The Los Angeles Lakers will start their defense of the NBA Cup title on November 15 in San Antonio against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. Klay Thompson will return to Golden State as a visitor with Dallas on November 12.
The NBA released the schedule for the group play games on Tuesday. These games will be played on a series of Tuesdays and Fridays, starting on November 12 and ending on December 3. Each team is placed in a five-team group and will play each of the other four teams in that group once.
Last season, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers went 7-0 in the tournament, which was then called the In-Season Tournament. They won the final against the Indiana Pacers in Las Vegas. The semifinals and finals will return to Las Vegas this year, with the semifinals on December 14 and the title game on December 17.
The NBA Cup will have some interesting storylines, such as Thompson returning to Golden State, where he won four titles with the Warriors, after joining the Mavericks this summer.
When the Lakers start their Cup title defense, it will be a matchup where James and Davis face Wembanyama again, after helping the U.S. defeat France in the gold-medal game at the Paris Olympics.
The full schedule for the 2024-25 NBA season will be released on Thursday. All NBA Cup games will count in the regular-season standings except for the title game in Las Vegas, which will be an additional 83rd game for both teams, as the season only has 82 games.
Teams will receive schedules on Thursday with 80 games. Every team will have two more games, either from the NBA Cup playoffs or games between teams that did not make the tournament quarterfinals.
Teams that lose in the quarterfinals will play what will essentially be the 82nd game on their schedule for the upcoming season.
