Specially-designed NBA Cup courts are back — but the designs have evolved from blinding in the first year to impressive this year.
Check them out.
ALL 30 TEAM COURTS FOR EMIRATES NBA CUP 2025 pic.twitter.com/aZzsIdUedL
— NBA (@NBA) October 24, 2025
The league was looking for a way to differentiate Cup games from regular season games — even though Cup games count as regular season games (except for the Cup Finals) — and different-colored courts was one of the key ways.
This year, the NBA Cup games begin on Halloween with a doubleheader on Amazon Prime (which also will carry the Cup semifinals and Finals from Las Vegas): The Celtics at 76ers (7 p.m. ET), followed by the Lakers at Grizzlies (9:30 p.m. ET). The full NBA Cup schedule is available here, and two critical games in the final week of group play will be broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock on Nov. 25: Magic vs. 76ers (8 p.m. ET), then Clippers vs. Lakers (11 p.m. ET).
As a reminder, the 30 NBA teams are divided into six groups, three from each conference. The teams play each team in their group once, with the winner of each group and one wild card team advancing to the knockout round (and a key tiebreaker is point differential in Cup games).
The groups are set for the Emirates NBA Cup 2025.
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) July 9, 2025
All 30 NBA teams were randomly drawn into groups of five within their conference based on win-loss records from the 2024-25 regular season.
The groups are available below. pic.twitter.com/ZZVUwtp3fO
The NBA Cup semifinals will take place Dec. 13, with the Cup Finals on Dec. 16 in Las Vegas.
