The 2024 Emirates NBA Cup resumes Tuesday, with 10 teams — including the leaders of Group B in each conference: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks in the East, and the defending in-season tournament champion Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis out West — in action on the fifth night of the tournament’s schedule.
Here’s a look at what’s at stake in Tuesday’s five-game NBA Cup slate, as well as the lay of the land in each of the six groups as the tourney presses on:
Gone ’til (next) November
There’s only one team that’s already eliminated: The Pelicans.
That’s a little weird, because they’re actually not one of the seven teams yet to post a victory in the NBA Cup. Despite opening group play with a win over the Nuggets, though, New Orleans has already lost to the Warriors and Mavericks, the two teams it trails in West Group C, by a combined 38 points, giving Willie Green’s club the worst point differential in the West. And since they can’t finish with more wins than 3-0 Golden State, and dropped the head-to-head tiebreaker with Dallas, there’s no path to Vegas for the Pels.
Sorry, krewe. Please accept the impending return of primary offseason addition Dejounte Murray as a consolation prize.
Who’s sitting pretty
• As the winners of West Group C, the aforementioned 3-0 Warriors were the first team to punch their ticket to the knockout round, which is as pretty as it gets at this point.
• The Rockets sit atop West Group A at 2-0 and own the West’s best point differential in group play, having outscored the Clippers and Trail Blazers by a combined 49 points across two victories.
• The Magic and Bucks lead East Group A and B, respectively, with 2-0 records and 20-plus-point leads in the point-differential department over their also-2-0 counterparts, the Knicks and Pistons, putting both Orlando in Milwaukee in strong position to either win their groups or contend for the East’s wild-card spot.
• The Lakers lead West Group C at 2-0, thanks to big performances by AD, LeBron and rookie Dalton Knecht, who, as it turns out, can shoot it a little bit:
Who’s still in the hunt
Technically, everybody but the Pelicans — although, with the Wizards (0-2 in East Group C) and Jazz (0-2 in West Group B) both in action on Tuesday, New Orleans could have some company on the sidelines by the end of the night.
Washington and Utah are joined by five other winless teams: the Hornets, Raptors, Pacers, Kings and Grizzlies. There are also three 1-2 teams still hanging on: the 76ers, Nets and Nuggets.
The other 18 teams in the league are all either 2-0, 2-1 or 1-1, and still alive for a spot in the knockout round.
[Check out the NBA Cup Standings]
What to know about Tuesday’s NBA Cup games
• East Group C: Bulls at Wizards, 7 p.m. ET (League Pass)
The Bulls (1-1) have been humming on offense of late, flirting with a top-five mark in offensive efficiency over their last 10 games behind strong play from rejuvenated vets Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic. Unfortunately, Chicago’s defense has been downright disastrous, dead-last in the league in that span and 28th for the full season.
Good thing, then, that Billy Donovan’s club will be facing a Wizards team (0-2) skulking at or near the bottom of the NBA in nearly every offensive category, and that has had a player pop for 30 or more points just once this season, the lowest number in the league. If the Bulls can keep Washington’s guards under wraps and stay hot from the perimeter — top-five in the NBA in both 3-point makes and 3-point percentage — that could be a recipe for a big-enough win to boost Chicago’s point differential and maybe make things interesting in a crowded Group C race with the Hawks, Celtics and Cavaliers.
• East Group B: Bucks at Heat, 7:30 p.m. ET (TNT)
The Bucks (2-0) have won six of seven after their disastrous 2-8 start, finding some stability on both ends of the floor to climb back into what passes for contention in the curdled middle of the Eastern pack. Turns out that, when you’re looking to right the ship, it sure helps to have a two-time MVP playing near (and maybe at?) the peak of his powers to steer things in the right direction:
The Heat (1-1) will have their hands full dealing with this version of Giannis Antetokounmpo. On the bright side, though, they’ll also have what appears to be a fully operational version of Jimmy Butler, fresh off back-to-back 30-point performances in wins over Philadelphia and Dallas that offered a stirring reminder of what a two-way force he can be, too.
A win puts Milwaukee in the driver’s seat in Group B; a win gives Miami (which has a better point differential than the second-place Pistons) a significantly improved shot at advancing.
• West Group A: Rockets at Timberwolves, 8 p.m. ET (League Pass)
The Rockets (2-0) have carried over their stellar overall start — the NBA’s No. 4 net rating and No. 2 defense, seven players averaging at least 11 points per game — into NBA Cup play, trouncing the Clippers and Trail Blazers to vault to the top of Group A. It appears to be absolutely zero fun to play against Ime Udoka’s squad … especially when reserve gameplan-wreckers Tari Eason and Amen Thompson are ripping and running:
As devastating as Houston’s defensive work can be, though, its top-10 offense might be of greater concern for a Timberwolves team (1-1) that has dropped from the top of the defensive rankings last season to the middle of the pack in 2024-25.
The eve-of-training-camp swap of Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle, combined with individual steps backward from linchpins Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, has disrupted the on-a-string cohesion that fueled Minnesota’s run to the Western Conference finals. If Chris Finch can’t get everybody singing from the same hymnal in time to welcome Alperen Şengün, Fred VanVleet and Co., the Wolves could find themselves getting knocked out before the knockouts.
• West Group B: Spurs at Jazz, 9 p.m. ET (League Pass)
The Spurs (1-1) are back over .500 in the regular-season standings after taking five of their last seven — including a win last Thursday over Utah in which Victor Wembanyama sat with a bruised right knee, leaving it to Chris Paul, all 39 years of him, to tuck the Jazz in:
Chris Paul in the fourth against Utah last night: 11 points on 4-for-6 FG, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal, +8 as the Spurs turned a 4-point deficit into an 8-point win. Not the biggest game or the brightest stage; still lovely to see an all-time master at the controls. pic.twitter.com/el0teH4mhH
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) November 22, 2024
After finishing 26th in points scored per possession last season, San Antonio’s up to 20th thus far in 2024-25 — and scoring at a league-average clip when CP3’s on the floor, posting a .625 true shooting percentage and sitting seventh in the league in assists. Not bad for a 6-foot guard in Year 20.
After dropping their NBA Cup openers to the Suns and Lakers, the Jazz (0-2) are unlikely to advance to the knockout stage; they’re mostly playing for pride, at this point. But they’re still capable of jumping up and biting a better team — especially if Lauri Markkanen’s feeling it, as he was on Saturday against the Knicks.
• West Group B: Lakers at Suns, 10 p.m. ET (TNT)
The Lakers (2-0) and Suns (1-1) have split their two previous meetings this season, with AD dominating in L.A.’s win …
… while Kevin Durant and Devin Booker combined for 63 points on 43 shots as Phoenix got its get-back three nights later:
JJ Redick’s club will look to restore some good vibes coming off a disappointing homestand featuring a Franz Wagner heartbreaker and a blowout at the hands of longtime tormentor Nikola Jokić. The Suns, for their part, will hope that a rare near-weeklong break — and finally getting back Durant and Bradley Beal — can help stop a five-game skid and put them in the mix atop Group B.
How does the knockout stage work?
After group play concludes on Tuesday, Dec. 3, the top eight teams in the East and West — the winners of Groups A, B and C, plus two “wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record in group-play games that finished second in its group) — will advance to the single-elimination knockout rounds. The four quarterfinal games will be played Tuesday, Dec. 10, and Wednesday, Dec. 11.
The four winners will advance to Las Vegas, where the semifinals will be held on Saturday, Dec. 14. The championship game for the NBA Cup will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC. It will be the only game in the entire tournament that won’t also count toward the participating teams’ regular-season records or their players’ statistics.
The teams that don’t make it to Las Vegas won’t just be chilling at home, though. During the knockout rounds, on the days where no NBA Cup games are scheduled — Thursday, Dec. 12, Friday, Dec. 13, Sunday, Dec. 15 and Monday, Dec. 16 — the 22 teams who didn’t qualify for the knockouts will each play two regular-season games. The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals will each play one regular-season game against one another, too.
