The 2024 NBA Cup quarterfinals are set. Five spots in the eight-team bracket were clinched Tuesday as group play concluded, and the Knicks, Bucks and Thunder were among the night’s notable winners. As a reminder, it’s single elimination from here on out. The knockout round will start at the home court of the higher seeded quarterfinalists, with the four winners advancing to Las Vegas for the semifinals and championship game.
Quarterfinal matchups
East
No. 1 Bucks vs. No. 4 Magic
No. 2 Knicks vs. No. 3 Hawks
West
No. 1 Thunder vs. No. 4 Mavericks
No. 2 Rockets vs. No. 3 Warriors
Here are some winners and losers from the group stage.
Winners: The undefeateds
Only two of the NBA’s 30 teams made it through group play in the NBA Cup with perfect 4-0 records: the Bucks and Knicks.
It’s been rough start to the season for the 11-9 Bucks, their seven-game/schedule-friendly winning streak notwithstanding. A 4-0 record out of the Eastern Conference’s Group B, Milwaukee is the East’s top seed and will host Atlanta in the quarterfinal. Cup play has been the highlight of the Bucks’ season so far, and they have a chance to create some juice with a Vegas run that could carry over.
New York, meanwhile, went 4-0 to win East’s Group A. The Knicks will host the Magic, who get in as the East’s wild card, in the quarterfinals. New York absolutely throttled Orlando on Tuesday to clinch the group in a game that was not nearly as close as the final score indicated. The Knicks’ offense is humming with Karl-Anthony Towns.
Winners: The rest of the quarterfinal field
They didn’t go undefeated, but a 3-1 group-play record was good enough to get the other six teams — the Warriors, Rockets, Hawks, Thunder, Magic and Mavericks — into the quarterfinals. Both Golden State and Houston had a shot at 4-0 but were unable to seal the deal Tuesday, when the Warriors fell at Denver and the Rockets were tripped up by Sacramento.
The Warriors, Hawks and Thunder all punched their ticket by way of a tiebreaker. Golden State won its group despite finishing tied with the Mavericks at 3-1 because they won the head-to-head with Dallas, while Atlanta also won its group by way of the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Celtics. Oklahoma City, meanwhile, finished tied at 3-1 with the Suns but advanced by way of their plus-45 point differential (Phoenix was plus-30).
Houston is the team to watch here. The loss at Sacramento on Tuesday notwithstanding, the Rockets have won 10 of their last 13 games and feel like they could be this year’s Cup Cinderella.
As far as the wild-card teams go, the Mavericks finished tied with the Warriors at 3-1 in Group C but lost the tiebreaker (head-to-head). Luckily, the Mavericks blasted the Pelicans by 41 points, bring their point differential to plus-46 despite their other three Cup games being within two possessions.
The Magic had a shot at a 4-0 mark but lost to the Knicks on Tuesday. The Magic get in by way of their plus-45 point differential, edging the Celtics at plus-30. “That’s why you play every minute in the other games,” Franz Wagner said of Orlando advancing via point differential.
Loser: LeBron James
A year after winning the inaugural NBA Cup (originally the In-Season Tournament), the Los Angeles Lakers failed to get out of group play with a 2-2 record and James, relatively speaking, didn’t do a lot to further the cause. Over four Cup games, LeBron, who has missed his last 19 3-point shots overallwas held under 20 points three times and missed 16 of his 20 3s. It’s pretty crazy that we’re talking about the James decline actually happening when he’s averaging 22-9-8 for the season, but that’s the standard he has set.
Losers: The winless crew
Let’s break down the four teams who went 0-4 in the NBA Cup this season.
- Indiana Pacers: A year after they were the darling of the inaugural In-Season Tournament, the Pacers failed to register a single Cup victory in 2024 while losing their four games by an average of 15 points each.
- Washington Wizards: The Wiz punctuated their 0-for-14 November by losing by 31 points to the Cavs on Tuesday, which sealed their 0-4 Cup record. In the process, they finished with a Cup-worst minus-74 point differential in group play. Truly hideous stuff.
- Utah Jazz: Utah could quietly be a winner here. Sure, the Jazz lost all four Cup games, but in this season, losses are actually wins for the Jazz, who are most certainly angling to win the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
- Charlotte Hornets: Charlotte dropped group games to Orlando, Brooklyn, New York and Philadelphia by a combined deficit of 33 points. It really feels like this team is just never going to be good, despite the fact that the currently injured LaMelo Ball is an extraordinary talent and Brandon Miller might actually be better than him.
Winner: Franz Wagner
Wagner, who has been on a tear for the Magic in the absence of Paolo Banchero, averaged 30.5 points and picked up 10 steals over Orlando’s four Cup games. For some perspective, since Banchero has been out, Wagner has scored more total points than Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Victor Wembanyama, LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Stephen Curry.
Winner: Trae Young
Ironically, the Hawks got into the quarterfinals by way of a surprise win over the Celtics in which Young didn’t even play. But he’ll take it. Young, who averaged 25 points and 11 assists in three group-play games, gets another big-stage shot at the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, where he turned full heel during Atlanta’s first-round win over New York in the 2021 playoffs.
There is nothing Young feeds off more than big stages. He’s built for them. The MSG crowd will be buzzing. Will Young end up taking another bow? This one will be must-see TV.
Winner: Jalen Brunson
Brunson led the Knicks with just under 27 points per game in Cup play, and he was especially huge in two close victories that wound up propelling the Knicks through group play. In a two-point win over Brooklyn, Brunson had 37 points. In a one-point win over Charlotte, he had 31.
Loser: The Celtics
Boston would be through to the quarterfinals had it not somehow lost to the Hawks three weeks ago, who were playing without Trae Young. Instead, they go 3-1 in Group C with a plus-23 point differential, losing out to the aforementioned Magic (plus-45) for the East’s wild card. Having said this, something tells me Boston doesn’t actually feel like a loser here. They’re playing for a real championship, and skipping a trip to Vegas is probably a long-run boon to that endeavor.
Winners: Giannis and Dame
Giannis Antetokounmpo — who is quietly in the midst of a career season, which is obviously saying about a two-time MVP — was excellent in group-stage action, averaging 29.3 on 75% shooting (33 for 44). Damian Lillard matched Giannis’s 88 Cup points while canning 16 3-pointers at a 50% clip.
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