NBA Reveals 2024 Emirates NBA Cup Group Play Schedule For Washington Wizards
![The Washington Wizards are just two months away from preseason basketball. The Washington Wizards are just two months away from preseason basketball.](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1379,h_775,x_123,y_232/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/inside_the_wizards/01j4q9yhxegk8ncgym0j.jpg)
The Washington Wizards now know the first few dates of their 2024-25 NBA regular-season schedule.
The NBA on Tuesday announced the Group Play games for the second annual Emirates NBA Cup (formerly known as the In-Season Tournament). A release of the entire schedule is expected Thursday.
Washington is in East Group C, with the Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Wizards four group play games are as follows:
Our #EmiratesNBACup Group Play schedule is here đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/3mOlQ3IEoS
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) August 13, 2024
How The Emirates NBA Cup works
Each team plays four group games – one against each member of its pool, two at home and two on the road – beginning Tuesday, Nov. 12, and running through Tuesday, Dec. 3. Every Tuesday and Friday night between Nov. 12 and Dec. 3, the league hosts "Cup Nights," where only NBA Cup group games are played.
The league's 30 teams were randomly drawn into six groups – three from the East, three from the West – based on win-loss records from the 2023-24 season.
Eight teams advance to the knockout rounds: the team atop each of the six individual pools and one wild card from each conference.
The quarterfinals of the NBA Cup are held in team markets on Dec. 10 and 11, with the winners advancing to the semifinals in Las Vegas on Dec. 14. The two finalists then meet in the NBA Cup Championship, Dec. 17 in Vegas.
All games across both the group and knockout stages of the NBA Cup count against the regular-season standings, excluding the Championship game. In the event of tiebreakers needing to be settled throughout Group Play, the criteria used to do so involves five elements (in order):
- Head-to-head record in Group Play
- Point differential in Group Play
- Total points scored in Group Play
- Record from the 2023-24 NBA regular season
- Random drawing (in the unlikely scenario that two or more teams are still tied following the previous tiebreakers).
Overtime scoring will not count toward the point differential and total points tiebreakers in the Emirates NBA Cup. A team’s point differential will be “0” in Group Play games that go to overtime, and a team’s total points scored will exclude points scored in overtime.