2024 NBA Cup

The 2024 NBA Cup was a multi-stage basketball tournament played during the 2024–25 NBA season. It was the second 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 in the knockout round, except for the championship game. The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the championship game. Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

The Los Angeles Lakers entered as the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage. The Indiana Pacers were also eliminated in the group stage after losses to the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and Detroit Pistons, meaning that the championship game consisted of two new teams: the Bucks and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The tournament's format was similar to in-season, multi-stage tournaments in European soccer.^[1]

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 November 12 and December 3 counted in the regular season standings and the NBA Cup standings.^[2] 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).^[1]

If two or more teams in a group had equal records upon completion of group play, the following tiebreakers were applied in this order:^[1]

1. Head-to-head record in the group stage
2. Point differential in the group stage (excluding overtime)^[3]
3. Total points scored in the group stage (excluding overtime)
4. Regular season record from the 2023–24 regular season
5. 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.

Each group's winner then advanced to the knockout stage, as did 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 10 and 11, with the teams with the top two group stage records in each conference hosting, and the best team in group-play games would host the wild-card team. The semifinals were played on December 14, and the championship on December 17. The final two rounds were played at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip.^[1]

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.^[1]

To balance the regular season, the teams that did not make the knockout stage played two additional consolation games on December 12 or 13 and 15 or 16, 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 15 or 16.^[1]

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 are 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 are interconference games, as there is 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.^[1]

Players on teams advancing to the knockout stage received prize money as follows:^[4]

• Players on teams that lose in the quarterfinals: $51,497 each
• Players on teams that lose 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

Teams were allocated into five pots per conference based on the 2023–24 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.^[1][5]

The initial groups were revealed during the tournament announcement on July 12, 2024.^[6][7]

Home team listed first (quarterfinals only).

Source:^[8]

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.

The Bucks missed Khris Middleton due to illness.^[9] The Thunder struggled with shooting throughout the game, going 5-of-32 from long-range, setting season lows in both field goal and three-point percentage.^[10] The game was close at halftime, with the Bucks leading 51–50, but the Bucks pulled away in the third quarter, holding the Thunder to just 14 points in the period. The Bucks led by as many as 20 points, before closing out the game with a 16-point victory, 97 to 81. Giannis Antetokounmpo recorded a triple-double while leading the Bucks in points (26), rebounds (19), and assists (10).^[11]

The Bucks won their first NBA Cup title, and Giannis Antetokounmpo was unanimously given the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the tournament after the championship game on December 17.^[13] Antetokounmpo followed LeBron James as the second winner of the award. Taurean Prince, who won the 2023 title with the Los Angeles Lakers, became the first player to win multiple NBA Cups.^[14] Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham won his second title as well, having won the title as head coach of the Lakers in the previous season.^[15] Each player on the Bucks roster received $514,971 in prize money, while Thunder players received $205,988 each.^[11] The Bucks raised a championship banner at Fiserv Forum on December 19.^[16]

On December 19, the NBA announced the All-Tournament Team:^[17]

This was the first year of a multiyear deal with the airline company Emirates to be the title sponsor of the NBA Cup.^[18]

The group stage of the tournament was covered by the NBA's existing broadcasters. During the group stage, TNT aired a doubleheader on Tuesday nights, while ESPN aired a doubleheader on Friday nights. NBA TV aired three additional games during the afternoon on Black Friday.^[19]

During the knockout stage, one quarterfinal aired on ESPN, three quarterfinals and one semifinal aired on TNT, and one semifinal and the championship game aired in primetime on ABC and ESPN+.^[20]

As was the case last season, ESPN and TNT collaborated to cover the semifinals, but for pregame, postgame, and halftime only, with the "Inside the NBA" crew joining the "NBA Countdown" crew for certain segments, and Stephen A. Smith joining TNT for certain segments, including a friendly free-throw and 3-point shooting competition.

The championship game was broadcast for the second and final year of its deal on ABC (including local stations WISN-TV in Milwaukee and KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City), before moving to Prime Video in 2025.^[21] The game was the second-most viewed of the season thus far with 2.99 million viewers.^[22] The game was also streamed for the first time on ESPN+ as part of a modified rearrangement that saw the platform simulcasting more events from ABC since August 2024.

• Official website