NBA Cup quarter-finals take shape as Heat v Magic, Knicks v Raptors fill out East bracket | NBA Cup
The first two NBA Cup quarterfinals are set, with Miami going to Orlando and New York to Toronto.
And the reigning Cup champions won’t get a chance to meet back-to-back.
New York secured the last of four available spots in the Eastern Conference on Friday night, edging the defending Cup champion Milwaukee Bucks 118-109 to win East Group C. The Bucks’ loss kept them from advancing to the quarterfinals.
“I told the guys they did a heck of a job finding a way,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
Toronto won East Group A, Orlando won East Group B, and both did so with a 4-0 record. The Knicks went 3-1 in Group C and finished on top as they held the head-to-head tiebreaker against Miami, who also finished 3-1.
The quarter-final matches will be played on December 9 or 10. The Magic won their group with a 112-109 victory over Detroit on Friday night – and as the top seed, they will face the wildcard Heat.
“We’re so happy to be home,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We have some of the best fans in the NBA. They’ll be back there, supporting us, ready to go. … For us to do this is very special for our guys right now.”
The Heat v Magic and Knicks v Raptors games will create a bit of a scheduling oddity. Quarterfinal games count toward the regular season, so Miami and Orlando will end up playing five times this season — the first time that’s happened since 1993-94 — and the Knicks and Raptors will also meet five times. The Heat will play a regular season game in Orlando on December 5, their second time this season, then return to a Cup quarterfinal a few days later.
“It’s awesome,” Orlando’s Desmond Bane said when told the Magic had earned a Cup quarterfinal at home. “We’re building. We’re building something special.”
The three remaining Western Conference Cup quarter-final spots were also decided on Friday evening. The Los Angeles Lakers – who won the inaugural Cup in 2023 – were the only Western team assured of a quarterfinal berth before Friday.
The 22 teams that will miss the quarterfinals will all have two regular season games added to their schedule in the coming days, to bring their total to 82. All teams entered the season with only 80 games on the schedule to account for what is happening in the NBA Cup.
These additional regular season games for these 22 teams – one home, one away – will be scheduled for December 11, 13, 14 or 15.
For teams that advance, the quarterfinals become game #81. Teams that lose in the quarterfinals will play the other quarterfinal loser from their conference, completing the remaining game on their schedule.
The semi-finals will take place in Las Vegas on December 13 and these matches will also count towards the regular season standings. The championship match – which does not count in the standings – will take place on December 16 in Las Vegas.
Players on the quarterfinal teams will each receive $53,903. The payout is $106,187 for a place in the semi-finals, $212,373 for a place in the final – and $530,933 for each player on the winning team.
Two-way players will receive half of these amounts, if applicable.
