The Los Angeles Lakers have seen both great success and failure in the two-year history of the Emirates NBA Cup. The inaugural in-season tournament saw the Lakers come out on top, hoisting the trophy behind the performance of tournament MVP LeBron James.
The second year of the tournament brought about the opposite outcome as the Lakers failed to advance past the group stage, going just 2-2, which included an embarrassing 27-point loss to the Phoenix Suns and one final loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder that sealed their fate.
This year, James and Luka Doncic will look to lead the Lakers, who are once again in Group B, but with a completely different batch of opponents. The Lakers are joined by the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans in what is an intriguing group full of teams capable of a wide range of outcomes.
Of course, the Lakers’ meeting with the Mavericks will be the most anticipated due to last season’s Doncic trade that also saw Anthony Davis sent to Dallas. The Mavericks also have another pair of former Lakers in Max Christie and D’Angelo Russell, not to mention head coach Jason Kidd and assistants Frank Vogel and Phil Handy.
The Clippers, meanwhile, are viewed as potentially one of the best teams in the West after all of their offseason additions and the meeting between L.A. rivals is always a fun one. Both the Grizzlies and Pelicans are complete unknowns going into this season, each possessing great talent but also a ton of questions regarding health and roster fit.
The format for the tournament in its third season remains unchanged as Group Play games will be taking place on ‘Cup Nights’ from Oct. 31 until Nov. 28. Each team will play one game against the other teams in its group with two coming at home and two on the road.
The Lakers are traveling to face the Grizzlies and Pelicans and then will host the Clippers and Mavericks.
Following that, eight teams will advance to the knockout round, the six group winners as well as one wildcard team from each conference. That wildcard team is the team with the best record that finished second in their group with point differential being the tiebreaker.
The quarterfinals of the Emirates NBA Cup will take place on Dec. 9 and 10 with the tournament once again concluding with the semifinals and championship at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The semifinals will take place on Dec. 13 while the finals will go down on Dec. 16.
Lakers Group Play schedule for 2025 Emirates NBA Cup
Oct. 31: at Memphis Grizzlies, 6:30 p.m. PT (Amazon Prime)
Nov. 14: at New Orleans Pelicans, 5 p.m. PT
Nov. 25: vs. L.A. Clippers, 8 p.m. PT (NBC, Peacock)
Nov. 28: vs. Dallas Mavericks, 7 p.m. PT (Amazon Prime)
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