NBA Cup Night Preview: Warriors at Spurs, Knicks at Pacers

The Emirates NBA Cup reaches its third group night on Friday, 13 November, and the league has put two of its most compelling matchups in the national spotlight. The New York Knicks, holders of both the Cup and the NBA title, visit the Indiana Pacers at 7pm Eastern Time, before Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors take on Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs at 9:30pm ET. Both games stream on Prime Video in the United States.

In Malaysia, the doubleheader falls on Saturday morning, 14 November: Knicks at Pacers tips off at 8am and Warriors at Spurs at 10:30am. With every team playing only four group games, each of these results carries real weight for the race to reach December’s knockout rounds.

How the group stage works

The 30 teams are split into six groups of five, three in each conference. Every team plays the other four teams in its group once, with group games held on Fridays from 30 October to 27 November plus two extra Cup Nights in Thanksgiving week. The six group winners advance, along with one wild card from each conference: the second-placed team with the best group record. That makes eight quarter-finalists.

• Group tiebreakers, in order: head-to-head result, point differential, total points, 2025-26 regular-season record, random draw.
• Overtime does not count towards point differential or total points.
• Quarter-finals: 4-5 December, at home sites.
• Semi-finals: 8-9 December, at the higher seed’s arena.
• Championship: Friday, 11 December, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
• Group games count in the regular-season standings; the final does not.

Warriors at Spurs: Curry against the West champions

This is the pick of the night. San Antonio won the Western Conference last season, beat Portland 4-1 in the first round and reached both the Cup final and the NBA Finals, where they fell to the Knicks. NBA.com notes that the Spurs reached the 2025 Cup final despite Wembanyama missing 12 games with a calf strain until the semi-finals. The roster is almost unchanged from that run, and the expectation is that Wembanyama returns as an even sharper scorer and rim protector.

Golden State come in from the opposite direction. The Warriors went out in the Play-In last season, landed the No. 11 pick and used it on Yaxel Lendeborg, who was named Summer League MVP as the team won in Las Vegas. NBA.com’s preview frames their season around health and maximising Curry’s remaining win-now years. The Warriors finished 1-3 in Cup group play a year ago and were eliminated, so they need a better return this time.

History favours the drama. In last season’s Cup group game in San Antonio on 14 November 2025, Curry scored 49 points and sealed a 109-108 win with two free throws in the final seconds, after Wembanyama had blocked Jimmy Butler’s layup to protect a late lead. The teams split their 2025-26 season series 2-2, and NBA.com points out that Curry scored 46 and 49 in Golden State’s two wins.

• 2025-26 season series: 2-2.
• Curry in the two Warriors wins: 46 and 49 points.
• Last Cup meeting: Warriors 109-108 in San Antonio, November 2025.
• Warriors’ remaining Cup games: Kings at home on 25 November, at Portland on 27 November.
• Spurs’ later marquee Cup games: at Portland on 25 November, Lakers at home on 27 November.

West Group C may be the toughest group to read. When NBA.com published its preview on 27 October, the Lakers were 3-0 and the Blazers 2-0, while the Spurs were 1-2 and the Warriors 1-3. Records will have moved by tip-off, but the point stands: with the Lakers, led by Luka Doncic in his first full season with the team, and a Portland side featuring Damian Lillard and Ja Morant in the same group, one slip could end a team’s hopes of winning it. NBA.com predicts that the Lakers will edge the Spurs for the group, with the runner-up still alive for the wild card.

Knicks at Pacers: the last two East champions

The early game brings together the last two Eastern Conference champions for the first time this season. New York ended a 53-year wait for a title in June, finishing on a 13-game winning streak that included a sweep of Cleveland in the East finals, and Jalen Brunson was named MVP of the Cup the Knicks won in December. They are trying to become the first repeat champion in nine years.

Indiana are a different team from the one that went 1-3 against New York last season without Tyrese Haliburton. The two-time All-Star returned from his Achilles tear on opening night, Ivica Zubac gives the Pacers a physical centre, and Kelly Oubre Jr. and Larry Nance Jr. add depth. East Group B is arguably the toughest group in the tournament, with Cleveland, Philadelphia and a Miami side rebuilt around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. Only the group winner is guaranteed to advance, so in a five-team group of this quality neither side can afford many slips.

The schedule adds a twist for Indiana. The Pacers play the Denver Nuggets in Mexico City on 7 November, and the trip will have tested their legs during the week before the Knicks arrive. How they handle that stretch, and how they manage Haliburton’s minutes in his comeback season, will shape this game.

Elsewhere on the night

Nine Cup games are scheduled on 13 November. Beyond the two national games, Oklahoma City visit the LA Clippers at 10:30pm ET (11:30am Saturday in Malaysia), a return to the city where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s career began. Cleveland visit Miami, Milwaukee go to Orlando, Atlanta are in Chicago, Memphis visit New Orleans, Utah travel to Houston and Portland are at Sacramento.

• Knicks at Pacers: 7pm ET, 8am Saturday MYT (Prime Video in the US).
• Warriors at Spurs: 9:30pm ET, 10:30am Saturday MYT (Prime Video in the US).
• Thunder at Clippers: 10:30pm ET, 11:30am Saturday MYT.
• Also scheduled: Cavaliers at Heat, Bucks at Magic, Hawks at Bulls, Grizzlies at Pelicans, Jazz at Rockets, Trail Blazers at Kings.

What to watch

In San Antonio, the battle between Curry’s movement and Wembanyama’s reach is the obvious draw, but the Draymond Green factor matters too. Last November’s meeting featured repeated flare-ups between Green and Wembanyama, and Green fouled out late. Keeping a lid on the emotion while making the Spurs’ big man work on defence will be central to the Warriors’ plan.

In Indiana, watch the pace. The Pacers want to run, and the Knicks have the halfcourt discipline and Brunson’s late-clock shotmaking to slow games down. Point differential is the second tiebreaker in the Cup, so even the final minutes of a decided game can matter: teams have pushed for extra points in previous years when the standings were tight.

Whatever happens on the night, the group picture will only become clear on 27 November. Until then, Friday games like these are where the knockout bracket starts to take shape.