Emirates NBA Cup 2026: Format, Groups, and Schedule

The Emirates NBA Cup 2026 tipped off on October 31 and culminates with the championship game on December 12. All dates are in Philippine time (PHT).

What is the Emirates NBA Cup?

The Emirates NBA Cup is the league’s annual in-season competition. It is staged within the first three months of the regular season, giving all 30 teams a separate title to vie for early in the campaign.

Introduced in 2023 as the In-Season Tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup has crowned three champions, the latest being the New York Knicks, who also went on to capture the coveted Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.

Emirates Cup games are easy to spot as teams host their games on custom-designed, fully painted courts that feature the Emirates NBA Cup trophy at the center and in the paint. A new design for 2026 is the tournament tagline, “30 Teams. 8 Advance. 1 Champion.,” which appears near the corner three-point line.

Separate from the NBA’s traditional end-of-season awards, the Emirates NBA Cup recognizes its own tournament MVP and All-Tournament Team, which are selected by a media panel.

How does the Emirates NBA Cup 2026 format work?

The Emirates NBA Cup has two stages: Group Play and the Knockout Rounds. In Group Play, the 30 teams are split into six groups of five from the same conference. Each team plays four Group Play games, one against every opponent in its group, with two to be played at home and the other two on the road.

Only eight teams advance to the Knockout Rounds: the No. 1 team in each of the six groups, plus two wild cards – awarded to a second-place team with the best Group Play record from each conference. All games in the Knockout Rounds are single elimination, from the quarterfinals to the championship game. Read our NBA rule changes for the 2026-27 season for more on the new semifinal and championship venues.

In each conference, the two teams with the best Group Play records earn home-court advantage in the quarterfinals, with the team toting a superior record hosting the wild card team. The same setup applies in the semifinals, where the games are played at the home arena of the higher-seeded team. The Emirates NBA Cup culminates on neutral ground as the championship is played at the Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Every Emirates NBA Cup game, except the championship, counts toward the regular-season standings, so each team still plays 82 regular-season games. Read our NBA preseason guide for how the regular season is structured.

Emirates NBA Cup 2026 groups

The NBA used a draw to determine the groups, sorting teams into pots based on their records in the 2025-26 season. One team from each pot was then randomly assigned to each of the three groups in both the Eastern and Western Conferences.

Emirates NBA Cup 2026 schedule

Group Play games are played on designated “Cup Nights,” when the only NBA games on the schedule are Emirates NBA Cup games.

How are ties broken in Emirates NBA Cup 2026 Group Play?

When two or more teams finish Group Play with the same record, the tie is broken in this order:

1. Head-to-head record in Group Play

2. Point differential in Group Play

3. Total points scored in Group Play

4. Record from the 2025-26 regular season

5. Random drawing

Overtime points do not count toward the point differential or total points tiebreakers. A Group Play game that goes to overtime counts as a point differential of zero for both teams.

The same order, without the head-to-head step, decides ties for the wild card spot in each conference.

Past Emirates NBA Cup champions

Three teams have won the Emirates NBA Cup so far.

Note: The Emirates NBA Cup championship is not the NBA championship. The Emirates NBA Cup champion is decided in December, while the league champion is crowned at the end of the NBA Finals in June. A team can win one title without the other.