(Photo credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images)

The NBA released the six, five-team groups for the third annual 2025 NBA Cup, which will tip-off on October 31.

The world champion Oklahoma City Thunder are in West Group A, along with Western Conference finalist Minnesota, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah.

The Milwaukee Bucks, who captured the 2024 NBA Cup, will compete in East Group C, along with Charlotte, Chicago, Miami and New York.

Each team will play two home and two road games in group play, which will conclude on Nov. 28. The winners of the three groups in each conference and one wild-card team per conference will compete in the quarterfinals on Dec. 9-10. The wild-card teams will be the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in their group.

The semifinals will take place in Las Vegas on Dec. 13 and the championship game will tip off in Las Vegas on Dec. 16.

Quarterfinal and semifinal contests will count in the league standings. Teams that do not qualify out of the group stage will have two games vs. other squads that did not qualify. Those games will also count in the league standings, but the championship game (and statistics from that game) will not.

The Bucks defeated the Thunder to capture the 2024 NBA Cup, while the Los Angeles Lakers knocked off the Indiana Pacers to win the inaugural edition in 2023.

The complete schedule will be announced in August when the league unveils the entire 2025-26 NBA slate.

The groups:

East Group A -- Cleveland, Indiana, Atlanta, Toronto, Washington

East Group B -- Boston, Detroit, Orlando, Brooklyn, Philadelphia

East Group C -- Milwaukee, New York, Chicago, Miami, Charlotte

West Group A -- Oklahoma City, Minnesota, Sacramento, Phoenix, Utah

West Group B -- L.A. Lakers, LA Clippers, Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans

West Group C -- Houston, Denver, Golden State, Portland, San Antonio

--Field Level Media