LAS VEGAS — Bright lights. National spotlight. Playing for a trophy — and half a million dollars each for the players.
The NBA Cup has it all.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks have been on the biggest of NBA stages before and have the ring to prove it. The Oklahoma City Thunder have the top seed in the West and their own MVP candidate in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but they are still the younger team looking to prove it belongs. For the Thunder, this setting gives it some playoff practice.
“This is a great challenge. It’s an elevated situation with a lot of distractions and a lot of noise around it against a very good team,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.
Here’s everything you need to know about the NBA Cup.
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 8:30 PM ET (ABC)
Watch for the pace of this game, it will tell us everything. The Thunder are an aggressive ball-pressure defensive team that averages a league-best 12.2 steals a game, they also lead the league in deflections, and once they force a turnover the young legs of the Thunder get out and run. The Thunder are fourth in the league in percentage of possessions that start in transition, while the Bucks are 24th. If this game becomes a track meet, Oklahoma City will run away with it.
Expect a low-scoring, more defensive matchup: The Thunder have the best defense in the NBA, and while the Bucks started the season slowly, they have a top-10 defense over their last 15 games. Whichever team can solve the puzzle of how to score on the other will win — that’s something Oklahoma City did to Houston in the semifinals, scoring 70 in the second half. The Bucks solve a lot of problems because they can fall back on the Giannis Antetokounmpo/Damian Lillard pick-and-roll, which is nearly impossible to defend.
(Odds via Bet MGM):
Oklahoma City -4.5 over Houston
Under/Over: 215.5
Oklahoma City is a team that learns its lessons. Late last season the Thunder played the Bucks and… let’s let OKC coach Mark Daigneault explain it.
“We played them late in the year last year on the road and they really took it to us, and it was a great game for us,” Daigneault said. “Because we had been having a great season to that point, and we ran up against a team that was really ready to take it to us, and they did. Physically mauled us. Played with more edge that night. It was good — it was like water in the face for us.”
Nobody has an answer for Giannis Antetokounmpo, but this is a more physical, more mature Thunder team with the league’s best defense and it will slow Antetokounmpo down. On the other end, Milwaukee will struggle to slow down Gilgeous-Alexander and a balanced Oklahoma City attack. Give me the Thunder and I’ll give up the points.
Each player on the winning team for the NBA Cup will take home more than half a million dollars — and the players are very open about how much that motivates them. Even the ones making tens of millions of dollars.
“In Little Rock, Arkansas, minimum wage, where I’m from, is very low. It’ll take guys a lifetime to make $500,000 bucks,” Bobby Portis said. “So I don’t take any dollar amount lightly.”
Here’s how it breaks out per player:
• NBA Cup champion: $514,971
• Player on losing team in championship game: $205,988
• Players on losing teams in semifinals: $102,944
• Players on losing teams in quarterfinals: $51,497
