All eyes shift to Las Vegas Tuesday night as the NBA Cup Final will be the showcase event.
After some enthralling quarterfinal and semifinal action, it’s the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks squaring up as the last two teams standing, just like commissioner Adam Silver drew it up.
The Thunder are the rising tide of the league, a young team that finished first in the West a season ago before learning some hard lessons in the second round against the Dallas Mavericks. At 20-5, they lead the West again through a third of the season, and now have an opportunity to make a statement in this Cup Final.
The Bucks, on the other hand, are trying to remain relevant in the championship discourse. Three years removed from winning it all, their big home run swing for Damian Lillard hasn’t yet proven as fruitful as they hoped. This game is an opportunity to signal they still have big intentions.
Here’s everything you need to know.
NBA Cup Final
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Milwaukee Bucks (TNT, 8:30 p.m. EST/5:30 p.m. PST on Tuesday, Dec. 17)
There’s no way to oversell it. The headliner is two of this season’s top-three MVP candidates in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo facing off.
Antetokounmpo has already won the award twice, while Gilgeous-Alexander is hoping to go one better than his runner-up finish to Nikola Jokic a season ago. Gilgeous-Alexander is the best player on the West’s best team. He’s improved his individual game — namely, his pull-up 3-point shooting — and the counting stats are mighty impressive at 30.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.9 steals while shooting 51 percent from the field.
The Greek Freak is right there with him. At 32.7 points per game, he leads the league in scoring, to go along with 11.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.6 blocks while shooting 61 percent from the field. Antetokounmpo has been the biggest reason for the Bucks’ turnaround from an abysmal 2-8 start to 12-3 since and sitting 14-11 overall.
Damian Lillard’s chemistry with Antetokounmpo has taken big strides from a season ago. But going up against the league’s No. 1 ranked defense, it will be interesting to see how he fares against the likes of Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso and Luguentz Dort.
That’s what makes the Thunder so scary, they just have so many different options they can turn to in a game, a true Swiss Army knife of a team that can hurt you whichever way it needs to.
Team updates:
Thunder: Chet Holmgren is sidelined with a right iliac wing fracture in the hip and isn’t expected back until around the All-Star Break.
Bucks: Khris Middleton picked up an undisclosed illness but is listed as probable to play. Lillard sat out practice Monday to tend to a calf issue but also confirmed there’s no way he’s missing the game and is also listed as probable.
Prize money:
- Players who lose in the quarterfinals: $51,497
- Players who lost in the semifinals: $102,994
- Players who lose in the championship game: $205,988
- Players who win the NBA Cup: $514,971
