td><td>Free throws</td><td>17/22 (77.3%)</td></tr><tr><td>23</td><td>Offensive rebounds</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>36</td><td>Defensive rebounds</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>59</td><td>Total rebounds</td><td>42</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>Assists</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Turnovers</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Steals</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Blocks</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>Fouls</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>56</td><td>Points in the paint</td><td>44</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Fast break points</td><td>10</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Biggest lead</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>33</td><td>Bench points</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Points off turnovers</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Starters:</td><td>Pts</td><td>Reb</td><td>Ast</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>4</td><td>De'Aaron Fox</td><td>16</td><td>2</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>5</td><td>Stephon Castle</td><td>15</td><td>7</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>24</td><td>Devin Vassell</td><td>12</td><td>5</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>40</td><td>Harrison Barnes</td><td>11</td><td>3</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>C</td><td>7</td><td>Luke Kornet</td><td>14</td><td>6</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Reserves:</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>C</td><td>1</td><td>Victor Wembanyama</td><td>18</td><td>6</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>2</td><td>Dylan Harper</td><td>21</td><td>7</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>30</td><td>Julian Champagnie</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>G/F</td><td>3</td><td>Keldon Johnson</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>C</td><td>18</td><td>Bismack Biyombo</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>11</td><td>Carter Bryant</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>0</td><td>Jordan McLaughlin</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>F/C</td><td>8</td><td>Kelly Olynyk</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>10</td><td>Jeremy Sochan</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>F</td><td>43</td><td>Lindy Waters III</td><td>DNP</td></tr><tr><td>Head coach:</td></tr><tr><td>Mitch Johnson</td></tr></tbody></table>

Awards and aftermath

2025 NBA Cup

The Knicks won their first NBA Cup title, and Jalen Brunson was awarded the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the tournament after the championship game on December 16. Each player on the Knicks roster received $530,000 in prize money, while Spurs players received $212,000 each. In contrast with the past two Cup champions, the Knicks decided not to raise a championship banner to commemorate their Cup victory.

On December 18, the NBA announced the All-Tournament Team:

<table><thead><tr><th>Pos.</th><th>Player</th><th>Team</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>G</td><td>Jalen Brunson (MVP)</td><td>New York Knicks</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>Luka Dončić</td><td>Los Angeles Lakers</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>De'Aaron Fox</td><td>San Antonio Spurs</td></tr><tr><td>G</td><td>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander</td><td>Oklahoma City Thunder</td></tr><tr><td>C</td><td>Karl-Anthony Towns</td><td>New York Knicks</td></tr></tbody></table>

Media coverage

2025 NBA Cup

With games primarily on Friday evenings, Prime Video aired the majority of group play games. A limited number of Tuesday night games aired on NBC and Peacock, while a limited number of Wednesday night games aired on ESPN. All knockout round games, including the final, aired on Prime Video.