The Lakers host Utah and Oklahoma City and travel to San Antonio and Phoenix in Group Play games with the group winner guaranteed a berth in the quarterfinals. The semifinals and final will again be played in Las Vegas.
The Lakers’ NBA Cup Group Play opponents in their request to repeat as In-Season Tournament champions have been known for the last month.
And on Tuesday, the details of their schedule were revealed.
The Lakers will host the Utah Jazz on Tuesday, Nov. 19 (7:30 p.m.) and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, Nov. 29 (7 p.m.; ESPN), and travel to San Antonio for a matchup against the Spurs on Friday, Nov. 15 (4:30 p.m. PT; ESPN) and Phoenix for a game against the Suns on Tuesday, Nov. 26 (7 p.m.; TNT).
All 30 teams were randomly drawn into groups of five within their conference based on win-loss records from the 2023-24 regular season.
The Lakers are the No. 3 seed in West Group B after finishing 2023-24 with a 47-35 record. The Thunder finished with the conference’s top record at 57-25. The Suns had a 49-33 record, while the Jazz (31-51) and Spurs (22-60) finished below the Lakers in the standings.
Group Play games for the 2024 NBA Cup will take place on Tuesdays and Fridays from Nov. 12 through Dec. 3. Quarterfinal games (to be played at the arena of the higher-seeded team) will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 10, and Wednesday, Dec. 11. The quarterfinals are the first stage of the knockout rounds.
The semifinals will be played on Saturday, Dec. 14 in Las Vegas and the final is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 17, also in Las Vegas.
Eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and one wild card team from each conference. The wild card will be the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group.
The 22 teams that don’t qualify for the quarterfinals will have two regular-season games added to their schedules, played on Dec. 12-13 and Dec. 15-16. Losing teams from the quarterfinals will be matched up in regular-season games between Dec. 12-16.
The NBA Cup prize pool will be awarded to the players on the teams that participate in the knockout rounds. The estimated prize money is:
• Players on winning team of the NBA Cup final: $514,971 each;
• Players on losing team of the NBA Cup final: $205,988 each;
• Players on losing team of the semifinals: $102,994 each;
• Players on losing team of the quarterfinals: $51,497 each.
The Lakers went undefeated in last season’s IST Group Play games before beating the Suns in the quarterfinals, the New Orleans Pelicans in the semifinals and the Indiana Pacers in the final to win the inaugural NBA Cup.
The rest of the 2024-25 NBA schedule is expected to be released on Thursday.
In addition to the Lakers’ four NBA Cup Group Play matchups, two other marquee games are already known: hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves in an Opening Night matchup on Oct. 22 and traveling to San Francisco to play the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 25 in a Christmas Day matchup.
