Milwaukee and New York are back in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, just like they were a year ago.
The other six remaining Cup contenders — Oklahoma City, Golden State, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Orlando — are heading there for the first time.
Group play in the NBA Cup is over and next week's quarterfinal matchups are set: Orlando goes to Milwaukee and Atlanta will visit New York on the Eastern Conference side of the bracket next week, while Oklahoma City will host to Dallas and Houston will host Golden State in the Western Conference quarters.
Milwaukee (4-0) clinched its berth by beating Detroit to win East Group B on Tuesday, while New York (4-0) beat Orlando (3-1) to win East Group A. The Magic wound up as the East's wild-card by winning a point-differential tiebreaker over Boston. Atlanta (3-1) had previously wrapped up East Group C, largely because of a one-point win over the Celtics on Nov. 12.
Oklahoma City's win over Utah wound up giving the Thunder the West Group B title, and the Thunder joined Houston (West Group A) and Golden State (West Group C) as qualifiers; the Rockets and Warriors had clinched before Tuesday night. And Dallas rallied from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Memphis and clinch the West wild-card spot.
“I like this Cup,” Mavericks star Luka Doncic said.
The four quarterfinal winners will meet in the semifinals at Las Vegas on Dec. 14, and the title game is 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 Year 2 of the event, some still aren’t clear on all the rules. Yes, Doc, you’ll be at home for the quarters.
All the Magic had to do to clinch the wild-card spot was not lose by more than 37 points in order to stay ahead of Boston in the point-differential race. They found them trailing by — you guessed it — 37 points at New York late in the third quarter.
The Magic outscored the Knicks 40-18 the rest of the way, losing by 15 on the scoreboard but winning over the Celtics in the wild-card race.
“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 got through thanks to the point differential. The Thunder edged Phoenix for the West Group B title on a head-to-head tiebreaker — both went 3-1 in group play, but the Suns' loss was to Oklahoma City — and point differential wound up making OKC the top seed out 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.”
Dec. 10: Orlando at Milwaukee, Dallas at Oklahoma City.
Dec. 11: Atlanta at New York, Golden State at Houston.
Games were added to the regular season schedules for the 22 teams that did not make the NBA Cup quarterfinals.
Dec. 12: Detroit at Boston, Toronto at Miami, Sacramento at New Orleans.
Dec. 13: Washington at Cleveland, Indiana at Philadelphia, L.A. Lakers at Minnesota, Brooklyn at Memphis, Charlotte at Chicago, L.A. Clippers at Denver, Phoenix at Utah, San Antonio at Portland.
Dec. 15: New Orleans at Indiana, Boston at Washington, Minnesota at San Antonio, Portland at Phoenix, Memphis at L.A. Lakers.
Dec. 16: Philadelphia at Charlotte, Miami at Detroit, Chicago at Toronto, Cleveland at Brooklyn, Denver at Sacramento, Utah at L.A. Clippers.
(Quarterfinal game losers will face another quarterfinal game loser in a regular season contest on either Dec. 15 or Dec. 16.)
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