Milwaukee and New York are back in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, just like they were last year.
The other six teams left in the Cup — Oklahoma City, Golden State, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Orlando — are making it to this stage for the first time.
Group play in the NBA Cup is finished, and next week’s quarterfinal matchups are set: Orlando will play in Milwaukee, and Atlanta will face New York in the Eastern Conference. In the Western Conference, Oklahoma City will host Dallas, and Houston will host Golden State.
Milwaukee (4-0) secured its spot by beating Detroit to win East Group B on Tuesday. New York (4-0) won East Group A by beating Orlando (3-1). Orlando made it to the East wild-card spot by winning a tiebreaker over Boston based on point differential. Atlanta (3-1) had already secured East Group C, mainly because of a one-point win over the Celtics on Nov. 12.
Oklahoma City’s win over Utah gave the Thunder the West Group B title. They joined Houston (West Group A) and Golden State (West Group C) as qualifiers; the Rockets and Warriors had already clinched their spots before Tuesday. Dallas came back from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Memphis and claim the West wild-card spot.
“I like this Cup,” Mavericks star Luka Doncic said.
The four quarterfinal winners will play in the semifinals in Las Vegas on Dec. 14, and the championship game will be there on Dec. 17.
“They put a tournament in front of us and we want to win it. And we said that early on,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “We’re 4-0, but we still have a lot of work to do, but the bottom line is, we earned a chance to play at home — I think.”
Even in the second year of the event, some people still aren’t clear on all the rules. Yes, Doc, you’ll be playing at home for the quarters.
The Magic only needed to avoid losing by more than 37 points to stay ahead of Boston in the point-differential race to claim the wild-card spot. They were trailing by 37 points at New York late in the third quarter.
However, the Magic outscored the Knicks 40-18 the rest of the way. They lost by 15 points, but the point-differential helped them advance ahead of the Celtics.
“We earned our way into the quarterfinal,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said. “Obviously, not our best game today, but that’s why you play every minute in the other games. It feels weird after a game like this to advance, but that’s just part of it.”
The Magic made it through because of the point differential. The Thunder edged out Phoenix for the West Group B title on a tiebreaker — both teams went 3-1 in group play, but the Suns lost to Oklahoma City — and point differential helped Oklahoma City become the top seed in the West over Houston.
“I don’t really know much about the Cup and how it works and everything,” Thunder guard Cason Wallace said. “I just know I want to win.”
