NEW YORK (AP) – The Los Angeles Lakers’ defence of the NBA Cup title will begin on November 15 in San Antonio against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, and Klay Thompson will be back at Golden State – as a visitor with Dallas – on November 12.
The NBA released the schedule of the group play games on Tuesday, with those contests getting played on a series of Tuesdays and Fridays starting November 12 and ending December 3. Each team was assigned to a five-team group and plays the other four clubs in that group once.
LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers went 7-0 in the tournament last season – when it was simply called the In-Season Tournament – and beat the Indiana Pacers in the final in Las Vegas. The semi-finals and finals return to Las Vegas this year, with the semis on December 14 and the title game on December 17.
The NBA Cup will provide some obvious storylines. Among them: Thompson going back to Golden State, where he helped the Warriors win four titles, after joining the Mavericks this summer. And then the Lakers open defence of the Cup title, it’ll be a game where James and Davis face Wembanyama again after helping the United States beat France in the gold-medal game at the Paris Olympics.
Almost all of the games for the 2024-25 NBA season will be released today. All games in the NBA Cup will count in the regular-season standings except for the title game in Las Vegas; that would be an 83rd game for both of those teams, which doesn’t fit into an 82-game season.
Teams will get schedules today with 80 games on them. Every team will play two more, either in the playoffs of the NBA Cup or in games scheduled between teams that did not make the tournament quarter-finals. And those teams that lose in the quarter-finals will meet for what essentially becomes the 82nd game on their schedule for the coming season.
