You really don’t need much more than a basketball to make NBA players competitive, but when you throw a trophy into the mix, watch out!
You’ll see precisely what we mean on November 25, when the NBA on NBC‘s Coast 2 Coast Tuesday gets an extra jolt of competitiveness as both games in NBC Sports’ exclusive doubleheader officially count as Emirates NBA Cup 2025 games: the Orlando Magic vs. Philadelphia 76ers in an East Group B matchup at 5 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, followed by the Battle of Los Angeles, the Clippers vs. Lakers in a West Group B pairing at 8 p.m. ET.
But first: What exactly is the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament? Let’s get into it!
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What is the NBA’s in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup 2025 (aka the games with the wild-looking courts)?
The NBA’s in-season tournament began in 2023 as a way to rev up the competition factor and fan interest in some of the early days of the long NBA season. According to NBC Sports, the plan was very much spearheaded by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: “He pushed for this and got the owners to buy in — and Silver has largely been proven right. The fact that broadcast rights for the NBA Cup were part of the league’s massive $7.6 billion new television deal was a huge win for Silver (and means the Cup isn’t going anywhere for a long time).”
For inspiration, Silver looked at the European soccer model, which plays numerous international tournaments throughout the course of regular season play. And so far, the NBA Cup (which was called the In-Season Tournament in the first year of competition) has proven to be a success, with both player and fan interest piqued throughout the dedicated tourney games. Of course, the special courts utilized specifically for the tournament also help ratchet up the buzz factor.
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How does the NBA Cup 2025 in-season tournament work?
As far as the logistics of the NBA Cup go, it’s a little tough to wrap your head around the idea that games count not just as tournament games, but also as regular season games, which determine which teams go to the NBA Playoffs. But once you get over that bit of scheduling magic, it’s pretty straight forward.
Basically, all 30 teams in the NBA are divvyed up into six five-team groups — three for the Western Conference, and three for the Eastern Conference. The teams within that group all play a Round Robin tournament among themselves, where each team in the group plays the four other teams, for a total of four group games.
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The winner of each group as well as one wildcard team from each conference are all determined by head-to-head record as well as point differential. The six group winners and two wildcard teams then go into an eight-team, single-elimination knockout bracket, with the Eastern Conference teams on one side of the bracket, and the Western Conference teams on the other side. The final four teams left in the bracket travel to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals on December 13. Then the last two teams standing face off in the NBA Cup Final on December 16.
Besides a shiny trophy for the winner, there’s also money on the line. Every player on a team that advances to the knockout round gets a bonus from a league-sponsored prize pool. And the further into the tournament a team goes, the more money a player can earn, all the way up to the championship team, where each player gets a nice $514,971 bump. Heck, even the runners-up earn a $205,988 bonus.
How can you watch the NBA’s in-season tournament on NBC and Peacock?
On Tuesday, November 25, NBC Sports presents a doubleheader of Emirates NBA Cup 2025 games featuring the Orlando Magic vs. the Philadelphia 76ers in an East Group B matchup at 5 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, followed by the LA Clippers vs. the LA Lakers in a West Group B tournament game at 8 p.m. ET.
