Nba Cup Quarter-finals Take Shape As Heat V Magic, Knicks V Raptors Fill Out East Bracket

The first 2 NBA Cup quarter-finals are set, pinch Miami going to Orlando and New York going to Toronto.

And nan defending Cup champions won’t person a chance to spell back-to-back.

New York sewage nan past of nan 4 disposable berths successful nan Eastern Conference connected Friday night, topping nan reigning Cup champion Milwaukee Bucks 118-109 to triumph East Group C. The Bucks’ nonaccomplishment prevented them from moving connected to nan quarter-finals.

“I told nan guys they did a heck of a occupation uncovering a way,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.

Toronto won East Group A, Orlando won East Group B, and some did truthful pinch 4-0 records. The Knicks went 3-1 successful Group C and vanished connected apical because they held nan head-to-head tiebreaker complete Miami, which besides vanished 3-1.

The quarter-final games will beryllium played either 9 aliases 10 December. The Magic won their group pinch a 112-109 triumph complete Detroit connected Friday nighttime – and arsenic nan apical seed, they will play nan wildcard Heat.

“We’re truthful happy to beryllium home,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We person immoderate of nan champion fans successful nan NBA. They’re going to beryllium backmost there, supporting us, fresh to go. ... For america to do this is very typical for our guys correct now.”

The Heat v Magic and Knicks v Raptors games will create a spot of a schedule quirk. The quarter-final games count toward nan regular season, truthful Miami and Orlando will upwind up playing 5 times this play – nan first clip that’s happened since 1993-94 – and nan Knicks and Raptors will meet 5 times arsenic well. The Heat play a regular-season crippled astatine Orlando connected 5 December, their 2nd clip location this season, past will spell backmost for a Cup quarter-final a fewer days later.

“It’s great,” Orlando’s Desmond Bane said erstwhile told nan Magic sewage a location Cup quarter-final. “We’re building. We’re building thing special.”

The 3 remaining Cup quarter-final spots successful nan Western Conference were besides being decided connected Friday night. The Los Angeles Lakers – who won nan inaugural Cup successful 2023 – were nan only West squad to beryllium assured of a quarter-final spot going into Friday.

The 22 teams that miss nan quarter-finals will each person 2 regular-season games added to their schedules successful nan coming days, to push their full to nan afloat 82. All teams entered nan play pinch only 80 games connected nan almanac to let for what happens successful nan NBA Cup.

Those further regular-season games for those 22 teams – 1 will beryllium home, 1 will beryllium connected nan roadworthy – will beryllium scheduled for 11, 13, 14 aliases 15 December.

For nan teams that move on, nan quarter-finals go crippled No 81. The teams that suffer successful nan quarter-finals will play nan different quarter-final loser from their conference, filling retired nan remaining crippled connected their schedule.

The semi-finals are successful Las Vegas connected 13 December and those games will besides count toward nan regular-season standings. The title crippled – which doesn’t count successful nan standings – is successful Las Vegas connected 16 December.

Players connected nan quarter-final teams will each get $53,903. The payout increases to $106,187 for berths successful nan semi-finals, $212,373 for a spot successful nan last – and $530,933 for each subordinate connected nan winning team.

Two-way players will person half those amounts, if applicable.