![\"Karl-Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/kat-knicks-getty-4.png\")
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Six of the eight spots in the 2025 NBA<\/a> Cup knockout stage will be determined Friday night as group play wraps up in the league’s third annual in-season tournament. The Lakers<\/a> and Raptors<\/a> are the only two teams to have clinched their groups so far, and 12 teams are still alive for the remaining spots in the eight-team knockout bracket.<\/p>\n Friday’s 11-game schedule brings three win-and-in games: Magic<\/a> vs. Pistons<\/a>, Suns<\/a> vs. Thunder<\/a> and Nuggets<\/a> vs. Spurs<\/a>. Each of those winners will clinch their respective group and move on to the knockout stage. The Knicks<\/a> also play a win-and-in game as they host the Bucks<\/a> at Madison Square Garden. If New York loses, however, the team is eliminated from Cup contention.<\/p>\n There are three groups in each conference. Each group winner moves on and both conferences each get one wild-card team. The wild-card team will be each conference’s the top second-place team. Point differential is the deciding tiebreaker among wild-card teams with the same record.<\/p>\n The 18-1 Thunder are currently the favorites to win the 2025 NBA Cup (-105 at FanDuel<\/a>). The Bucks won the compeittion last year, and the Lakers won the initial version in 2023.<\/p>\n Below are the NBA Cup clinch scenarios and standings entering Friday.<\/p>\n NBA Cup clinch scenarios for FridayThe winners of Magic vs. Pistons, Suns vs. Thunder and Nuggets vs. Spurs will all clinch their groups and a knockout stage spot.The Knicks win their group with a victory over the Bucks. The Heat<\/a> clinch the group if the Knicks lose.The Cavs, Bucks, Knicks, Heat, Grizzlies<\/a> and Clippers<\/a> — in addition to losers of Magic vs. Pistons, Suns vs. Thunder and Nuggets vs. Spurs — are all alive for wild-card spots.\u00a0Complete wild-card clinch scenarios are explained here<\/a>.2025 NBA Cup bracket<\/p>\n Bracket to be determined after Friday’s games.<\/p>\n NBA Cup standings<\/p>\n Standings entering Friday’s action.<\/p>\n NBA
\n 2025 NBA Cup knockout stage scheduleQuarterfinals: Tuesday, Dec. 9 and Wednesday, Dec. 10Semifinals: Saturday, Dec. 13Finals: Tuesday, Dec. 16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Six of the eight spots in the 2025 NBA Cup knockout stage will be determined Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,2898,8028,1527,8231,15718,8224,8216,459,139511,139510,139513,139517,139515,139516,139512,139514,26649,2901,3555,15716,6002,2696,82,10676,139518],"class_list":["post-312943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-miami-heat","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-nba-bracket","tag-nba-cup-bracket","tag-nba-cup-clinch-scenarios","tag-nba-cup-format","tag-nba-cup-knockout-stage","tag-nba-cup-schedule","tag-nba-cup-standings","tag-nba-cup-teams","tag-nba-standings","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-orlando-magic","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-what-is-the-nba-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}