The Sixers get a rare two-for-one Friday night against the Knicks: a regular-season game that also doubles as the opening act of Group Play in the fourth annual NBA Cup.
And this isn’t just another rematch. New York arrives as the defending Cup champion and the reigning NBA champion, while Philadelphia is still trying to get past the tournament’s first stage for the first time. The game at Xfinity Mobile Arena is the first meeting between the teams in 10 days, and it comes with more on the line than a typical late-October matchup.
The tournament format leaves little margin for error. All 30 teams are split into six five-team groups, with the matchups drawn from last season’s standings.
Each club plays four Group Play games, one against every other team in its group, with two at home and two on the road. The Sixers are in East Group B alongside the Knicks, Cavaliers, Heat and Pacers.
Their group schedule runs Friday against New York, then Nov. 6 at Cleveland, Nov. 25 at home against Miami and Nov. 27 at Indiana.
Only the six group winners advance automatically to the Knockout Rounds, and one wild card from each conference - the best second-place team - joins them. With only four games to work with, every possession matters more than usual. Head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker, then point differential and total points scored, which is why teams may keep pushing even in games that look settled.
There’s also a new overtime rule in play. If a Group Play game goes beyond regulation, the outcome still counts, but the teams get a point differential of zero for tiebreaking purposes. Any points scored in overtime are removed from the total-points tiebreaker.
The knockout stage begins Dec. 4 and 5 with the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals on Dec. 8 and 9. Those games will be hosted by the higher seed, and the championship is set for Dec. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Every Cup game also counts in the regular-season standings except the title game, and players on teams that reach the Knockout Rounds earn prize money that grows with each round. The league will also name a Cup MVP and an All-Tournament Team.
Philadelphia has yet to find the right formula in this event. The Sixers are 5-7 across the first three editions and have never moved past Group Play.
They went 2-2 in both 2023 and 2024, then finished 1-3 last season. Their lone Cup win in 2025 came against Brooklyn after losses to Boston, Detroit and Orlando had already knocked them out of contention.
The Knicks, meanwhile, took the opposite path last year. They beat the Spurs, 124-113, in the championship game, and Jalen Brunson took home Cup MVP honors after averaging 33.2 points over six tournament games.
That title became the Knicks’ first NBA trophy since 1973, months before they added another. Brunson is also one of three former Cup MVPs in East Group B, along with LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Every player who has won the award is in this group, with James winning it in 2023, Antetokounmpo in 2024 and Brunson last season.
The Sixers already have one blueprint for beating New York in hand. They knocked off the Knicks, 106-100, on opening night despite trailing by four at halftime.
That win was driven by defense. New York shot 37 percent from the field, and Brunson was held to 21 points on 6-for-19 shooting. Philadelphia handled the Knicks’ attempts to use Joel Embiid in ball screens with Brunson by switching some matchups before the screen arrived, bringing extra pressure on Brunson when needed and leaning on James to rotate behind the play.
The Sixers also turned defense into pace. They piled up 24 fast-break points and turned 14 Knicks turnovers into 22 points.
Tyrese Maxey scored 12 of those fast-break points and led the team with 28 overall. Philadelphia didn’t shoot especially well in that game, but the steals and stops let them get out in transition before New York could settle in.
A lot has changed since then for both sides. New York dropped its next two games after the loss to Philadelphia, falling to Boston and Orlando to start 0-3, but has since bounced back with wins over Detroit and Chicago.
Brunson looks sharper now, too. He was just 4 for 20 from three-point range across New York’s first four games, then hit six of 10 from deep Wednesday against the Bulls on his way to 38 points and seven assists in a 133-127 win.
Philadelphia comes in with a better record and a hotter hand than it had in the opener. The Sixers are 4-1 after Wednesday’s 114-109 win over the Pacers, a game in which four players scored at least 20 points and three finished with double-doubles.
Availability could still shape the rematch. Jaylen Brown is questionable with left knee soreness after playing in each of the Sixers’ first five games.
James and Embiid are not on the injury report for the first game of a back-to-back, while Dominick Barlow, Jabari Walker, Tacko Fall and Ariel Hukporti remain out. For New York, backup guard Jose Alvarado is out with a left ankle sprain.
Friday’s result will count in the standings like any other regular-season game. It will also carry extra weight in a four-game Cup race where the head-to-head edge, and maybe even the point total, could end up deciding who moves on.
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