NBA Cup: Quarterfinal bracket set in frantic group stage finish as Las Vegas awaits final four

The group stage of the inaugural NBA Cup ended on a thrilling day in which 16 of the participating teams all had a chance to qualify for the knockout stage after the Los Angeles Lakers and the Indiana Pacers had already booked their place in the quarterfinals. After consultation of simultaneous scoreboards and calculating the decisive point differences in the case of a tie, the eight qualified teams and the match-ups in the knockout bracket are as follows:

Eastern Conference

Milwaukee Bucks-New York Knicks

Indiana Pacers-Boston Celtics

Western Conference

Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns

Sacramento Kings-New Orleans Pelicans

The quarterfinals will be contested in a single game on December 4 and 5. There were three groups of five teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences with the three group winners and the best-placed runner-up from each conference qualifying. The Bucks and the Lakers were the top seeds in the East and West, respectively, so they will play the best second-placed with home court advantage. The Pacers and Kings will also play their quarterfinal games at home because they had a better record in the group stage than their opponents.

NBA Cup quarterfinals schedule

December 4

Boston Celtics-Indiana Pacers / New Orleans Pelicans-Sacramento Kings

December 5

New York Knicks-Milwaukee Bucks / Phoenix Suns-Los Angeles Lakers

Semifinals and finals

The winners of the quarterfinals will face each other in the semifinals at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on December 7, where the qualified teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences will play each other. With the Denver Nuggets having been eliminated, the favorites for the title are the Celtics and the Bucks and their hypothetical meeting in the final four would represent an early final. However, anything can happen in single-game matches.

The final will also be staged in Las Vegas on December 9. It will be the only game of the In-Season Tournament that does not simultaneously serve as an NBA regular season game. The NBA has worked to balance the schedule without overloading it, since each of the 30 teams participating in the NBA Cup already play 82 games in less than six months between October 24 and April 14, before the NBA Playoffs begin.

Prizes and the NBA Cup

The champions will be the first to hold a new NBA title. The new tournament has, for the time being, increased attention on a competition that had traditionally aroused little interest until the second half of the season, when the positions for the playoffs are decided. The excitement of the decisive day of the group stage shows that the NBA Cup has potential. The moment of truth will come when the final four arrive in Las Vegas.

In addition to the title, the roster of the winning team will receive a prize of $500,000 each. The runners-up will receive $200,000 apiece, while the players on the two losing semifinalist teams will receive $100,000 and those eliminated in the quarterfinals $50,000.

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