The Warriors are battling the Rockets at Chase Center in their final NBA Cup group game, with Golden State sitting at 10-9 and Houston at 11-4 this season. Both teams are struggling in West Group C, having won just one of their first three games each. The Golden State Warriors are fighting to keep a slim chance of advancing alive, while the Houston Rockets are looking to solidify a better position despite a tough start. Every possession counts as the two sides clash on the court.

How does the NBA Cup qualify teams for the quarterfinals?

With just two days left in the NBA Cup group stage, the race for the knockout round is heating up. Six of the eight spots are still open, with the Raptors from the East and the Lakers from the West already securing their spots. The rest of the teams are scrambling, and it’s all about wins, losses, and even point differentials to see who makes it.

The eight teams that make it out of the group stage move on to a knockout tournament, where one loss means you’re out. Once the eight teams are set, six group winners plus one wild card from each conference, the single-elimination quarterfinals kick off on December 9 and 10, with the higher-seeded teams hosting the games at their home arenas.

Win, and you move on; lose, and the prize money is smaller, with quarterfinal losers earning $51,497 per player.

The action then shifts to Las Vegas for the semifinals on December 13 and the championship on December 16 at T-Mobile Arena. Teams will need to keep their heads in the game, because even tiny point differences can decide who advances.

Where do the Golden State Warriors stand in the NBA Cup 2025?

The Golden State Warriors are currently struggling in West Group C of the NBA Cup. Sitting at 1-2 with a -28 point differential, they are at the bottom of the five-team group behind the Trail Blazers, Nuggets, Spurs, and Rockets. With only a few games left in the group stage, Golden State’s chances of advancing to the knockout round are slim.

Even a win tonight at Chase Center won’t guarantee them a spot, they’ll be relying on other teams’ results to have any shot at moving forward.

West Group C is shaping up as one of the toughest clusters in the conference. Portland and Denver lead the pack at 2-1, while the Spurs and Rockets are in the middle of the pack. The Trail Blazers technically control their own destiny, even with a -18 point differential, because of a head-to-head tiebreaker against Denver.

For Golden State, their -28 point differential isn’t helping, the league uses this metric to break ties and measure performance across games, and right now it’s working against the Warriors.

Even if the Warriors manage to win their remaining game, they would still be at the mercy of how the other matchups play out, particularly Portland versus San Antonio and Denver versus San Antonio. With the math stacked against them and only a couple of days left in the group stage, the Warriors are effectively eliminated from automatic qualification, though a perfect storm of results could still keep them alive.

What do the Warriors need to do to qualify for the quarterfinals?

For the Warriors to survive elimination:

• Warriors need to beat the Houston Rockets tonight
• Timberwolves need to defeat the Thunder
• Suns must win against the Kings
• Lakers have to beat the Clippers
• Grizzlies must take down the Pelicans
• Trail Blazers and Spurs need to finish with worse point differentials than Golden State, no matter who wins their head-to-head.

But the Warriors will be knocked out of the NBA Cup without losing to Houston if any of these happen on the final group stage night:

• Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Oklahoma City Thunder
• Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings
• Memphis Grizzlies beat the New Orleans Pelicans
• Portland Trail Blazers beat the Spurs and San Antonio finishes with a better point differential than Golden State
• San Antonio Spurs beat the Blazers and Portland ends with a better point differential than Golden State
  

It’s a tough spot for the Warriors, but they’re set to play no matter what.