The Boston Celtics drew a soft Emirates NBA Cup group Wednesday, and the newly released schedule buried any shot at facing Jaylen Brown before December.
That omission fits a pattern taking shape across the league’s broader 2026-27 rollout, one that has left Boston fans wondering why the NBA keeps routing around its most obvious grudge match.
Boston landed in East Group C alongside the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards, a bracket that on paper favors the Celtics since the Hawks were the only one of the four to make the playoffs last season, according to CelticsBlog’s Noa Dalzell.
Boston Celtics’ NBA Cup Group Stage Schedule
The Celtics open group play at home against the Bulls on Friday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m. ET. They travel to Charlotte on November 6, visit Washington on November 24, then close the group slate at home against Atlanta on November 27.
Boston has not made it past the group stage in either of the past two NBA Cup tournaments, and made it only as far as the quarterfinals in the tournament’s inaugural year, Dalzell noted.
Each team plays four group games, split evenly between home and road, with the three group winners in each conference joined by a wild card, the top second-place finisher, to fill the eight-team knockout bracket, according to Bleacher Report‘s Adam Wells.
Quarterfinals run December 4-5, with the semifinals following on December 8 and/or December 9, both rounds staged in the home arenas of the higher-seeded teams. The championship lands Friday, December 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the Butler University gym made famous by “Hoosiers.” It’s the first time since the Cup’s 2023 launch that the semifinals won’t be played in Las Vegas, with only the final now reserved for a neutral site.
Why Brown and 76ers Are Missing From Boston’s Cup Slate
Brown, dealt to Philadelphia this offseason, won’t cross paths with his former team in group play regardless. The 76ers landed in East Group B with the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers, keeping Brown and the Celtics in separate pools by nature of the conference draw, according to Bleacher Report and the NBA’s official group announcement.
It’s not just the Cup bracket skipping the reunion. Boston Celtics On SI’s John Karalis broke down the league’s opening week and Christmas Day slate and found no national showcase built around a Brown “revenge game” against Boston. The league instead leaned on LeBron James narratives tied to Philadelphia, slotting the Sixers against Cleveland, James’ hometown team, and later against the Lakers — James’ most recent team — on Christmas.
Karalis’s concluded that the NBA and its broadcast partners simply don’t view Brown-versus-Boston as the moneymaker some assumed it would be, at least not yet.
A Cup meeting remains possible, but not guaranteed. Both teams have to survive group play first, either by winning their group outright or grabbing the East’s single wild-card berth. Group C sets up favorably for Boston. Group B is a tougher climb for Philadelphia given the presence of the Knicks and Cavaliers. Should both advance, they’d land among the East’s four knockout entrants, putting a Celtics-Sixers semifinal in play if the bracket breaks that way. Reaching the final would require both to survive their entire conference path. Nothing about those odds can be pinned down this early, with group results and seeding still months from being decided.
Jaylen Brown Celtics Revenge Game Left Off NBA Cup Schedule