The NBA’s new in-season tournament, known as the NBA Cup, has injected playoff-like intensity into November games and changed how teams approach late-game situations. Now in its third year, the 2025 NBA Cup is showing that players and coaches are treating these contests with unusual urgency, and keeping their foot on the gas until the final buzzer thanks to the format’s unique rules and rewards.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver introduced the NBA Cup in 2023 to give early-season games a competitive spark. It appears to be working. “The [NBA in-season tournament] has brought some sizzle to early-season games that might not otherwise attract attention beyond diehard basketball fans,” Sports Illustrated noted. Players, too, have embraced the heightened stakes. Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James said some tournament games “felt like a playoff atmosphere, [with] that type [of] intensity,” a rare sentiment for games played before Christmas.
One reason for the all-out effort is what’s at stake. The NBA Cup champion will earn not just a new trophy, but a $500,000 prize per player. Even for multimillionaire veterans, that bonus has players’ attention. “It’s important. This is important to all of us,” said New York Knicks guard Landry Shamet, who admitted he was chastised by a teammate for not padding the score in a recent Cup game. “It’s fun. It’s a fun new element to our league, and we want to be in the hunt for it.”
Fans are tuning in as well. The league says this year’s group stage averaged 1.50 million TV viewers, the highest ever for the event and up 12% from last year. More than 40 million people in the U.S. watched at least some of the NBA Cup group games, a 90% increase year-over-year. Many games were played on vibrant custom courts and drew playoff-level crowds. “The intensity level was there. Job well done to the NBA,” Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton told NBA.com, praising how fans and players responded to the tournament.
Beyond intensity, the NBA Cup’s unique point-differential tiebreaker has led to unconventional strategies. In the group stage, teams must finish with one of the top records in their pool, and in some cases, every point scored can make the difference. For example, the Milwaukee Bucks recently launched a three-pointer in the final seconds while already leading by 14, stretching the final margin to 17 points. “In 78 of 82 [regular] games, they would have just dribbled out the clock… But this is NBA Cup time,” the Associated Press reported.
Coaches have largely accepted, even encouraged, these tactics. Miami’s Erik Spoelstra acknowledged he had to think about point margin in each outing, and Golden State’s Steve Kerr said he has “no problem” with teams running up the score in Cup play.
Despite some debate, the run-it-up approach has quickly become normal in the NBA Cup. In one Cup game, Orlando’s Franz Wagner blocked a shot at the buzzer to preserve a 13-point win, and the bench exploded as if it were a playoff series clincher. In New York, Knicks forward Josh Hart yelled in frustration when Shamet didn’t take a last-second layup. “He’s right,” Shamet later said. “It’s a new element… we want to be in the hunt.”
As the 2025 NBA Cup moves into its final stages, the experiment appears to be working. Early-season games now carry a playoff buzz, and teams are adopting playoff-like tactics to survive and advance. The tournament will crown a champion in Las Vegas on Dec. 16, but its biggest success might be making November basketball matter.
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