The Bucks square off with the West’s best for the NBA Cup title
Tonight, the Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder vie for the second awarding of the NBA Cup in Las Vegas, having made it through their conference brackets. This is the first of three times these two will face off this season, but they did do battle late last season: a decisive Bucks victory at Fiserv Forum when both teams were fully healthy and before Milwaukee finished the year on a 3-8 skid.
Where We’re At
A hard-fought win over the Atlanta Hawks in the semifinals on Saturday puts the Bucks in their first NBA Cup final after coming up a game short one year ago. Atlanta is a pesky opponent who presents particular problems for Milwaukee and ended the latter’s seven-game win streak two weeks ago. While the Bucks didn’t put together a complete game, struggling a bit from downtown, never leading by more than nine in a tight contest throughout, they managed an outstanding 98.1 defensive rating against the somewhat potent Hawks in getting revenge. Milwaukee has won 12 of their last 15 and are in sole possession of the East’s five seed, 1.5 games back of three.
The Thunder have been tied or in sole possession of the West’s top seed for all but five days this season and took out the Houston Rockets in a defensive slugfest in their semifinal. Prior to that, they defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the quarters and are on a five-game winning streak. They’ve actually equaled Milwaukee in terms of hotness: OKC has won 12 of their last 15 as well. This has all come without Chet Holmgren, but they got Isaiah Hartenstein back soon after the former’s injury. Otherwise, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues putting up MVP numbers, Lu Dort still defends the hell out of his opponents, and Jalen Williams is making another leap toward stardom, averaging 21/6/5. OKC has the league’s best net rating and defensive rating, leading that one by 2.3 points per 100 possessions over Houston.
Injury Report
Some readers already know how I feel about this 83rd regular season game because it puts players at injury risk for a win that doesn’t count in the standings. And sure enough, the Bucks’ best three guys are on it, though listed as probable. Giannis Antetokounmpo with the patella tendinopathy he’s dealt with for most of the year, Damian Lillard with a calf contusion, and Khris Middleton with a non-Covid illness. Interestingly, that’s the first time he hasn’t been listed with bilateral ankle surgery this season. Liam Robbins is also questionable with an ankle sprain.
OKC is dealing with some longer-term injuries: Ousmane Dieng, Jaylin Williams (the other one who is a big man), and Holmgren remain out. First-round pick Nikola Topic isn’t playing this year as he recovers from ACL surgery. Two-way guys Alex Ducas and Adam Flagler are also out.
Player To Watch
It seems likely that Andre Jackson Jr. will take the SGA matchup from the jump. He and his backcourt colleagues struggled with Trae Young on Saturday, not just from his 9/18 shooting, but from putting him at the line 17 times as he put up 35 points. AJax had four fouls while AJ Green fouled out, as both guys committed some dumb ones but were mostly baited into whistles by Young, who has a typically-high 38.2% free throw rate. Gilgeous-Alexander’s FTr is 39.9% and is way more efficient in general than Young, so the ability of Milwaukee’s guards and wings (Khris Middleton also had five personals) to keep him off the line might be an x-factor in this one. AJax will have to set the tone.
How To Watch
ABC at 7:30 PM CST.
Playback Streaming
new Playback.Embed(“playback-embed”, {
room: “brewhoop”,
style: { height: “100%”, width: “100%” },
});
Support our site! | BreakingT | ESPN+ | ESPN+ 30 For 30 | fuboTV | Disney+