NEW YORK – The field for the NBA Cup knockout rounds is set, and there will be a new champion, as well as an almost completely different field than last year’s inaugural version.
When the dust settled Tuesday night, all eight teams were ready: the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference; and Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference.
Last year’s NBA Cup champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, were eliminated from advancing to the knockout rounds with losses to the Phoenix Suns and Thunder last week. The Bucks and Knicks are the only teams of the eight that also advanced to the season tournament last year.
Next week’s quarterfinal matchups will be the Magic taking on the Bucks and the Thunder hosting the Mavericks on Tuesday, with the Hawks taking on the Knicks and the Warriors visiting the Rockets on Wednesday.
“Yeah, it’s great,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said of his team’s advance to the quarterfinals. “They put a tournament ahead of us and we want to win it. We said it from the beginning and we are 4-0. But we still have a lot of work to do.”
Going into Tuesday, the stakes were still high. The Hawks, Rockets and Warriors were locked into the quarterfinals as group winners, but the other five spots were up for grabs, including two games in the East (Magic vs. Knicks and Bucks vs. Pistons) that featured outright wins. at stake, as they would determine the winners of Groups A and B, respectively.
The drama in each game didn’t last long, with the Knicks and Bucks racing to a sizable halftime lead and moving forward from there. The only thing that needs to be discussed at that moment? Whether the Knicks could knock Orlando, which had a huge 60-plus point lead entering Tuesday’s game, out of the quarterfinals entirely with a blowout victory.
In fact, New York led by as many as 37 points (the amount the Knicks needed to win to eliminate the Magic and allow the Boston Celtics to reach the quarterfinals as a wild card) in the third quarter. But Orlando finally fought back in the fourth quarter to make the game a more respectable 121-106 Knicks victory.
“We earned our way to the quarterfinals,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said. “Obviously it’s not our best game today, but that’s why in the other games you play hard every minute.
“It feels strange to move forward even after a game like this, but it’s just part of it.”
As a result, Orlando became the wild card, and the Magic will head to the top-seeded Bucks, while the Hawks and Trae Young, who advanced by beating Boston without Young last month, will travel to New York to play. the Knicks, with trips to Las Vegas at stake for the winners.
In the West, Houston and Golden State came into Tuesday knowing they just had to win to clinch home court in the tournament, regardless of what happens elsewhere. But the Warriors surrendered a 14-2 run to the Nuggets in Denver before losing 119-115. And Domantas Sabonis scored 27 points to lead the Sacramento Kings to a 120-111 home win over the Rockets. That opened the door for the Thunder to become the top seed in the West based on point differential thanks to their 133-106 victory over the Utah Jazz.
“I wasn’t at all until I found out we were going to win tonight,” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters when asked if he had been following what was happening with the League Cup qualifying. NBA before Tuesday’s game. “I just asked around, but it’s all too confusing.
“I just win and then we’ll see where we end up.”
