Behind game highs of 40 points and eight assists from star guard Jalen Brunson, the Knicks defeated the Magic by 12 points on Saturday in Las Vegas to advance to the final of the NBA Cup, also known as the in-season tournament.
“When you have an MVP of the league candidate in Jalen Brunson, you know, 16-for-27, 40 points, he makes the game easier for everybody,” head coach Mike Brown said, per Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. “That’s what MVPs are supposed to do, and he definitely did that tonight.”
Karl-Anthony Towns (29 points on 9-of-11 shooting, nine rebounds) and OG Anunoby (24 points on 8-of-13 shooting, six rebounds, four assists, three steals) were among the other standouts for New York.
Jalen Suggs led Orlando with 26 points and seven assists, but he was forced to leave the game in the third quarter due to a left hip injury.
The other semifinal matchup featured San Antonio and Oklahoma City. The Spurs emerged with a two-point victory over the defending champions, ending the Thunder’s 16-game winning streak in the process.
As Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com details, while four Spurs finished with 20-plus points, the primary takeaway from the game was the play of big man Victor Wembanyama, who was making his first appearance in a month after missing the past 12 games due to a left calf strain. Coming off the bench for the first time in his career, the French star finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, with San Antonio outscoring OKC by 21 points in his 21 minutes.
“It’s our first time playing [with] everybody [healthy],” Wembanyama said. “We were already a solid team already more than 20 games ago. It’s just experience. We’re just figuring it out. And the difference with us and [Oklahoma City] is we haven’t had this many reps recognizing what it takes to win. And this is our next step.
“This OKC team, they’re not just first in the league. They’re way ahead of everybody. And when you watch them, no matter who, whether it’s the 12th man or the starting five, whether they’re playing against the 15th seed or any kind of game, they’re playing the same way. They’re enjoying the little things that make them win, and this is the next step we have to pass.”
The final between New York and San Antonio will take place Tuesday at 7:30 pm CT in Las Vegas, the NBA announced (via Twitter). Both teams are currently 18-7.
As someone who very loosely follows the NBA, does anyone actually care about the NBA cup?
Otto371:
Not to my knowledge. And I’m a Knicks fan. I don’t think I care about this at all.
i like that it creates some good matchups early in the season, but the actual cup not so much
Yes, I care about basketball and about winning
Only natural losers wouldnt care about it
Imagine thinking the only way to “care about basketball” is to blindly worship every new trophy the league invents. You can love the sport, want your team to win and still not lose sleep over a made for TV cup. Calling people losers for that just screams insecurity.
I agree but if the spurs win ill be a cup advocate till i die 😂
When did I say that?
If you are a loser, you wouldnt care about winning
You could care about basketball and be a loser. And I guess you could also be iliterate.
Stupid post Brabo.
Calling people losers and illiterate while misspelling illiterate…classic! Enjoy the Cup Finals!
Brabo:
What a dopey remark. The wins and losses matter, but who cares about some fake cup that they made up that means nothing?
Nope and glad OKC won’t have to play an extra game and put that on their body.
I kinda like it, but now I’m worried a Knick will get injured in an exhibition game. It needs to count for something in the standings.
I would be more of an advocate if it wasn’t entirely meaningless to the NBA season. If the winner were to, say, obtain an all-purpose automatic tiebreaker in the standings or something along those lines, then it would be more interesting.
Alternatively, it could be like how the MLB All-star game was and determine home court advantage in the Finals
It’s such an apparent cash grab when they don’t do anything with it. So many ways to make it meaningful.
I’m an NBA fan so one small thing I find attractive is at the end of these NBA cup games, there is no “dribbling out the clock.” Every point matters in the standings so guys are going the full 48 no matter what the score is.
As far as who wins the cup, it really doesn’t matter, but I love watching competitive basketball and if there’s extra reason for competition in December, I’m all for it.
But the cup winner? I couldn’t tell you who won it last year as the article states the thunder lost in the semis. I know the Lakers won it the first year, but that’s about it. Well that and Moses Moody sucks.
One more thought I have is that this could be an indicator of the direction of the team early in the season in games that matter a little bit?
As an example, any regular season spurs thunder match up could go either way and if you win or lose, maybe you take it with a grain of salt.
But the NBA cup has a little more behind it so winning or losing here gives a glimpse at the realities surrounding your team at an early point this season?
First you have to understand what it is. If you just think about it as basketball games. Cause that’s what they are. Then you can appreciate winning it. If you make it that far. The hate and negativity is just ignorance.
Yup! It’s nothing super important. Wouldn’t crush me if they lost like the actual season
But the players clearly care. And it’s fun.
It’s not that serious
Viewership is up during the games, although that can be possibly be explained by other factors. If I had to guess, I’d say it makes causal fans care more but not those who more closely follow the sport.
People here will say it sucks and no one watches it, but most are talking out of their you-know-where and we aren’t the best audience to cherry pick from.
Personally, I’d like the cup more if a) it was only held every three years, b) the court designs were toned out a bit and less of an eyesore in some cases. But it’s fine. Games are games and the players seem to enjoy the atmosphere, whether it’s for the stakes or the chance at an extra paycheck.
I’d enjoy it very much if the team I support won it.
And I like basketball, and this cup creates nice match-ups and the games are competitive. It’s not revolutionary or anything like that, but I don’t hate it.
It sucks that the final game doesn’t count towards the regular season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Spurs play the two way players some meaningful minutes.
As a spurs fan, I think it would be cool to add 1 NBA cup banner and fill it up over the years with every additional win, in similar fashion to what the Lakers did, but as I said this game doesn’t really count and that’s a shame.
It just gets a good matchup or two. Spurs look really good and OKC was coached poorly. They just let Wemb dominate their small line-up while the Spurs could run all 4 of their best guards.
Plus OKC got nearly all the calls and still lost. They can’t shoot 3’s, especially when not at home.
F the corporate greed that made this only available on Amazon.
That said, props to the Spurs for not getting rattled when down 16 in the 2nd Q. Devin Vassell and Fox hit some huge threes, and the Spurs’ defense was very impressive.
“F the corporate greed that made this only available on Amazon.”
I don’t really see how this is any different than if the game were to be exclusively broadcast on TNT. It was pretty clear at the beginning of the year that Amazon would have a significant subset of NBA games. I’d have been more upset if it were on Peacock, since I rely on local broadcasts for NBC. I hate Bezos as much as anyone, but I can’t be mad about this
Only the Final game is exclusive to amazon. All other games are on nba league pass. Since they are regular season games.
@KnickAl,
Not true, when the semifinal games are live they’re exclusive on Prime. They can be watched on demand on NBA league pass after they’re over.
Considering it’s a regular season game. I thought all games are on nba package or msg. Hmmm
@wagner13
TNT is available on every cable or satellite provider as part of their offerings. To watch the NBA on Prime you have to pay for the service.
do you not have to pay to have cable or satellite?
Yes you do. TNT is basic pkg.
Fox is really giving the Spurs a great back court. He’s playing so well and with the two young guys, they are loaded back there.
Haven’t seen the spurs often enough and I think Harper was hurt but wow, he is a player.
Of course castle is great too so if the forwards play well, the Spurs time is not, wait till next year. It’s now.
You give an F to Amazon? I give them an A+.
You can subscribe to Netflix, but not prime network?
A corporation‘s job is to make money. But it’s really not the fault of the corporation, but rather the greedy stockholders demanding profits and increased stock prices !! That’s where the pressure is.
The NBA’s job is to make money too. That’s bad?
How else am I going to watch the best in the world play professional basketball if we don’t have the NBA? And how would we have the NBA if they lost money every year?
I don’t subscribe to either Prime or Netflix.
Feel like significantly more people have access to the games in prime than tnt
I don’t know anyone that owns cable anymore except people my parents age. So thankfully I was able to use their log in to watch games previous years. Every single person I know has prime
What’s the purpose of having this every year now?
mlb, To get through the dog days of December.
What is there to look forward to otherwise? Christmas day games? Then the trading deadline in February.
I think it breaks it up a little bit and gives the regular season match up, which would ordinarily be ho hum, a little extra incentive for the player to play for one, and play with more intent to win.
Congrats for helping Bezos get even richer.
That’s a problem?
I don’t get it, and I say this with respect and love and understanding of all viewpoints.
What do you think he does with the money? Put it under his mattress?
I think he probably invests it or puts it in the bank or buys stock in other businesses to help them get funding and started or grow themselves.
Maybe he invests in Amazon and builds more warehouses? That way I get my stuff quicker lol
Maybe he buys boats and fancy cars that are built by guys who make them and companies who make them.
I really don’t understand what’s wrong with being a billionaire? It’s not like he puts the money in a suitcase and sits on it.
Besides, do you want the government to own NBA teams and everyone makes 50 grand a year? I like that Joe Lacob is a billionaire. Then Curry can make more money and Klay Thompson can make more money.
But don’t get me wrong. I appreciate and love all different viewpoints. It’s what makes the world go round.
Nobody comes into the season wanting to win the NBA Cup. It’s the beginning of the season. And you are just getting your team right. The NBA Cup games are REGULAR season games. So you are just trying to win games. Trying to stay healthy and finding your groove.
You play 4 season games to qualify for tournament. The top 4 teams advance. 4 from East 4 from West.
Then it goes down to 4 teams. 2 from East and 2 from West. Those 4 teams go to Vegas. All these games are just part of the 82 gm season. Nothing new here except the court’s design. Then the 4 teams becomes two teams in Finals.
Now the Finals game is the only extra game of the year. And it’s only for the two winners of East and West. Both teams get compensated for the extra game.
So if your team is healthy and playing well. They have a good chance to make the elite eight.
Then you will try to win next three games to win the cup. It’s just an in season tournament to make a few games more meaningful. So what is all the hate about ……. If you make it to final 4. You are not going in to lose. And if you win it you get a $500,000.00 check. You lose you get a $200,000.00 check. What’s to hate.
Spurs are deep and young. That was a nice win over Thunder. The Thunder have trouble with talented bigs , centers. You saw that last night. I agree the Spurs are talented at the guard position. They are handling Harper well. Something I wasn’t sure about.
Knicks are rounding into shape. Their bench though still has questions. Yabusele signing is starting to look bad. Landry Shamet probably not coming back. They need their picks to level up. Like Spurs picks have done.
Knicks vs Spurs should be competitive. This is a game where we will need Mitch. Are Spurs fir real this year ?? maybe we ask the Thunder.
From watching the 2 game’s highlights, I think the Spurs will upset the favored Knicks and win the cup.
They are deeper. Definitely don’t think Knicks got this. Knicks shoot well. They can pull it off. I’m real interested to see how Towns handles Wemby lol
Now with the internet taking over as main signal. The streaming companies are set up to take over. Imo every should control their own product. They represent their cities game and fans. That’s what is being pushed as product imo. Thats what majes it a great game. Most fans in USA don’t realize how global basketball is. Only second to real Football.
Are we just supposed to ignore the fact that a league in the midst of a series of gambling scandals permits this high profile event to take place in the gambling capital of the world???