NBA In-Season Tournament: Celtics favorites to win inaugural NBA Cup

The NBA on Tuesday unveiled its schedule for the inaugural in-season tournament beginning with a group phase on Nov. 3 and continuing through Nov. 28.

All 30 teams have been placed into groups of five within their conference based on records from last season. Teams will play each opponent within their group once with two games at home and two on the road.

Teams will play their group games in November on tournament nights, which are every Tuesday and Friday with the exception of Election Day on Nov. 7 when no games will be played. The group games will be the only ones to take place on those nights.

In total, eight teams will advance from the group stage to the knockout round: The six teams with the best record from each group and two wild cards, which is the team from each conference with the best record that finished second in a group.

The knockout stage will consist of single-elimination games for the eight teams that advanced from the group phase. The games will take place Dec. 4-5 and be hosted by the two teams in each conference with the best record from group play.

The 67 games that are part of the in-season tournament will count toward the regular-season standings except the championship game. The semifinals (Dec. 7) and championship game (Dec. 9) will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Players signed to standard contracts on the team that takes home the NBA Cup will receive $500,000 apiece. Players on the second-place team will earn $200,000 apiece with $100,000 apiece to the teams that lose in the semifinals and $50,000 to teams that lose in the quarterfinals.

The Boston Celtics enter the season as the early favorites to win the inaugural tournament, according to the DraftKings Sportsbook. They edged the Denver Nuggets.

Here are the 10 teams with the best odds of winning the NBA Cup.