Thanksgiving Week is going to be a busy one for the NBA. The regular season continues, of course, but teams will also be looking ahead to the playoffs of the NBA Cup, the in-season tournament that puts prize money and bragging rights on the line.

How to Watch

Watch NBA on NBC on NBC and streaming on Peacock. 

On November 25, for the first and only time this season, NBC and Peacock will host NBA Cup matchups as part of the NBA on NBC Coast 2 Coast Tuesdays, and the night wraps up with a battle not just for NBA Cup standings, but for bragging rights over the city of Los Angeles, as the Clippers take on the Lakers. 

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LA Clippers vs. LA Lakers: How to watch NBA Coast 2 Coast Tuesday on NBC and Peacock

After the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers NBA Cup game at 8 p.m. ET, the second game in NBA on NBC’s Thanksgiving week Coast 2 Coast Tuesday doubleheader, the Clippers vs. Lakers, will tip off at 11 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The game marks the penultimate NBA Cup Group Play game for both teams. 

What is the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament?

Launched in the 2023-2024 season, the NBA Cup is the league’s in-season tournament, meant to inject added excitement and rewards into the first half of the NBA season, when the league is competing with football for viewers. A drawing at the start of the Cup breaks the league’s 30 teams into six groups of five teams each. Then, each team spends roughly one month playing “Cup Night” regular season games against the other four teams in their group. The “Cup Night” games are distinguished by special uniforms, as well as special NBA Cup courts for each team, so it’s easy to tell when you’ve found a Cup Night game. 

At the end of the four-game run of “group play,” the six teams with the best records in Cup games, along with one wild card team from each conference, are placed into “knockout rounds,” including four quarterfinal games on December 9 and December 10, two semifinal games on December 13, and finally a Championship Game on December 16. The semifinals and the championship will be played in Las Vegas, and the winner of the Cup gets a trophy and a hefty cash prize.

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What to expect from the Lakers vs. Clippers NBA Cup 2025 game

This Coast 2 Coast Tuesday matchup marks the first of four games the two LA teams will play against each other throughout the regular season, and the only time you can catch this particular matchup on NBC this season. The Lakers have had a strong start to the season in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division, and have high hopes of remaining a playoff contender. They’ve been on a hot streak lately thanks in no small part to Luka Doncic, who’s averaging over 30 points per game so far this season. And with LeBron James back on the court after missing the beginning of the season, the pieces are really starting to come together. 

The Clippers are dealing with basically the inverse situation, losing as many games as the Lakers are winning. There’s still plenty of time for the team to turn things around, but they’ve also been plagued by injuries that have cost them major stars like Kawhi Leonard and Bradley Beal, leaving veteran James Harden as the team’s current leading scorer. A sluggish 2025 so far has left the team with one of the worst point differentials in the league, but with plenty of talent still on the court, they’re far from done. There’s still time to improve, and an NBA Cup game in primetime is a good time to make a statement.Â