Emirates NBA Cup 101: Rules, format and how it works

•

Emirates NBA Cup 2026: Complete coverage

Below is a format summary and rules explainer for

Emirates NBA Cup 2026

. For more information, read the

NBA Cup FAQ

article.

I. Summary

The Emirates NBA Cup 2026 will tip off with the start of Group Play on Friday, Oct. 30 in NBA team markets and culminate with the Championship on Friday, Dec. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The complete Group Play schedule will be announced in August.

The Emirates NBA Cup will consist of two stages:

Group Play

and the

Knockout Rounds

.

> A. Group Play

All 30 teams have been

randomly drawn into groups of five

within their conference based on win-loss records from the 2025-26 regular season. Beginning Friday, Oct. 30 and continuing through Friday, Nov. 27, each team will play four designated Group Play games on “Cup Nights” – one game against each opponent in its group, with two games at home and two on the road.

> B. Knockout Rounds

Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and two “wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group). The Knockout Rounds will consist of single-elimination games in the Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Championship. The Quarterfinals (Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5) and Semifinals (Tuesday, Dec. 8 and/or Wednesday, Dec. 9) will be played in NBA team markets, with each game at the home arena of the higher-seeded team. The teams in the Knockout Rounds will compete for a prize pool and the NBA Cup championship trophy.

All 67 games across both stages of the Emirates NBA Cup will count toward the regular-season standings except the Championship. Each team will continue to play 82 regular-season games in the 2026-27 season, including those games that are part of Group Play and the Quarterfinals and Semifinals during the Knockout Rounds.

The game and broadcast schedule for the Emirates NBA Cup Group Play stage will be announced in August. All games in the Knockout Rounds will be streamed on Prime.

More details about the Emirates NBA Cup are below.

II. Tournament Detail

> A. Group Play Draw

To determine each team’s opponents in the Group Play games, the 15 teams in each conference were divided into three groups of five teams via a random drawing. The six groups were unveiled

on Tuesday, June 30.

Before the drawing, each team was placed into a “pot” based on its record from the prior regular season (2025-26). In each conference, one team from each pot was randomly selected into each of the three groups in that conference. The pots were as follows:

• Pot 1:

The teams with the three best prior-season records in a conference.

• Pot 2:

The teams with the fourth- through sixth-best prior-season records.

• Pot 3:

The teams with the seventh- through ninth-best prior-season records.

• Pot 4:

The teams with the 10th-through 12th-best prior-season records.

• Pot 5:

The teams with the 13th-through 15th-best prior-season records.

Western Conference

West Group A

Dallas Mavericks

Denver Nuggets

Houston Rockets

Phoenix Suns

Utah Jazz

West Group B

LA Clippers

Memphis Grizzlies

Minnesota Timberwolves

New Orleans Pelicans

Oklahoma City Thunder

West Group C

Golden State Warriors

Los Angeles Lakers

Portland Trail Blazers

Sacramento Kings

San Antonio Spurs

Eastern Conference

East Group A

Brooklyn Nets

Detroit Pistons

Milwaukee Bucks

Orlando Magic

Toronto Raptors

East Group B

Cleveland Cavaliers

Indiana Pacers

Miami Heat

New York Knicks

Philadelphia 76ers

East Group C

Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Washington Wizard

> B. Group Play

“Cup Nights” will take place every Friday from Oct. 30 – Nov. 27, with additional Cup Nights on Tuesday, Nov. 24 and Wednesday, Nov. 25. The only NBA games played on Cup Nights will be Group Play games. Group Play games will count as regular-season games for all purposes.

A team will play each of the other four teams in its group in one Group Play game. A team’s record in these four intraconference games will determine whether the team qualifies for the Knockout Rounds.

Group Play games in the Emirates NBA Cup 2026 will take place on "Cup Nights" from Oct. 30 – Nov. 27.

Each team will play one game against each of the four opponents in its group.

The six group winners and one wild card from each conference will advance to the…

https://t.co/cvMhIjeSs2

pic.twitter.com/mxgEdKfcPP

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR)

July 1, 2026

In the event two or more teams are tied within a group, the tie among the teams will be broken according to the following tiebreakers (in sequential order):

Head-to-head record in Group Play;

Point differential in Group Play; ^^

Total points scored in Group Play; ^^

Record from the 2025-26 NBA regular season;

Random drawing (in the unlikely scenario that two or more teams are still tied following the previous tiebreakers).

^^ Overtime scoring will not count toward the point differential and total points tiebreakers in the Emirates NBA Cup. A team’s point differential will be “0” in Group Play games that go to overtime, and a team’s total points scored will exclude points scored in overtime.

Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and one wild card team from each conference. The wild card will be the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group.

In the event two or more teams are tied for the wild card in a conference, the tie among the teams will be broken following the same tiebreaker protocol as described above (with the exception of the head-to-head record in Group Play). Ties within groups will be broken before the calculation of wild card tiebreakers.

> C. Knockout Rounds

Games played in the first and second rounds of the Knockout Rounds (i.e., Quarterfinals and Semifinals, respectively) will count as regular-season games for all purposes. The Championship will not be counted as a regular-season game, meaning that the game will not count toward a team’s regular-season record, and a player’s or team’s performance will not count toward regular-season statistics.

In each conference, Quarterfinal games will be hosted by the two teams with the best record in Group Play games, and the team with the best record in Group Play games will host the wild card team. The Semifinal games will be played at the home arena of the higher-seeded team in each conference. In the event two or more teams are tied for the higher seed in a conference after Group Play, the tie among the teams will be broken following the same tiebreaker protocol as described above.

During the Knockout Rounds on days when Emirates NBA Cup games are not scheduled (Dec. 6-7 and Dec. 9-10), the 22 teams that do not qualify for the Knockout Rounds will each play two regular-season games.

A formulaic approach will determine the matchups for these games using the Group Play standings in each conference (5th-15th). Two of the 22 games will be scheduled cross- conference since there will be an odd number of teams in each conference that do not advance to the Quarterfinals. These cross-conference games will be scheduled between bottom- finishing teams in the Group Play stage subject to travel constraints, and no team will play more than one of its two games cross-conference. The other 20 games will be scheduled within conference featuring teams that are otherwise scheduled to play each other three times over the course of the season wherever possible.

The four losing teams in the Quarterfinals in each conference will play each other in a regular-season game on Dec. 7, 9 or 10.

III. Prizing and League Honors

The Emirates NBA Cup prize pool will be allocated to the players on the teams that participate in the Knockout Rounds, with allocations increasing depending on how far a team progresses in the tournament.

At the conclusion of the Emirates NBA Cup, a media panel will select the Most Valuable Player of the competition and the All-Tournament Team. Selection will be based on the players’ performance in both Group Play and the Knockout Rounds.