LAS VEGAS — Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks hope to add the NBA Cup to their list of accomplishments, but they’ll need to go through an Oklahoma City Thunder group that’s established itself as the premier force in the West.
The Bucks and Thunder will square off here Tuesday in the second-ever NBA Cup championship game.
Antetokounmpo rose to the occasion in the Bucks’ 110-102 win over the Atlanta Hawks in Saturday’s semifinal. He fell one assist shy of a triple-double but was dominant nonetheless, tallying 32 points and 14 rebounds. A victory in the Cup final would punctuate a drastic early-season turnaround for Milwaukee, which has won 12 of its last 15 games after starting the year 2-8.
Antetokounmpo is averaging a league-high 32.7 points over 23 games this season and is firmly in contention to win his third MVP award. Damian Lillard’s recent performance has also been key in Milwaukee’s turnaround, as the eight-time All-Star is scoring 25.7 points per game.
As much as Antetokounmpo wants to be the greatest, he doesn’t dwell too much on what winning the NBA Cup –or another MVP — would do for his own legacy.
“I think when you approach the game that way, things like being in the finals of the NBA Cup, winning the championship, things like that just fall in place,” Antetokounmpo said. “I think any player that approaches the game thinking all season, ‘I want to win the MVP, I want to do that, I want to do this’, and that’s the main goal, it won’t happen. Because you approach the game the wrong way and you’re thinking about yourself.
“It takes so much more (than wanting to be the best). You’ve got to sacrifice so many things. You’ve got to be consistent. You have to have a fearless mentality about yourself. You’ve got to have confidence … I try to give everything I have for the game, and if that sometimes leads to success and individual accolades, that’s good. And if not, it is what it is.”
The Thunder advanced to the final with an 111-96 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday, led by 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Thunder are atop the West with a 20-5 record overall and earned the top seed for the knockout stage after going 3-1 in group play.
For an Oklahoma City core that’s still looking to make its first significant splash in the postseason, winning the NBA Cup over a Bucks team with championship experience would be a true stepping stone. To do so without star Chet Holmgren — who’s missed the last month with a hip injury — would also be a legitimate statement to the rest of the league.
The atmosphere surrounding the NBA Cup final is also giving the Thunder some extra experience in dealing with the limelight.
“This is like the closest thing that you can get to a playoff environment (in the regular season) for the most part, aside from a couple games are going to feel like that,” Jalen Williams said. “It’s a good learning moment for us to be able to have a lot of media before practice. We get to simulate a lot of what’s going on during the playoffs, during those stretches, to where we can kind of flex that muscle now and be better later in the season.”
Gilgeous-Alexander is once again an MVP candidate in Oklahoma City, averaging 30.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists. Williams has continued his emergence in his third NBA season, as the third-year forward out of Santa Clara is averaging 21.7 points and a team-high 6.1 rebounds per game.
Isaiah Hartenstein has been one of the players to step up in Holmgren’s absence. The center is averaging 12.5 points per game and scored 21 points to help push Oklahoma City over Houston in the semifinal.
–Will Despart, Field Level Media
