Story byKurt HelinTue, December 9, 2025 at 5:34 AM UTC·7 min readWe have reached the NBA Cup quarterfinals, the eight-team knockout round — now things get serious. Especially for the players on those teams, because the money is now very real."I think half a million dollars is still a good amount of money to be able to motivate you to want to win games," the Lakers' Jake LaRavia told NBC Sports recently. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHere is everything you need to know about the NBA Cup quarterfinals matchups on Tuesday and Wednesday, and what happens from there. What’s the NBA Cup 2025 format?This is the one thing that has remained largely the same through the three years of the NBA Cup. First, all 30 teams were drawn into one of the six five-team groups (three East groups and three West groups).