Details for four games from Heat’s 2024-25 schedule announced, with full schedule expected soon

The NBA’s full 2024-25 regular-season schedule is expected to be released later this week. But four games from the Miami Heat’s schedule for this upcoming season were released on Tuesday.

The NBA announced details for the four group play games that each team will have on their schedule for the league’s second annual in-season tournament, which was recently renamed the Emirates NBA Cup. All 30 teams were randomly drawn into groups of five within their conference based on records from last regular season.

The Heat’s five-team group for this season’s in-season tournament includes the Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons. Every team in the league will play one game against each of the four opponents in their group with two coming at home and two coming on the road, and those games will take place across four Tuesdays (Nov. 12, 19 and 26 and Dec. 3) and three Fridays (Nov. 15, 22 and 29).

The Heat’s four group play games, which will also count as regular-season games, that were announced Tuesday are: Nov. 12 vs. Pistons at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit at 7 p.m., Nov. 15 vs. Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis at 7 p.m., Nov. 26 vs. Bucks at Kaseya Center in Miami at 7:30 p.m., and Nov. 29 vs. Raptors at Kaseya Center in Miami at 8 p.m.

The Heat will release local broadcast information for those four games at a later date. But one of the four games — Nov. 26 vs. Bucks in Miami — will be aired nationally on TNT.

The full 2024-25 NBA regular-season schedule is set to be unveiled on Thursday.

What are the rules behind the NBA’s in-season tournament? Here’s a refresher:

The winner of each of the six groups and two wild cards (the team from each conference with the best record in group play that finished second in its group) — a total of eight teams — will advance to the knockout single-elimination rounds.

Despite the added wrinkle of the in-season tourney, every team will continue to play 82 regular-season games. That’s because every game in the in-season tournament will count toward regular-season stats and standings, except the championship game.

The 22 teams not advancing to the quarterfinals will play two regular-season games (one home game and one road game) on Dec. 12 or Dec. 13 and Dec. 15 or Dec. 16 to fill the missing two games in their standard 82-game schedules.

The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals will play each other in a regular-season game on Dec. 12, 13, 15 or 16 to fill the missing game in their 82-game schedules.

For the four teams that win in the quarterfinals, their 82nd game will come in the semifinals.

The two teams that advance to the championship game will play an extra game (83rd game) for the NBA Cup that won’t count toward the regular season. The Los Angeles Lakers won last season’s inaugural NBA Cup.

The quarterfinals will be played in NBA team markets on Dec. 10 and 11. Those games will be hosted by the two teams with the best record in group play games from each conference, with the team holding the best record in group play from each conference hosting the wild card team in their respective conference.

The semifinals and championship game of the event will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 14 and Dec. 17.

The Heat did not advance past the group stage of the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament last season.

Since two games for each team from Dec. 10-16 remain up in the air until the group stage of the in-season tournament plays out, only 80 of the 82 regular-season games for each team will be announced when the full schedule is released on Thursday.

The Heat also announced its full five-game preseason schedule on Monday: Oct. 8 vs. Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center in Charlotte at 7 p.m., Oct. 10 vs. Atlanta Hawks at Kaseya Center in Miami at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 13 vs. New Orleans Pelicans at Kaseya Center in Miami at 3:30 p.m., Oct. 15 vs. San Antonio Spurs at Kaseya Center in Miami at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 18 vs. Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum in Memphis at 8 p.m.

The Heat is scheduled to hold its annual media day on Sept. 30 before opening training camp on Oct. 1 to kick off the 2024-25 season. Through a promotional email sent out last week, the Heat revealed that it is planning to hold training camp at Baha Mar in the Bahamas this year for the second time in the last three seasons.