AlbertMaster
By AlbertMaster.com
Real 2026 group draw: 6 groups of 5 teams (3 per conference). Each team plays a single game against every other team in its group. The 3 group winners plus the best runner-up (Wild Card) per conference advance to the knockout stage.
Enter a result for every match. Standings update automatically as you go.
🔒 Complete all 60 group stage games above to unlock the knockout bracket.
Complete Guide · AlbertMaster.com
A mid-season tournament hiding inside the regular season. Learn how the group stage really works, why the Wild Card race is often the tensest part of the whole competition, and use our simulator to play out every scenario yourself.
A trophy that counts, hidden inside 82 games that also count.
Introduced in the 2023-24 season, the NBA Cup (originally the In-Season Tournament) split the league's 30 teams into six groups of five — three per conference — for a mini round-robin embedded directly into the regular season schedule. Every group game still counts in the standings, so there's no such thing as a "meaningless" Cup night; a loss stings twice.
Only the Championship Game itself sits outside the regular season ledger. Everything else — group play, quarterfinals, semifinals — feeds straight into a team's overall win-loss record, which is exactly what makes the group stage worth simulating seriously rather than treating it as a side event.
With only 4 games per team, ties inside a group are common — and the order they're broken in matters.
Head-to-Head Result
If exactly two teams are tied, whoever won their single group-stage meeting is ranked higher. With a one-game round robin, this tiebreaker is almost always decisive for two-way ties.
Point Differential
If three or more teams are tied, the league looks at total point differential across all group games. This is the rule that occasionally nudges a team toward running up the score late in a blowout.
Total Points Scored
Still tied? Total points scored in the group stage is the next tiebreaker, followed by the previous season's regular-season record and, as an absolute last resort, a random drawing.
The Wild Card race follows the same logic, comparing the three conference runner-ups against each other — except head-to-head doesn't apply, since those teams come from different groups and never played one another during the group stage.
"Point differential as a tiebreaker turned garbage time into a strategic decision — a controversial side effect players themselves have pushed back on."Why the NBPA has questioned these tiebreaker rules
Eight teams, three single-elimination rounds, one trophy.
Quarterfinals
Seeded within conference
The top Group Play record in each conference hosts the Wild Card (1 vs. 4), while the other two group winners face off (2 vs. 3), single elimination.
Conference Finals
One win from the title game
Starting with the 2026 edition, semifinal games are hosted at the home arena of each conference's higher seed, rather than a neutral site.
The Championship
Neutral site, one game, everything on the line
The 2026 Championship moves to Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, ending a three-year run at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It's the only game in the entire tournament that doesn't count toward the regular season.
A Postseason Preview
The Cup often predicts October
The 2025-26 Knicks became the first team to win both the NBA Cup and the NBA Finals in the same season — and they beat the same opponent, the Spurs, in both.
About the 2026 NBA Cup format and our simulator.
Enter a score for every game in each of the 6 real 2026 groups. As you go, each group's standings table updates automatically using the official tiebreaker rules. Once all 60 games have a result, click "Generate Bracket" to seed the knockout stage and play it out game by game.
Yes. The six groups reflect the official group draw announced by the NBA for the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup, based on 2025-26 regular season standings.
The simulator applies head-to-head result, point differential, and total points scored automatically, in that order. In the rare case two teams remain perfectly tied after all three, you'll see a manual selector appear so you can decide who ranks higher — the same situation the real NBA would resolve with prior-season record or a random draw.
Yes. The group standings never disappear — they stay above the bracket the whole time. Edit any score you like, then click "Recalculate Bracket" to rebuild the knockout stage from the updated seeding.
Once your knockout bracket is filled out, click "Download Bracket (Image)" to export a high-resolution PNG with the AlbertMaster.com branding, ready to share anywhere.
Ready to Play Out the 2026 NBA Cup?
Enter your group results, see who claims the Wild Card, and find out which team lifts the trophy at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
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