In the NBA Cup this Tuesday evening and Milwaukee, Oklahoma City qualified for the 4-way final.
The Milwaukee Bucks and the Oklahoma City Thunder qualified for the 4-way NBA Cup final, winning their quarterfinal contested Tuesday. Milwaukee, already present in the last four last year, dominated Orlando (114-109), while Oklahoma City defeated Dallas (118-104).
Atlanta, New York, Golden State and Houston will compete on Wednesday for the last two tickets for the 4-way final, in Las Vegas, of this competition created last year. The semi-finals will take place in a dry match on Saturday before the final on December 17. In an indecisive duel with 13 changes of leader and a gap which never exceeded 11 points, Milwaukee believed to make the difference during the 3rd quarter, thanks to Giannis Antetokounmpo (37 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks), author of a memorable dunk against Goga Bitadze.
But Orlando came back in the last quarter, in the wake of the astonishing Jalen Suggs (32 points, 9 rebounds), whose mission was to make people forget the long-term absences of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, both injured. at the level of the oblique muscles. In a tense endgame, the actions specialist «clutch» (decisive) Damian Lillard (28 points, 9 assists) shone for the Bucks, equalizing with a 3-point shot 52 seconds from the siren, before scoring a dunk then securing on the free throw line.
Uncompromising Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
The qualification confirms the good form of the Bucks, who have won 9 of their last 11 matches after a failed start to the season. No need for confirmation for Oklahoma City, No. 1 in the last regular season in the West, which started again on the same basis, and leads its conference with 19 wins and 5 defeats (the NBA Cup matches also count for the season regular). The Thunder offered themselves a prestigious success against Dallas, NBA finalist in the spring, by locking the magician Luka Doncic with a tight defense on the Slovenian (2 points at half-time, 16 in the end).
“We wanted to be aggressive from the start, and we managed to maintain that for the rest of the match”appreciated the leader of the Thunder, the Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, once again exceptional (39 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 interceptions, 1 block). “We have a playoff feeling. And we work on our cohesion every day, in training but also because we are together all the time off the court.added «SGA».
The Thunder, excited in their room, broke away in the 3rd quarter (33-19), before seeing Dallas come back to 8 points in the middle of the 4th quarter with Klay Thompson (19 points) and Kyrie Irving ( 17 points), without ultimately worrying the locals.
