Nuggets announce Emirates NBA Cup schedule

The Emirates NBA Cup. Just another way for the NBA to generate more sponsorship money with fancy courts and an in-season tournament that doesn’t exactly mean a whole lot. The Denver Nuggets have not had an immense amount of success in the first two renditions of the tournament, but are hoping that the third times the charm.

On Wednesday, the league released the schedule for NBA Cup, and the Nuggets didn’t get too bad of a draw.

Our Cup competition pic.twitter.com/nqGvobinM3

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) August 13, 2025

The most challenging outing for Denver in group play will be a trip to Houston to take on Kevin Durant and the Rockets on Prime Video on Nov. 21. Even better, the game is scheduled for an 8:30 p.m. local tipoff, so the players likely won’t get the action rolling until closer to 8:45. Houston is an hour ahead of Denver, so it shouldn’t be too late of a night for Nuggets Nation back in the Mile High City.

The other three games are a road showdown with the Portland Trail Blazers on Halloween night (8:00 p.m. MDT tip, local TV), a star-studded battle at home with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Nov. 7 (8:00 p.m. MDT tip, Prime Video) and a center duel with Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs at home on Nov. 28 (7:30 p.m. MDT tip, local TV).

The Nuggets haven’t had a player named to the All-NBA Cup team in either season. In both 2023 and 2024, they went 2-2 and missed out on making the eight-team single-elimination round. They’ve also had some very, very colorful courts at Ball Arena.

NBA Cup court reveal 👀 pic.twitter.com/D5t9mAt1og

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) October 25, 2024

The @nuggets all-new court for the NBA In-Season Tournament pic.twitter.com/NOFYkElexL

— NBA (@NBA) October 30, 2023

The NBA released the court designs at the end of October the previous two years, so expect that to be the rough estimate of when this year’s court design will drop.

The Nuggets have already had a handful of games announced for the upcoming season, including a Christmas night showdown at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The full NBA schedule will be released on Thursday.

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