NBA Cup 2026 standings explained: groups, tiebreakers and who is unbeaten

The 2026 NBA Cup group stage has 19 of its 60 games final after 2 Cup nights, on October 30 and November 6. The Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves are the 3 teams at 2-0, and the Charlotte Hornets are the only team at 0-2. Night 3 is Friday, November 13, with 9 more group games.

This guide explains the format: 6 groups of 5 teams, 4 games each, 8 teams into the knockout rounds and a 5-step tiebreaker list. The Cup tables below are built from the final scores in our NBA results, and every Cup game also counts in the NBA standings. Season records are from the standings on November 13, 2026, before that night's games.

The NBA Cup 2026 group stage splits all 30 teams into 6 groups of 5, 3 per conference. Each team plays the other 4 teams in its group once, 2 games at home and 2 on the road, for 60 group games over 7 nights from October 30 to November 27.

The Cup nights are October 30, November 6, 13, 20, 24, 25 and 27. Group games are regular-season games, so every result also moves a team in the NBA standings and in the Statz power rankings. The 6 group winners and 2 wild cards, 1 per conference, go through to an 8-team knockout bracket in December.

The NBA Cup standings after 2 nights have 1 team at 2-0 in 3 of the 6 groups: Boston in East C, Dallas in West A and Minnesota in West B. The other 3 groups are led by 2 teams at 1-0 each. Cup point differential decides most early ties, so the margin column matters as much as the record.

The order inside each group is Cup record first, then point differential. That is a simple sort, not the official tiebreaker order, which starts with head-to-head results. For the full 82-game picture, the NBA standings rank all 30 teams by win percentage.

12 teams are unbeaten in the NBA Cup after 2 nights: 3 at 2-0 and 9 at 1-0. Boston has the best Cup point differential at +53, from a 125-111 home win over the Chicago Bulls and a 119-80 road win at Charlotte.

• Boston Celtics, 2-0, +53. Boston is also 10-2 for the season and 1st in the East. Its last 2 Cup games are at the Washington Wizards on November 24 and at home to the Atlanta Hawks on November 27 (Celtics 119, Hornets 80 box score).
• Minnesota Timberwolves, 2-0, +32. Minnesota beat the LA Clippers 127-101 at home and won 115-109 at the New Orleans Pelicans. Next up: at the Oklahoma City Thunder on November 25 (Timberwolves 127, Clippers 101 box score).
• Dallas Mavericks, 2-0, +17. Dallas beat the Houston Rockets 116-111 and the Utah Jazz 112-100, both at home. Dallas is 7-5 for the season, 10th in the West, and still has 2 road Cup games, at the Denver Nuggets and the Phoenix Suns.

The 9 teams at 1-0 are the Pistons, Magic, Cavaliers, Heat, Hawks, Nuggets, Thunder, Warriors and Spurs. The Warriors and Spurs meet on November 13 in West C, so 1 of them drops a game.

NBA Cup tiebreakers in 2026 use 5 steps in order when group teams finish level on record. Head-to-head comes first, then Cup point differential, then total Cup points scored, then the 2025-26 regular-season record, and a random drawing if teams are still tied after the first 4 steps.

1. Head-to-head record in group play.
2. Point differential in group play.
3. Total points scored in group play.
4. Record in the 2025-26 regular season.
5. A random drawing.

One rule changed for 2026: points scored in overtime do not count toward Cup point differential. That has not mattered yet, because all 19 Cup games so far ended in regulation, with 4 periods in each box score on our results page. With 5 teams and only 4 games each, 2 or 3 teams can easily finish 3-1, which is why teams already ahead keep pushing for margin late in Cup games.

The NBA Cup wild cards go to the best 2nd-place team in each conference, so 2 of the 6 runners-up reach the 8-team bracket. The 3 second-place teams in a conference are compared on record first, then on the same tiebreakers without head-to-head, since they come from different groups.

That makes point differential the deciding step for most wild-card races. A team that wins 3 of 4 games by big margins can pass a 3-1 runner-up from another group that won close games. Boston's +53 after 2 games shows how quickly a margin builds, and how hard it is to catch.

9 NBA Cup group games are on the schedule for Friday, November 13, 2026, from 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM ET. Every group plays at least 1 game, and 5 of the 9 games include a team that is 1-0 in the Cup.

The NBA schedule lists every game with tip-off times, and each matchup above links to its game preview with the teams' recent form and injuries. The biggest Cup game of the night is Warriors at Spurs, the 2 teams at 1-0 in West C. San Antonio is 10-2 for the season on a 10-game winning streak.

The NBA Cup knockout rounds run from December 4 to December 11, 2026, with 7 games for the 8 qualifiers. The quarterfinals are on December 4 and 5 and the semifinals on December 8 and 9, all at the higher seed's home arena, and the final is on December 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Knockout games count in the regular-season standings, except the championship game, so every team still plays 82 games that count. The 22 teams that miss the bracket each play 2 extra regular-season games on December 6, 7, 9 or 10 to make up the dates. Our schedule adds those games once the NBA confirms them.

The Cup table and the NBA standings do not always agree. The Los Angeles Lakers lead the West at 11-2 for the season on a 7-game winning streak, but they are 1-1 in the Cup after a 112-95 loss at Golden State on October 30 (Warriors 112, Lakers 95 box score). The Philadelphia 76ers are 10-3 and 2nd in the East but 1-1 in the Cup with a -19 margin, after a 119-95 loss at Cleveland.

It works the other way too. Dallas is 7-5 overall and 2-0 in the Cup. Home teams have won 11 of the 19 Cup games so far. For how teams are playing across all games, not just the Cup, see the NBA power rankings, which update after every game, and the NBA stat leaders for the players behind each team's run.