Previewing East Group A of the NBA Cup

For the second straight season, the Cavs and Hawks will meet in Atlanta in the NBA Cup on Black Friday. This season, the matchup is the last group-play game.

On Friday night, the league’s annual NBA Cup will tip-off for the third-straight season.

The formatting will remain the same from the previous year’s iteration: three groups of five teams in each conference, with each team playing four games (two home and two away), while playing each team one time.

The three group winners and one wild card team in the East and West then move into a single-game elimination with the higher seed hosting. The semifinals and championship game will take place on Dec. 13 and 16, respectively, in Las Vegas.

Even with a 5-3 record, the NBA Cup has not been the kindest to the Cleveland Cavaliers, as it has not advanced out of the group stage in the tournament’s first two years, but will see some familiar foes this go-round.

Cleveland and Atlanta will play for the third straight tournament, while also facing off against Indiana and Washington for the second time.

Before the round-robin gets underway Friday evening across the Association, let’s have an early-season look at the four teams the Cavaliers will play in East Group A.

ATLANTA HAWKS, NOVEMBER 28, 7:30 PM, STATE FARM ARENA

The Hawks, led by Donovan Mitchell’s former head coach, Quin Snyder, are widely regarded as the team with the best under-the-radar moves from the summer.

The key additions include Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Luke Kennard; Jalen Johnson is back from injury after his season ended in late-January.

As far as a collective group goes, this may be the best supporting cast point guard Trae Young has had in his eight-year career. Porzingis and Kennard add some outside shooting and experience (with the former a recent NBA champion with Boston) and added perimeter defense with Alexander-Walker.

Last year’s assist leader is back to his double-double averaging ways through the first five games, averaging 20.8 PPG and 9.5 APG, but has struggled from deep, hitting just 19 percent of his three-point attempts.

Atlanta sits at 2-3 after a win in Brooklyn on Wednesday and plays Indiana on Friday in their first cup game.

INDIANA PACERS, NOVEMBER 21, 7:00 PM, ROCKET ARENA

These two have gotten quite familiar with each other recently, playing four times a season due to both being in the Central Division, but, of course, played five games in the second round of the playoffs in the spring.

Of the two, the Pacers are the team that went through bigger changes since last playing in May. The season-ending injury to Tyrese Haliburton in Game 7 of The Finals headlines this while Myles Turner’s departure to Milwaukee was a major talking point in July, leaving Indy a little light in the middle.

Going into Friday, Indy is just one of three winless teams in the league. Their point differential is at -11.7, which is fourth worst.

The offense looks a little different without Haliburton but is still averaging over 116 PPG thanks to the great offensive mind of head coach, Rick Carlisle.

Indiana may have some bodies back when coming to Cleveland at the end of November, but Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, Obi Toppin, and TJ McConnell have all missed game time thus far due to injury.

TORONTO RAPTORS, OCTOBER 31, 7:30 PM, ROCKET ARENA

Some Halloween hoops start things off in the NBA Cup, as the Raptors make the first of two trips to Cleveland (with the next two weeks after, on November 13).

Raptors fans have finally got a look at Brandon Ingram to start 2025-26. The Duke product was traded from New Orleans in February of last season although he never suited up for his new club due to an ankle injury.

Ingram is averaging over 20 PPG in his first four games for the Canadian club, one of three Raptors to be over that mark in the early going (RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes are the others).

Toronto’s offense has been good to start this year, scoring over 116 in four of five games. The defense has been the part in which it has struggled, allowing over 118 in all five, including 139 twice.

Toronto shoots just over 29 threes a game (fourth-fewest in the league) and hits them at 36 percent, smack in the middle; their two-point field goal percentage is 67.4, best in the league.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS, NOVEMBER 7, 7:00 PM, CAPITAL ONE ARENA

 The second cup game for the Cavs comes one week after the first, and it’s the first matchup on the road in group play.

Facing the Wizards has been a positive for the Cavs, as Cleveland has won the last 12 matchups between the two, stretching back to the 2021-22 season.

Washington is sitting at 1-3 through four games (their fifth is on Oct. 30), but is chock full of young guys.

Second overall pick from last summer, Alex Sarr, is averaging over 19 PPG and nearly nine boards per. He had a 31-point outburst on Tuesday in an overtime loss.

Another first round pick from 2024, Kyshawn George, might be the best Wizard in the season’s early stages. George has scored 20-plus in three of four and has a game of 34 mixed in; he has pulled down at least eight rebounds in every contest, including a career-high 11; and has at least four assists in each game, with seven coming on Tuesday.

The third of Washington’s three first rounders from last year, Bub Carrington, has gotten off to a bit of a slow start shooting the ball but has dished out 15 assists going into Thursday’s game. Veteran Khris Middleton can still provide a bit of threat from the outside on this young roster.