This fall, the NBA will play the third annual edition of the in-season tournament that it introduced in 2023. Each season, six five-team groups — three groups per conference — play a round-robin format. The winners of each group, along with one wild-card from each conference, advance to the eight-team knockout round.

Now known as the Emirates NBA Cup 2025, this season’s event tips off on Oct. 31 in team markets and culminates with the semifinals (Dec. 13) and championship (Dec. 16) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The full Cup schedule will be released in August, along with the complete schedule for the 2025-26 regular season. Nearly all Cup games also count toward the regular-season standings, with the championship the lone exception.

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On Wednesday, the Houston Rockets (52-30) learned that they will be grouped with the Denver Nuggets (50-32), Golden State Warriors (48-34), Portland Trail Blazers (36-46), and San Antonio Spurs (34-48) as part of Group C in the Western Conference. Each group has teams from the top, middle, and bottom of that conference, based on the 2024-25 standings.

Groups for all NBA teams can be viewed below. The Rockets appear to have drawn a relatively difficult group, since the “bottom” team in Group C — the Spurs — likely would have finished with a better record if not for the season-ending blood clot suffered by young phenom Victor Wembanyama. He is expected to return at full health for the 2025-26 season.

Beginning Friday, Oct. 31 and continuing through Friday, Nov. 28, each team will play four designated group-play games on “Cup nights.” Teams will play one game versus each opponent in their group, with two games at home and two on the road.

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Four teams per conference will advance to the knockout rounds: each first-place team with the best standing in group games and two “wild cards” (a second-place team from each conference with the best group-stage record). The knockout rounds then consist of single-elimination games in the quarterfinals, which will be played in NBA team markets on Tuesday, Dec. 9, and Wednesday, Dec. 10. The winners of those games advance to Las Vegas.

In sequential order, tiebreakers include head-to-head record in group play, point differential in group play, total points scored in group play, and overall regular-season record. Overtime scoring does not count toward the point differential and total points tiebreakers.

In the 2024 edition of the NBA Cup, the Rockets advanced to the semifinals in Las Vegas before bowing out to the eventual NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Houston defeated Golden State, now its 2025 group rival, in a knockout-round quarterfinal match.

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Months later, the Warriors got the last word on the 2024-25 Rockets by winning a tightly contested first-round playoff series — but that was a Houston squad without newly acquired superstar Kevin Durant.

Now, the perennial All-Star will try and help the Rockets get over the hump versus the team he once won two NBA championships and NBA Finals MVP awards while playing for.

That’s one of many juicy storylines that will play out when group-stage games begin on Halloween night. Specific game and broadcast schedules will be released in August.

More: NBA Cup: With elite defense, Rockets clamp Warriors late to advance to Las Vegas semifinal

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This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rockets grouped with Nuggets, Warriors, Blazers, Spurs in 2025 NBA Cup