2026 NBA Cup Guide: Schedule, Format and How to Follow the Tournament

2026 NBA Cup phase-by-phase schedule

The NBA Cup calendar begins in October, runs through November on designated Cup Nights, and finishes in December. Group Play games are played in NBA team markets, while the championship is listed for Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The NBA lists semifinals for December 8 and/or December 9, so do not invent a final day allocation before the league sets it.

Cup Nights include October 30, November 6, November 13, November 20, November 24, November 25 and November 27. The Friday rhythm makes the tournament easier to spot, but Thanksgiving week adds Tuesday and Wednesday Cup Nights. Viewers should check the exact game listing because some Cup games are national and others are League Pass or local-market listings subject to blackout rules.

Groups, standings and tournament purpose

All 30 teams are drawn into six groups of five, three in each conference. The NBA says the groups are based on 2025-26 regular-season records and drawn within conferences. Each team plays the other four teams in its group once, with two home games and two road games. That creates a compact standings race where every Cup Night can matter.

The tournament’s purpose for viewers is to add a second layer of stakes to early regular-season games. A Cup game is still a regular-season game for standings purposes, but it also affects group record, point differential, total points and qualification. That dual status is why the same final score can matter twice: once for the ordinary standings and once for the Cup table.

Groups are not playoff divisions. They are temporary tournament pools. A team can be strong in the regular season and still miss the Cup knockout rounds if it loses key group games. A team can win a group by performing well in four specific Cup games even if its broader season remains uneven.

Group Play tiebreaker rules from the NBA

The NBA’s Cup rules list ordered tiebreakers for teams tied within a group: head-to-head record in Group Play, point differential in Group Play, total points scored in Group Play, 2025-26 regular-season record and, if still tied, random drawing. The order matters because you do not skip to point differential if head-to-head record already breaks the tie.

The NBA also notes that overtime scoring is treated specially for point differential and total-points calculations. Viewers should use the official NBA standings rather than trying to maintain a homemade spreadsheet during live games. The worked examples below are educational, not a substitute for the official table.

Worked examples of Cup qualification

Two-team tie

Suppose Team A and Team B both finish Group Play 3-1. If Team A beat Team B in their Cup game, Team A wins the head-to-head tiebreaker and ranks ahead of Team B before point differential is considered. That is why one November game can effectively decide a group even if both teams finish with the same record.

Three-team tie

Suppose three teams finish 3-1 and each beat one of the others. Head-to-head may not resolve the tie cleanly, so point differential can become the next separator. That makes late-game margin relevant, although teams still have to balance sportsmanship, substitutions, injuries and normal coaching priorities.

Wild-card comparison

The wild card is the best non-group-winner in each conference. If two wild-card candidates did not play each other in Group Play, head-to-head may not apply in the same way, so the NBA’s wild-card tiebreaker protocol becomes important. The viewer takeaway is to watch conference standings, not only one group table.

Knockout Rounds and championship structure

Eight teams qualify for the Knockout Rounds: the six group winners plus one wild card from each conference. Quarterfinals and semifinals are single-elimination games. Lose once and the Cup run ends. That makes the December phase easier to understand than Group Play, because the bracket replaces the group table.

Most Knockout Round games count toward the regular-season schedule, but the championship is the exception. The championship decides the Cup winner but does not count in the regular-season standings. That distinction matters when checking team records after December 11. A team can win the Cup championship without adding a regular-season win for that specific game.

Home-court structure depends on seeding and tournament rules, not simply a normal regular-season rotation. Do not assume a quarterfinal or semifinal venue until the NBA publishes the bracket. The final itself is listed for Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, which is a separate neutral championship site.

Broadcasting arrangements and League Pass restrictions

The NBA says the Group Play schedule includes national games across Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and ESPN, and the broader schedule release points to Prime Video for key Cup knockout and championship coverage. Other games may appear through local or League Pass contexts, depending on the exact listing and the viewer’s location.

League Pass restrictions still apply. The NBA League Pass blackout guide says U.S. local team games and all nationally broadcast games can be unavailable live on League Pass, while national replays become available at 6 a.m. ET the following day. Cup semifinals and the championship are specifically included among tentpole events unavailable live on League Pass in the United States.

The safest Cup access plan is to check the game row, not only the tournament stage. A Friday Group Play game on Prime Video is not the same access path as a local-only Cup game. A quarterfinal may not have the same path as the championship. Viewers should verify each game individually.

Common NBA Cup misconceptions

• The NBA Cup is not a preseason tournament; it occurs during the regular season.
• Most Cup games count in the regular-season standings, but the championship does not.
• Group standings are not the same as conference standings.
• A team can miss the knockout rounds even with a respectable overall regular-season start.
• Nationally televised Cup games may be blacked out live on League Pass in the United States.

Another misconception is that the Cup makes every late-November game a tournament game. Only designated Cup games are Group Play games. Teams also play ordinary regular-season games during the same period, so check whether the listing actually identifies the game as a Cup Night.

Cup context inside the broader NBA season

Use the season guide for recurring national windows, Christmas, Play-In and playoffs. Use the Opening Night guide for October 20. Use this Cup article when your question is about Group Play, tiebreakers, knockout qualification or December Cup dates.

• NBA season guide
• NBA Opening Night guide

The six 2026 NBA Cup groups

The NBA placed teams into five pots within each conference using 2025-26 regular-season records, then drew one team from each pot into every group. That created three five-team groups in the East and three in the West. The draw balances prior-season performance without reseeding teams after summer roster changes.

Each team plays its four group opponents once, with two games at home and two away. Group membership does not replace conference alignment or create a separate schedule. These are designated regular-season games that also produce a four-game Cup record.

Qualification math, explained once

Eight teams advance: the winner of each of the six groups plus one wild card from each conference. The wild card is the best second-place finisher in that conference under the ordered comparison, except that head-to-head cannot be used across different groups because the teams did not necessarily meet in Group Play.

For a two-team tie inside one group, head-to-head settles the matter because those clubs played. In a three-team tie, head-to-head can resolve the order only when results among the tied teams distinguish them; otherwise the comparison moves to differential. The official standings are authoritative because a multi-team resolution can be less intuitive than sorting one column.

Point differential is points scored minus points allowed across the four group games. A 120-100 win adds 20; a 110-105 loss subtracts five. The NBA’s Cup rules treat overtime margin specially, reducing incentives to manipulate the margin after regulation. Use the official rule text for edge cases rather than projecting the ordinary final margin blindly.

Total points scored is third, not first. A fast-paced team does not outrank an unbeaten group winner because it scored more. Record decides position; head-to-head and differential break matching records; scoring becomes relevant only if earlier comparisons still leave a tie.

A complete worked group example

Suppose fictional teams Harbor and Summit finish 3-1, with Metro at 2-2. Harbor beat Summit. Harbor wins the group on head-to-head even if Summit has the better point differential, so margin never decides first place. Summit can still enter the conference wild-card comparison as the group’s second-place team.

Now suppose Harbor, Summit and Metro all finish 3-1 and each went 1-1 against the other tied clubs. The mini head-to-head comparison does not separate them, so point differential becomes decisive. If Metro is plus-22, Harbor plus-18 and Summit plus-10, Metro wins the group. Harbor is second and can be considered for the wild card; Summit is third and cannot advance through that path.

For the conference wild card, imagine Harbor at 3-1 and plus-18, Coast at 3-1 and plus-15, and Capital at 3-1 and plus-18. Head-to-head is skipped across groups. Harbor and Capital remain tied on differential, so total group points decides between them. Only if that also ties does the comparison reach prior-season record.

These examples show why “win by as much as possible” is incomplete. Winning is the first objective, and head-to-head can settle an internal tie before margin matters. Differential is insurance for unresolved group ties and cross-group wild cards. The arithmetic informs late possessions without replacing ordinary basketball strategy for the whole game.

Cup Nights and the October 30 opening

Cup play runs October 30 and November 6, 13, 20, 24, 25 and 27. Most Cup Nights are Fridays, with Tuesday and Wednesday added around Thanksgiving. The complete group schedule contains 60 games. The NBA announced 15 national group games across Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and ESPN, while other games use League Pass or an applicable local path.

The full opening night also includes Charlotte at Washington, Chicago at Boston, Detroit at Brooklyn, Orlando at Toronto, Indiana at Miami, Houston at Dallas, the Clippers at Minnesota and Denver at Phoenix. A national doubleheader is not the complete slate. Team followers should consult the full table; neutral viewers can use national windows as a selective entry point.

Group Play ends with a Black Friday Prime doubleheader on November 27: Miami at New York at 7 p.m. ET and the Lakers at San Antonio at 9:30 p.m. Those games can carry direct group or wild-card consequences because each team is completing its four-game sample.

From eight qualifiers to one champion

Conference quarterfinals are December 4 and 5 in NBA team markets. The two group winners with the best records in each conference receive the first and second seeds; the third group winner and wild card fill the remaining positions under Cup seeding rules. Quarterfinals stay within the conference, and every game is single elimination.

Semifinals are December 8 and/or 9 in team markets. The 2026 championship alone moves to Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Friday, December 11. Prime Video carries all seven knockout games. That venue sequence is worth stating precisely because earlier Cup editions used a different neutral-site arrangement.

Quarterfinal and semifinal games count in regular-season records. The championship does not. A team eliminated before the final receives the replacement scheduling needed to reach 82 regular-season games; the finalists play the extra title game. This accounting explains the unassigned December inventory on the full season schedule.

Once quarterfinals begin, point differential no longer advances anyone. The bracket is win-or-go-home. Group tiebreak numbers remain historical context but do not carry into the score of a knockout game.

The shortest accurate way to follow the Cup

Track four group games for the team, recording wins, losses and differential. After November 27, use official standings to identify six group winners and two conference wild cards. Then discard the group math and follow the single-elimination bracket through December 11. That is the tournament without repeated wild-card explanations or unrelated season advice.