First two NBA Cup The quarterfinals are set with Miami heading to Orlando and New York heading to Toronto.
And the reigning Cup champions will not have a chance to meet one-on-one.
On Friday night, New York clinched the last of four available spots in the Eastern Conference, edging the defending Cup champion Milwaukee Bucks 118-109 to win East Group C. The Bucks' loss kept them out of the quarterfinals.
“I told the guys they did a great job of finding a way,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
Toronto won East Group A, Orlando won East Group B, and both went 4-0. The Knicks went 3-1 in Group C and finished in first place as they tied Miami in a tiebreaker that also ended 3-1.
The quarterfinal games will take place on December 9 or 10. The Magic won their group with a 112-109 victory over Detroit on Friday night and will play the group Heat as the top seed.
“We're so happy to be home,” Magic coach Jamal Mosley said. “We have some of the best fans in the world. NBA. They'll be back there supporting us and ready to go. … For us to do this now is really important for our guys.”
The Heat-Magic and Knicks-Raptors games will have a slightly unusual schedule. Quarterfinal games count toward the regular season, so Miami and Orlando will play five times this season for the first time since the 1993-94 season, and the Knicks and Raptors will also meet five times. The Heat will play a regular-season game in Orlando on Dec. 5, their second time this season, before returning to the Cup quarterfinals a few days later.
“It's great,” Orlando star Desmond Bane said when told the Magic had played in the Cup quarterfinals at home. “We're building. We're building something special.”
Friday night also decided the three remaining spots in the Western Conference Cup quarterfinals. The Los Angeles Lakers, who won the inaugural Cup in 2023, were the only West team guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals on Friday.
All 22 teams that missed the quarterfinals will add two regular-season games to their schedule in the coming days, bringing their total to 82. All teams entered the season with only 80 games on the calendar to account for what will happen in the NBA Cup.
Additional regular-season games for those 22 teams—one at home, one on the road—will be scheduled for Dec. 11, 13, 14 or 15.
For teams that advance, the quarterfinals become game number 81. Teams that lose the quarterfinals will play the other quarterfinal loser from their conference, filling out the remaining game on their schedule.
The semifinals will be played in Las Vegas on Dec. 13, and those games will also count toward the regular season standings. The championship match, which does not count towards the standings, will take place in Las Vegas on December 16th.
Players from the quarterfinal teams will receive $53,903 each. The payout increases to $106,187 for a spot in the semi-finals, $212,373 for a spot in the finals and $530,933 for each player on the winning team.
Two-way players will receive half of this amount, if applicable.
