Milwaukee and New York are into the NBA Cup quarter-finals, just as they were a year ago. The other six remaining Cup contenders – Oklahoma City, Golden State, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Orlando – are heading there for the first time.
Group play in the NBA Cup is over and next week’s quarter-final matchups are set: Orlando go to Milwaukee and Atlanta will visit New York on the Eastern Conference side of the bracket; while Oklahoma City will host Dallas and Houston will play Golden State in the Western Conference quarters.
Milwaukee (4-0) clinched their berth by beating Detroit to win East Group B on Tuesday, while New York (4-0) beat Orlando (3-1) to win East Group A. The Magic wound up as the East’s wildcard by winning a point-differential tiebreaker over Boston. Atlanta (3-1) had previously wrapped up East Group C, largely because of a one-point win over the Celtics on 12 November.
Oklahoma City’s win over Utah wound up giving the Thunder the West Group B title, and the Thunder joined Houston (West Group A) and Golden State (West Group C) as qualifiers; the Rockets and Warriors had clinched before Tuesday night. And Dallas rallied from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Memphis and clinch the West wildcard spot.
“I like this Cup,” Mavericks star Luka Dončić said.
The four quarter-final winners will meet in the semifinals at Las Vegas on 14 December, and the title game is there on 17 December.
“They put a tournament in front of us and we want to win it. And we said that early on,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “We’re 4-0 but we still have a lot of work to do, but the bottom line is, we earned a chance to play at home – I think.”
Even in Year 2 of the event, some still aren’t clear on all the rules. But Rivers was correct: the Bucks will be at home for the quarters.
All the Magic had to do to clinch the wildcard spot was not lose by more than 37 points in order to stay ahead of Boston in the point-differential race. They found them trailing by, yes, 37 points at New York late in the third quarter. But the Magic outscored the Knicks 40-18 the rest of the way, losing by 15 on the scoreboard but winning over the Celtics in the wildcard race.
“We earned our way into the quarter-final,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said. “Obviously, not our best game today but that’s why you play every minute in the other games. It feels weird after a game like this to advance, but that’s just part of it.”
The Thunder edged Phoenix for the West Group B title on a head-to-head tiebreaker – both went 3-1 in group play, but the Suns’ loss was to Oklahoma City – and point differential wound up making OKC the top seed out West over Houston.
“I don’t really know much about the Cup and how it works and everything,” Thunder guard Cason Wallace said. “I just know I want to win.”
after newsletter promotion
Last year’s NBA Cup champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, were eliminated this year in the group stage.
NBA Cup quarter-finals schedule
10 December: Orlando at Milwaukee; Dallas at Oklahoma City.
11 December: Atlanta at New York; Golden State at Houston.