Defensive rotations, full-court pressure and double coverage. The Oklahoma City Thunder tried to give a defensive performance in the NBA Cup final this Tuesday. It was what the leader of the West, and the best defense in the league, needed to deploy on the field to stop the Bucks of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. The strategy did not work. Those from Milwaukee beat the Thunder in their game to overwhelm one of the youngest franchises in the competition with an excellent team game (97-81). The Bucks have won their second league trophy in three years tonight, after the 2021 championship. They also do so by taking home a generous bonus for the victory.
Thanks to their efforts, the Bucks have won the jackpot in Las Vegas. Each Milwaukee player will receive $308,000 for taking home the second NBA Cup. The figure may be even higher, at 514,000, for those with an average contract. “This changes the lives of the youngest (and lowest paid) players,” Dame Lillard said after the victory.
Oklahoma, which was looking for its first title in history (except for those the franchise won in Seattle) is not leaving empty-handed. Each one takes home about $200,000 to make the defeat more bearable.
The Bucks were not expected to show such dominance. Those from Milwaukee have made it clear, however, why they have 13 wins in their last 16 games. His power was displayed especially in the second half of the match. Giannis scored 12 points in the third quarter and Lillard contributed another eight in the same period. The pair scored a combined 49 points to lead scorers on the night. Antetokounmpo was declared the MVP of the game after achieving a triple double (26 points, 19 rebounds, 15 of these defensive and 10 assists)
“We played team basketball. We knew that whatever happened in Las Vegas we were going to be better,” Antetokounmpo said after lifting the best player trophy. The Greek star boasted the concentration of his teammates, who beat Oklahoma at their own game. The Bucks raised a barrier to the best defense in the NBA. The Thunder average 115 per game in the regular season. Tonight he scored only 81. In the last two periods they only scored 31 points.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the top scorer with 21 points for a team that couldn’t find an offensive rhythm. They only made five triples out of 32 attempts (15%) compared to the 17 made by the champions, 42%. Less than 30 shots inside the perimeter went into the basket.
Oklahoma began to deflate as the game progressed. Doc Rivers, Milwaukee’s coach, sat Giannis down in the third quarter, when the Greek had already accumulated 26 points on his account. The absence of the star did not affect the momentum of the Bucks, who continued to expand their lead thanks to a couple of triples from the entire staff, including center Brooke Lopez, who finished with 13 points. The team didn’t even miss veteran Khris Middleton, who was out due to illness after a good game in the semifinal.
“We knew what we were. They spoke very badly about us, but we had to find trust, stay together and keep pushing,” Lillard said after the game. The point guard left Portland to win titles and today he achieved it. Many thought that this was not going to be their year because they began accumulating defeats at the start of the campaign. Today they have rectified course.
The Bucks will return to the NBA regular season on Friday to face Donovan Mitchell’s Cavs, the current leaders of the East. But this Tuesday’s trophy will be enough motivation for Milwaukee to fight for the top of the conference.
New All-Star format
The Cup, a competition created last year, seems to mark the north for the NBA. The league revealed this Tuesday the new format of the all-star game, a night that has been the subject of several experiments in recent years to attract more public attention with more competition and less exhibition. The new rules include the creation of a mini tournament with four teams. This new idea will be put to the test on February 16 at the Golden State Warriors stadium, when the all-star meeting takes place.
The All Star tournament will be played that night with the four teams and three games, where the winner will be the first to reach 40 points. Three squads will be made up of eight players. The fourth will be made up of emerging stars, rookies and players in their second year in the NBA.
The 24 players who will make up the teams will be chosen by Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, three former basketball stars who have rediscovered fame as NBA commentators on the TNT network. Candance Parker, the former star of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, will lead the fourth team’s lineup of rising stars. The list of players who will make the trip to San Francisco will be revealed on February 6.
The NBA came to the conclusion that it had to change the format after this year’s party in Indiana. The organizers returned to the classic East versus West match, where there was an offensive party that included long-range shots, fantasy passes and passes using Luka Dončića’s butt as a screen. The squads combined for a record score of 397 points (211-186, favor the East). The players then concluded that an improvement to the model was possible where there was motivation to defend in order to compete.
