Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Cup schedule, results and standings

The NBA Cup was originally branded as simply “the in-season tournament” and was introduced in the 2023-24 season to allow additional stakes for club games early in the season. Die-hard Minnesota Timberwolves fans are probably familiar with the tournament at this point, but let’s review some of the basics.

The games played as part of the NBA Cup are considered regular season games. These are four regular season contests that each team in the league plays in November and December, all on Tuesdays and Fridays and all counted toward tournament standings. At the end of this “group play” phase, the winners of each group and one wildcard team from each conference advance to the knockout rounds.

All eight teams that made it this far will travel to Las Vegas to compete in a single-elimination tournament where a champion will ultimately be crowned on December 17th. Two additional games will be added for the remaining 22 teams in the association. Each team’s schedule and regular season play will continue as normal.

The introduction of the NBA Cup means that when each team’s schedule is released in August of each year, there will only be 80 games on the schedule, allowing two more to be added later: either by that team making it to Las Vegas in the knockout round or by adding an additional home and away game after the conclusion of group play.

On the NBA’s official website, fans can find a helpful guide to help them track the rankings for the NBA Cup in particular. As of this writing, the Orlando Magic and New York Knicks are tied at the top of East Group A, the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons both lead East Group B, and the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks lead East Group C. The Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors currently lead West Groups A, B and C.

The Minnesota Timberwolves host the Houston Rockets on Tuesday evening and have a great chance. With Houston currently leading West Group A, if they leave the Target Center with a win they will essentially have the edge to win the group. Minnesota can make up for its previous Cup loss to Portland by defeating the Rockets and getting back on top.

After Tuesday, the Timberwolves’ final cup game will be next Friday at home against the LA Clippers. If they win their next two games, the Trail Blazers would be the only team that could beat Minnesota in the tiebreaker and clinch the top spot.

At the end, the NBA Cup champion receives the official NBA Cup trophy and the players on the winning team receive prize money. The players on the winning team will each receive a total winnings of $514,970. In addition, players from teams that made it to the knockout stages but did not win the championship will also receive their fair share of the prize money.

The runners-up will each win $205,988, while players on the losing semifinal teams will receive $102,994 and the losing quarterfinal teams will receive $51,497. For some players, that money wouldn’t be much, but winning the NBA Cup could certainly be a game-changer for some of the lower-paid players at the bottom of several teams.