 Official promotional poster for the championship game | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Location |
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| Date | October 31 – December 16, 2025 |
| Venues |
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| Teams | 30 |
| Purse | Seeprize money |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | New York Knicks (1st title) |
| Runner-up | San Antonio Spurs |
| MVP | Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks) |
The2025 NBA Cup (known as theEmirates NBA Cup for sponsorship reasons) was amulti-stagebasketball tournament held as part of the2025–26 NBA season. It was the third edition of theNBA Cup. All 30 teams participated, each playing four regular season games that counted towards the tournament's group stage standings. All games in the knockout round, except for the championship game, also counted towards the regular season standings. The tournament's semifinals and championship game were played atT-Mobile Arena on theLas Vegas Strip.
TheMilwaukee Bucks were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage by theNew York Knicks, who would go on to beat theSan Antonio Spurs in the championship game to win their first NBA Cup.
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 October 12 and November 28 counted in the regular season standings and the NBA Cup standings.[1] 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).[2]
If two or more teams in a group had equal records upon completion of group play, the following tiebreakers applied in this order:[2]
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, and one wild card from each conference—the group runner-up with the best group stage record. The knockout stage was asingle-elimination tournament. Quarterfinal games were played in local NBA markets on December 9 and 10, with the teams with the top two group stage records in each conference hosting, and the best team in group-play games hosted the wild-card team. The semifinals were played on December 13, and the championship on December 16. The final two rounds were played atT-Mobile Arena on theLas Vegas Strip.[2]
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.[2]
To balance the regular season, the teams that did not make the knockout stage played two additional consolation games on December 11 or 12 and 14 or 15, 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 14 or 15.[2]
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 were 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 were interconference games, as there was 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.[2]
Players on teams advancing to the knockout stage received prize money as follows:[4]
Teams were allocated into five pots per conference based on the2024–25 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.[2][5]
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The groups were revealed on July 9, 2025.[6]
| Group A | Group B | Group C | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 2 | Boston Celtics | 3 | New York Knicks |
| 4 | Indiana Pacers | 6 | Detroit Pistons | 5 | Milwaukee Bucks |
| 8 | Atlanta Hawks | 7 | Orlando Magic | 9 | Chicago Bulls |
| 11 | Toronto Raptors | 12 | Brooklyn Nets | 10 | Miami Heat |
| 15 | Washington Wizards | 13 | Philadelphia 76ers | 14 | Charlotte Hornets |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toronto Raptors | 4 | 4 | 0 | 458 | 403 | +55 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Atlanta Hawks | 4 | 2 | 2 | 468 | 472 | −4 | |
| 3 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 4 | 2 | 2 | 492 | 466 | +26 | |
| 4 | Indiana Pacers | 4 | 1 | 3 | 431 | 431 | 0 | |
| 5 | Washington Wizards | 4 | 1 | 3 | 443 | 520 | −77 |
Games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orlando Magic | 4 | 4 | 0 | 484 | 420 | +64 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Boston Celtics | 4 | 2 | 2 | 441 | 458 | −17 | |
| 3 | Detroit Pistons | 4 | 2 | 2 | 462 | 441 | +21 | |
| 4 | Philadelphia 76ers | 4 | 1 | 3 | 431 | 470 | −39 | |
| 5 | Brooklyn Nets | 4 | 1 | 3 | 421 | 450 | −29 |
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| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York Knicks | 4 | 3 | 1 | 512 | 477 | +35 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Miami Heat | 4 | 3 | 1 | 507 | 458 | +49 | |
| 3 | Milwaukee Bucks | 4 | 2 | 2 | 467 | 463 | +4 | |
| 4 | Charlotte Hornets | 4 | 1 | 3 | 461 | 500 | −39 | |
| 5 | Chicago Bulls | 4 | 1 | 3 | 468 | 517 | −49 |
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| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 4 | 4 | 0 | 512 | 437 | +75 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Phoenix Suns | 4 | 3 | 1 | 463 | 432 | +31 | |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 4 | 2 | 2 | 479 | 434 | +45 | |
| 4 | Utah Jazz | 4 | 1 | 3 | 433 | 518 | −85 | |
| 5 | Sacramento Kings | 4 | 0 | 4 | 430 | 496 | −66 |
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| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles Lakers | 4 | 4 | 0 | 499 | 453 | +46 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Memphis Grizzlies | 4 | 3 | 1 | 464 | 450 | +14 | |
| 3 | Los Angeles Clippers | 4 | 2 | 2 | 465 | 485 | −20 | |
| 4 | Dallas Mavericks | 4 | 1 | 3 | 455 | 476 | −21 | |
| 5 | New Orleans Pelicans | 4 | 0 | 4 | 465 | 484 | −19 |
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| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Antonio Spurs | 4 | 3 | 1 | 483 | 457 | +26 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Denver Nuggets | 4 | 2 | 2 | 484 | 461 | +23 | |
| 3 | Houston Rockets | 4 | 2 | 2 | 463 | 449 | +14 | |
| 4 | Portland Trail Blazers | 4 | 2 | 2 | 454 | 485 | −31 | |
| 5 | Golden State Warriors | 4 | 1 | 3 | 436 | 468 | −32 |
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| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami Heat | 4 | 3 | 1 | 507 | 458 | +49 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Atlanta Hawks | 4 | 2 | 2 | 468 | 472 | −4 | |
| 3 | Boston Celtics | 4 | 2 | 2 | 441 | 458 | −17 |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phoenix Suns | 4 | 3 | 1 | 463 | 432 | +31 | Advanced toknockout rounds |
| 2 | Memphis Grizzlies | 4 | 3 | 1 | 464 | 450 | +14 | |
| 3 | Denver Nuggets | 4 | 2 | 2 | 484 | 461 | +23 |
Eastern Conference
| Western Conference
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| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Championship game | ||||||||
| December 9 –Orlando, FL | ||||||||||
1 Orlando | 117 | |||||||||
| December 13 –Las Vegas, NV | ||||||||||
4 Miami | 108 | |||||||||
1 Orlando | 120 | |||||||||
| December 9 –Toronto, ON | ||||||||||
3 New York | 132 | |||||||||
2 Toronto | 101 | |||||||||
| December 16 –Las Vegas, NV | ||||||||||
3 New York | 117 | |||||||||
3 New York | 124 | |||||||||
| December 10 –Oklahoma City, OK | ||||||||||
3 San Antonio | 113 | |||||||||
1 Oklahoma City | 138 | |||||||||
| December 13 –Las Vegas, NV | ||||||||||
4 Phoenix | 89 | |||||||||
1 Oklahoma City | 109 | |||||||||
| December 10 –Los Angeles, CA | ||||||||||
3 San Antonio | 111 | |||||||||
2 LA Lakers | 119 | |||||||||
3 San Antonio | 132 | |||||||||
December 9 6:00 p.m. |
| Miami Heat 108,Orlando Magic117 | ||
| Scoring by quarter:30–17, 27–39, 26–33, 25–28 | ||
| Pts:Norman Powell (21) Rebs:Bam Adebayo (8) Asts:Davion Mitchell (9) | Pts:Desmond Bane (37) Rebs:Wendell Carter Jr. (10) Asts:Anthony Black (7) | |
December 9 8:30 p.m. |
| New York Knicks117,Toronto Raptors 101 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 35–39,34–13, 25–27,23–22 | ||
| Pts:Jalen Brunson (35) Rebs:Karl-Anthony Towns (16) Asts:Bridges, Brunson,Hart,Robinson (4) | Pts:Brandon Ingram (31) Rebs:Jakob Pöltl (9) Asts:Jamal Shead (8) | |
| Phoenix Suns 89,Oklahoma City Thunder138 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 23–38, 25–36, 24–36, 17–28 | ||
| Pts:Dillon Brooks (16) Rebs:Ighodaro,Richards,Williams (5) Asts:Jamaree Bouyea (5) | Pts:Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (28) Rebs:Chet Holmgren (8) Asts: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (8) | |
Paycom Center,Oklahoma City, OK Attendance: 18,203 Referees: James Williams, Ray Acosta, Danielle Scott |
| San Antonio Spurs132,Los Angeles Lakers 119 | ||
| Scoring by quarter:39–30,31–28,34–29, 28–32 | ||
| Pts:Stephon Castle (30) Rebs: Stephon Castle (10) Asts: Stephon Castle (6) | Pts:Luka Dončić (35) Rebs:LeBron James (15) Asts: Dončić, James (8) | |
December 13 5:30 PM (2:30 PMPacific) |
| New York Knicks132,Orlando Magic 120 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 33–36,38–28,29–28,32–28 | ||
| Pts:Jalen Brunson (40) Rebs:Mitchell Robinson (9) Asts: Jalen Brunson (8) | Pts:Jalen Suggs (26) Rebs:Banchero,Black (8) Asts:Bane, Suggs (7) | |
December 13 9:00 PM (6:00 PMPacific) |
| San Antonio Spurs111,Oklahoma City Thunder 109 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 20–31,26–18,32–28,33–32 | ||
| Pts:Devin Vassell (23) Rebs:Victor Wembanyama (9) Asts:Harrison Barnes (5) | Pts:Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (29) Rebs:Caruso,Hartenstein (8) Asts: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (5) | |
December 16 8:30 PM (5:30 PMPacific) |
| New York Knicks124,San Antonio Spurs 113 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 28–30, 31–31, 30–33,35–19 | ||
| Pts:OG Anunoby (28) Rebs:Mitchell Robinson (15) Asts:Jalen Brunson (8) | Pts:Dylan Harper (21) Rebs:Castle, Harper (7) Asts: Stephon Castle (12) | |
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The Knicks won their first NBA Cup title, andJalen Brunson was awarded theMost Valuable Player (MVP) award for the tournament after the championship game on December 16. Each player on the Knicks roster received $530,000 in prize money, while Spurs players received $212,000 each. In contrast with the past two Cup champions, the Knicks decided not to raise a championship banner to commemorate their Cup victory.[8]
On December 18, the NBA announced the All-Tournament Team:[9]
| Pos. | Player | Team |
|---|---|---|
| G | Jalen Brunson (MVP) | New York Knicks |
| G | Luka Dončić | Los Angeles Lakers |
| G | De'Aaron Fox | San Antonio Spurs |
| G | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | Oklahoma City Thunder |
| C | Karl-Anthony Towns | New York Knicks |
With games primarily on Friday evenings,Prime Video aired the majority of group play games. A limited number of Tuesday night games aired onNBC and Peacock, while a limited number of Wednesday night games aired on ESPN.[10] All knockout round games, including the final, aired on Prime Video.[11]
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| NBA championships | |
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| Rivalries | |
| Culture and lore | |
