Following a successful initial campaign last year, the NBA has made the easy decision to have an in-season tournament for the second consecutive year.
Only this year, the tournament is getting a fancier — and more lucrative — title: the Emirates NBA Cup. It’s also getting an upgrade on the marketing front, as last year’s surprise spokesperson, Michael Imperioli, is now joined by Rosario Dawson.
The Golden State Warriors didn’t have much success in the tournament last year, but they’ll try again this season … hopefully they can not only win, but avoid the curse that the Los Angeles Lakers encountered. The Lakers won the inaugural in-season tournament, and then promptly forgot how to play basketball.
It’s a fairly simple structure for the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup. The league will be divided into six groups of five teams, who will each play each other, with four designated dates on which all teams will play their tournament games.
After the group stage, the six winners and two wild cards (the best performing teams that didn’t win their group stage) will advance. From there on, it’s a simple eight-team single-elimination tournament, with the semifinals and championship taking place in Las Vegas.
The Dubs begin their Emirates NBA Cup on Tuesday, November 12, when they host the Dallas Mavericks in Klay Thompson’s return to the Bay Area.
They then host the Memphis Grizzlies that Friday, November 15, before finishing out with two road games: against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, November 22, and against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, December 3.
The games against Dallas and Denver will be on TNT, while the showdown against the Grizzlies is on ESPN; the game in NOLA is a local broadcast only game.
If the Warriors advance, the semifinals are on Saturday, December 14, with the championship on Tuesday, December 17.
As with last year, Emirates NBA Cup games are part of the team’s regular season schedule, so the stakes extend beyond the tournament: each win and loss goes in the standings, too. For the teams that don’t make it to the championship game, additional games will be added to the schedule to bring every team to 82 contests.
