Bright courts and big money. Welcome to the newly rebranded 2024 Emirates NBA Cup.

The Celtics’ Tuesday night matchup with the Atlanta Hawks at TD Garden is the first of four NBA Cup group play games they will play over the next 2 1/2 weeks. Boston will host the Cleveland Cavaliers next Tuesday night, then visit the Washington Wizards next Friday and the Chicago Bulls on Friday, Nov. 29.

The league tweaked some of the rules for this season’s NBA Cup — known last year as the In-Season Tournament — but the basics remain the same: Each pool-play game counts toward the regular-season standings, and the top eight teams (the six group winners and the top second-place finisher from each conference) advance to the single-elimination knockout rounds.

The quarterfinals are held at home arenas, with the semifinals and finals taking place in Las Vegas on Dec. 14 and 17. The big prize: a $500,000 bonus to each player on the winning team — no small sum, especially for non-superstars. Runner-up gets $200,000 per player, semifinalists $100,000 and quarterfinalists $50,000.

All tournament games again will feature NBA Cup-specific courts — a vibrant green in Boston’s case — but home teams will wear their standard alternate “Statement” uniforms rather than the “City” unis that rotate each season.

For the Celtics, that’s the black set they’ve worn since 2017, not the new neon-splattered one they’ll officially unveil later this week.

The Celtics won their group last season, though they needed to run up the score against Chicago in their final pool-play game to do so (point differential is the second tiebreaker after head-to-head). They were bounced in the quarterfinals by Indiana, which went on to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers in the championship game.

Teams eliminated before the knockouts will have two additional games scheduled against other eliminated teams (one home, one road). Teams knocked out in the quarterfinals will play one additional game. All of those also will count toward the regular-season standings, as will the semifinals. Only the final is exempt.

This year’s Cup draw was a tricky one for the C’s, as the Cavaliers have been the only other impressive Eastern Conference squad so far this season. Cleveland entered Tuesday with a league-best 12-0 record, with Boston sitting second in the East at 9-2. The Pacers were third at 5-5, and every other team in the conference was below .500.

Mazzulla’s Cup tweak

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said he likes the idea of the NBA Cup, which is aimed at injecting more excitement and competitiveness into a traditionally dull section of the schedule.

There’s one change he would make, however. He wants to see it turned into a true standalone tournament that is separate from the regular season.

“The best way to, in my opinion, make it more impactful is to move it away from the 82-game schedule,” Mazzulla said. “So it’s not just a regular-season game; it’s something different. You see the other tournaments around the world, they don’t count toward your domestic league. It’s its own league entirely.

“So that, to me, is my only negative towards it. I like it. I think having something like that in the middle of the season is good, especially for a long year. Just that’s the difference between what we do here and what you do around the world. But it’s an opportunity for us to win something, an opportunity to go after something, so we’re kind of looking at it from that perspective.”

Hawks coach Quin Snyder spent one season coaching in Europe with CSKA Moscow, which competes in both the Russian Professional Basketball League and the international EuroLeague, so he had prior experience with this type of setup. He also believes the NBA Cup is good for the game.

“I do like it,” Snyder said. “I don’t know what there isn’t to like right now. I think as people have gotten comfortable with it and will get more and more comfortable with it, it’s something that is unique. Obviously, having spent a little time in Europe with the EuroLeague and the tournaments and some of those things, it does add something to our league. I know that logistically, it can be challenging at times, but I think the benefits of it far outweigh that.

“And it does create, I think from a competitive standpoint, to be able to focus on something else — even though there is the regular season attached to it, of course. But a chance to play in a tournament, there’s just a different mindset, a championship and all those different things that are associated with that that I think it’s great for the players, I think it’s great for the coaches and in particular, the fans.”

Celtics stars ‘good’

The Celtics were at close to full strength for Tuesday’s game.

Starters Jayson Tatum and Al Horford both were active against the Hawks after being listed as questionable with ankle and toe injuries, respectively.

The only players unavailable for Boston were rehabbing center Kristaps Porzingis, who has yet to return from offseason leg surgery, and reserve guard Jaden Springer, who missed his second straight game with left knee tendinopathy.

Tatum suffered his injury on a controversial closeout by Giannis Antetokounmpo during Sunday’s win over Milwaukee. Tatum landed on Antetokounmpo’s foot and turned his ankle, though he was able to remain in the game.

Mazzulla said Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who missed four games with a hip flexor strain before returning against the Bucks, would have no minutes restrictions Tuesday night.

“They’re both good,” the coach said.

Mazzulla also said he wasn’t reprimanded by the NBA for saying it was “ridiculous” that Antetokounmpo was not called for a foul on the aforementioned play.

The Hawks, meanwhile, were missing six players, including All-Star Trae Young and fellow guards Kobe Bufkin, Bogdan Bogdanovich and Vit Krejci. Snyder was asked how being down so many backcourt players would alter his approach.

“It’s a little bit like a football team losing three quarterbacks,” the coach replied. “You run the ball.”