How to Watch the NBA Cup on TV and Streaming

The NBA Cup, officially the Emirates NBA Cup, is the NBA's in-season tournament. It debuted in 2023 as the In-Season Tournament, and all 30 teams take part during the first weeks of the regular season.

For viewers, the Cup splits in two. Group play airs like any other regular-season game, spread across national TV, each team's local channel and NBA League Pass. Once the field is down to eight teams, every knockout game streams on Prime Video, right through the championship.

For every Cup Night game and its channel, see our NBA TV & streaming schedule.

The 2026 NBA Cup at a glance

Two things are new this season. The semifinals are played in the home arena of the higher-seeded team in each conference, not at a neutral site. And the championship moves from Las Vegas, which hosted the 2025 semifinals and final, to Hinkle Fieldhouse, Butler University's historic arena in Indianapolis. It is now the only Cup game played at a neutral site.

How the NBA Cup works

The 15 teams in each conference are drawn into three groups of five, using pots based on the previous season's records. Each team plays the other four teams in its group once, two at home and two on the road. These games are played on designated Cup Nights, and on those nights the only NBA games are Cup games.

Eight teams reach the knockout rounds: the six group winners and one wild card from each conference, the second-place team with the best group record. If teams are tied, the order is decided by head-to-head result, then point differential, then total points, then the previous season's record and finally a random drawing. Overtime points don't count toward the two points tiebreakers.

From there, it is single elimination: quarterfinals, semifinals and a championship game. The top two group-play seeds in each conference host the quarterfinals, and the team with the best record hosts the wild card.

Two rules shape what you are watching:

• Cup games count in the standings. Every group game and every quarterfinal and semifinal is also a regular-season game. Only the championship sits outside the standings, and its stats don't count toward regular-season numbers. Each team still plays 82 games.
• Point differential matters. Because it is the second tiebreaker, a lopsided score on a Cup Night can decide who advances, so late-game margins mean more than usual.

The 22 teams that don't advance each play two regular-season games on the off nights of knockout week (Dec. 6-7 and Dec. 9-10). They are part of the normal 82-game schedule, so they air like any other regular-season game, on local TV and League Pass or on a national partner.

Players on the eight knockout teams share a prize pool that grows the further their team goes. In 2025, each player on the champion Knicks received $530,933 and each player on the runner-up Spurs $212,373, according to NBA.com.

How to watch group play

Because group games are regular-season games, there is no single home for them. A few are picked for national TV, and the rest are local games.

National games

In 2026, 15 of the 60 group games air nationally: Prime Video streams a doubleheader on each of the five Friday Cup Nights, NBC and Peacock have two games on Tuesday, Nov. 24, and ESPN has three on Wednesday, Nov. 25, the night before Thanksgiving.

On Nov. 24, Celtics @ Wizards tips off at 8 p.m. ET and Mavericks @ Nuggets at 10 p.m. ET. On Tuesdays, NBC usually shows the early game on its stations in the Eastern and Central time zones and the late game in the Mountain and Pacific zones, so check local listings for your NBC station. Both games stream nationwide on Peacock.

Your team's other Cup games

The other 45 group games air in each team's home market on its local TV partner, the same regional network, local station or team streaming service that carries its regular games. Our schedule lists each Cup Night game with its local channel. For a team-by-team overview of local TV partners, see how to watch your local NBA team.

If you follow a team from outside its market, NBA League Pass streams its group games that aren't on national TV. Games on Prime Video, NBC, Peacock or ESPN are blacked out live on League Pass and become available after 6 a.m. ET the next day, so for those you need the national partner.

How to watch the knockout rounds

Every knockout game, four quarterfinals, two semifinals and the championship, streams nationwide on Prime Video, which the NBA and Amazon describe as the exclusive home of the knockout rounds. League Pass doesn't carry the knockout rounds live, because Prime Video games are blacked out there until the next morning.

You can watch with an Amazon Prime membership ($14.99 a month or $139 a year), which includes Prime Video, or a standalone Prime Video subscription ($8.99 a month). Prices checked Oct. 21, 2026. Matchups and tip-off times are set once group play ends, and our schedule shows them as soon as they are announced.

The 2026 championship on Friday, Dec. 11 is at Hinkle Fieldhouse, a 9,100-seat arena that is the home of Butler University's basketball team. It hosted the 1954 Indiana state high school final that inspired the movie "Hoosiers".

What we found

The setup favors different viewers at different stages. Based on the 2026 schedule and prices checked Oct. 21, 2026:

• Prime Video is the one service you need for the decisive games. It has all seven knockout games plus 10 group games, 17 of the Cup's 67 games.
• Most of group play is local. 45 of the 60 group games are not on national TV, so for most fans the Cup starts on their team's usual channel.
• Twelve teams have no national group game this season: the Bucks, Bulls, Clippers, Grizzlies, Hawks, Hornets, Jazz, Kings, Magic, Nets, Pelicans and Suns. Their fans watch all four group games locally, or on League Pass out of market.
• Four teams play three of their four group games on national TV: the Knicks and Lakers (all three on Prime Video), and the 76ers and Spurs (two on Prime Video, one on ESPN).
• On national TV, an antenna gets you one Cup game: the Nov. 24 NBC game in your region. If your team's local partner is a free over-the-air station, its local group games are on an antenna too. The knockout rounds stream on Prime Video.
• Following the knockout rounds costs nothing extra for Prime members, and $8.99 for one month of standalone Prime Video for everyone else.

Every Cup Night in one place

Our NBA schedule lists each Cup game with its national or local channel, from the first Cup Night to the championship.

See the NBA schedule