The Boston Celtics are down — but they’re not out.
We’re talking, of course, about the 2025 NBA Cup, the league’s third annual in-season tournament that began on Halloween and runs through mid-December. While the Celtics have played well of late — they’ve won three in a row to improve to 8-7 on the young season — they have a lot of work to do if they want to make up ground in Group B of the NBA Cup standings.
A quick refresher: Boston’s group consists of the Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons and Brooklyn Nets. The C’s play each of those teams once in NBA Cup group stage play and currently have a 1-1 record with a negative-12 point differential, having edged the Sixers 109-108 and lost to the Magic 123-110.
On Friday, they’ll play their first NBA Cup game at TD Garden against the Nets (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston). And if they want any shot at advancing out of the group stage, they’ll need to beat Brooklyn by a lot.
Below is a brief explainer on the NBA Cup format, followed by the Celtics’ schedule, the current Group B standings and what’s at stake for Boston on Friday night.
How does the NBA Cup work?
The tournament begins with the group stage. All 30 teams are competing in group play, having been placed into six groups of five teams within their conference. Teams face each of their group opponents once for a total of four group play games (two at home and two on the road).
Eight teams advance to the single-elimination knockout rounds: the top team in each of the six groups and a wild card team in each conference that’s awarded to the second-place finisher with the best overall record.
If two or more teams are tied within a group, the following tiebreakers are used:
- Head-to-head record in group play
- Point differential in group play
- Total points scored in group play
- Record from the 2024-25 NBA regular season
- Random drawing
The knockout rounds begin with quarterfinal games on Dec. 9 and 10 hosted by the higher seed, and then the semifinals and finals, which will be held in Las Vegas.
All Group Stage games count toward teams’ regular-season records. Teams enter the season with only 80 scheduled games, and the 22 teams that don’t advance to the knockout round will play two regular-season games during tournament off nights on Dec. 11/12 and Dec. 14/15.
Celtics’ Group B schedule
The Celtics’ four Group Stage games are being played across a 27-day span from Halloween until the day before Thanksgiving.
Group B Standings
Each team in Group B plays each other once during Group Stage play. If two teams have the same record in group play, the first two tiebreakers are head-to-head record and point differential.
Here are the Group B standings, which we’ll update throughout group play:
What’s at stake for the Celtics
The Celtics trail the Pistons 39 points and the Magic by 32 points in the point differential department. So, they essentially need a 30-point blowout (or at least a win by 20-plus points) to close that gap. (Detroit and Orlando are both off Friday night.)
Orlando’s next NBA Cup game is next Tuesday in Philadelphia, while the C’s play their final Group B game Wednesday against Detroit. So, here’s what Boston fans should be rooting for:
- Celtics blow out the Nets on Friday.
- Magic lose to Sixers by a wide margin on Tuesday.
If both of those things happen, the Celtics might have a chance to sneak into the knockout round, but they’d need another lopsided win over the Pistons next Wednesday, as well.
So, yes, it’s a long shot. But a rout of Brooklyn on Friday would at least give Boston a puncher’s chance.
