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Tim Bontemps, ESPN
Klay Thompson‘s return to the Bay Area will come on the first night of the 2024-25 Emirates NBA Cup schedule.
Thompson and his new team, the Dallas Mavericks, will face the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco on Nov. 12, part of the full NBA Cup schedule release unveiled Tuesday on ESPN’s “NBA Today.”
The rest of the NBA regular-season schedule will be revealed Thursday on “NBA Today.”
The future Hall of Fame guard, who formed the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history alongside Stephen Curry, signed a three-year, $50 million deal with Dallas this offseason and will now go back to the place he called home for the first 13 seasons of his career.
That won’t be the only blockbuster game on the opening night of the schedule for the second edition of the league’s in-season tournament, however, as the opening half of the national doubleheader on TNT will see the New York Knicks travel down Interstate-95 to face the Philadelphia 76ers.
Coming off a thrilling six-game first-round playoff series, both teams made blockbuster moves this offseason, with the Knicks trading for Mikal Bridges and the 76ers signing Paul George.
ESPN’s slate of games will begin on Friday, Nov. 15, with LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama — who had a thrilling battle in the gold-medal game of the Olympics — facing one another, as the Los Angeles Lakers, winners of last year’s inaugural tournament, travel to San Antonio to face the Spurs, before the Warriors host Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies in the second game of the doubleheader.
Like last year, the NBA Cup’s group stage games will be played on Tuesdays (Nov. 12, 19, 26 and Dec. 3, with nationally televised games on TNT) and Fridays (Nov. 15, 22 and 29, with nationally televised games on ESPN). On those days, the only games being played will be NBA Cup contests. Every team will play four group stage games, facing every other team in their group once (two home, two road).
The groups, which were drawn last month based off last year’s regular-season standings, are as follows:
East Group A: Knicks, Orlando Magic, 76ers, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets
East Group B: Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons
East Group C: Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards
West Group A: Minnesota Timberwolves, LA Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers
West Group B: Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Lakers, Utah Jazz, Spurs
West Group C: Denver Nuggets, Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Warriors, Grizzlies
The winner of each of the six groups — plus the top second-place finisher from each conference — will advance to the knockout rounds of the tournament. The quarterfinals will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 10 and Wednesday, Dec. 11, at the site of the higher-seeded team. The winners of those games will advance to the semifinals in Las Vegas on Saturday, Dec. 14, with the championship game to also be played in Las Vegas on Dec. 17.
ESPN’s other nationally televised games will see the Pacers and Bucks — who had memorable regular-season clashes last season before the Pacers defeated the Bucks in the first round of the playoffs — face off in Milwaukee on Nov. 22, followed by Luka Doncic and the Mavericks going to Denver to take on Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets, in a battle of the last two Western Conference champions.
Then, on Nov. 29 — Black Friday — the Clippers will travel to Minnesota to face Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves, before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder face James and the Lakers in Los Angeles. That day will also see three games televised in the afternoon on NBA TV: the Knicks at the Hornets at noon ET, followed by the Cavaliers at the Hawks at 2:30 p.m., and the Pelicans at the Grizzlies at 5 p.m.
The highlights of the remaining three group stage dates are the Cavaliers and the defending NBA champion Celtics squaring off in a rematch of their second-round playoff series in Boston on Nov. 19, followed by the Thunder facing the Spurs in San Antonio; the Bucks playing at Miami on Nov. 26, before the Lakers face the Suns in Phoenix; and, on the final day of the schedule, the Magic taking on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, before the Warriors and Nuggets square off in Denver.