As the tragic tale goes, the Boston Celtics’ NBA Cup run did not make it out of the group stage. Boston won just two of its four games, landing them in second place in Group B.
Since the NBA Cup games actually count towards the regular-season standings (except for the championship game), teams that did not advance to play in the quarterfinals need two extra games added to their schedule each year. This is why when the NBA schedule comes out in August, there’s always a big gap for teams in early December.
The league uses the pool of eliminated teams to add the extra matchups each year.