𝕏:solvie22

The Milwaukee Bucks have won the second ever NBA Cup! This new event is an in-season tournament created to generate more interest during the early basketball season. A prize of over $500,000 is given to each player on the winning team.

This tournament win was earned by overcoming struggle to begin the season. The Bucks had a slow start leading up to the first game of the in-season tournament November 12th. They opened the season with a record of 2-8 which included a 6 game losing streak. The players and fans, including myself, showed signs of frustration and confusion as to what was going on with the team. Fans began to blame the head coach Doc Rivers, the loss of Jrue Holiday in exchange for the addition of Damian Lillard, and even Giannis Antetokounmpo for the early season struggles. Ultimately, the team needed to figure it out. 

Before the season in 2023, the team’s star player Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has been with the team since 2013, was making comments about possibly leaving Milwaukee. Some say it may have been a reaction to getting booted in the first round of the playoffs after having a successful regular season. Their record was 49-33 and finished 3rd in the Eastern Conference. The idea of Giannis wanting to leave Milwaukee left the Bucks community confused and worried about losing an icon of the city. 

“I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do, and if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing.”

Antetokounmpo told The New York Times in 2023

Giannis may have said these things to keep the Bucks organization in check to make sure the front office is all in on going for another championship. There is an unfortunate thing in sports where the team owner is more interested in selling tickets than winning championships. It seems that Giannis wanted to make sure the Bucks didn’t have that mentality. Yes, Giannis used his superstardom as power in saying these things, but for the good of the team not to necessarily be a diva. Discovering this made me respect Giannis even more and gave me a new lens looking at this season. 

From the first game of the NBA Cup the Bucks started to build more wins. The NBA Cup consists of two stages: Group Play and The Knockout Round. The 30 teams are randomly drawn into 6 groups of 5 teams each. The teams play 4 Group Play designated games on “Cup Nights” where they change the court to vibrant colors to help signify a Cup Night. The team with the best Group Play standing plus 2 wild cards create a total of 8 teams to move on to The Knockout Rounds. The Milwaukee Bucks went 4-0 in cup games, best in their group, and therefore went on to The Knockout Rounds. 

The Knockout Rounds are single-elimination games consisting of Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Championship. This creates a much different atmosphere than a seven-game series in the normal NBA playoffs. In the NBA Cup the stakes are much higher as a team when you’re one-and-done, versus having a whole series. All games part of the NBA Cup except the Championship game are included in the 82 game regular-season and count toward team record. 

The Bucks went on a 7 game winning streak that helped them dominate their NBA Cup group and get into The Knockout Round. They went through the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks to get to the Championship game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. All three games were low scoring tough defensive battles that were simply ELECTRIC! The intensity and seriousness the players brought to the tournament created a playoff-like atmosphere. 

The OKC Thunder have the number one defense in the NBA and are the youngest team in the NBA. The 3 major weapons of the team are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Isaiah Hartenstein. Gilgeous-Alexander is a league-wide star and straight up baller averaging 31pts per game. Williams is an up and coming ferocious defender averaging 20pts per game. Lastly, newly added Hartenstein has been dominating the center position with Chet Holmgren being out, averaging 12pts and 12 total rebounds per game. The rest of the Thunder are filled with strong role players who are absolute DOGS. They are a fun, young team full of energy and a powerful force to be reckoned with. 

OKC’s opponents, the Milwaukee Bucks, are the 7th oldest team in NBA. The Bucks started their fearsome duo Giannis Antetokounmpo and Dame Lillard backed up by Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis, Gary Trent Jr. and AJ Green. Khris Middleton did not participate in the tournament as he was working on coming back from injury.

As the battle of the NBA Cup took place the two teams played in stride, staying within a possession of each other in the first half. The big men Lopez and Portis kept Hartenstein busy fighting tooth and nail in the paint. OKC assigned their most elite defender Lu Dort to lock down Giannis. SGA and Dame were chased off the 3-point line left and right. 

The game took a turn in the 3rd quarter. The Bucks were building a lead of 6pts when a fight for a loose ball resulted in the Thunder committing two technical fouls and the Bucks coming away with the ball. Dame shot for the back-to-back techs and followed up with banging a three-pointer to extend the lead to 11pts. 

After that incident, OKC wasn’t able to recover and Milwaukee went on an offensive tear extending their lead to as much as 20pts. They finished the 3rd quarter by outscoring OKC 26-14. 

The Bucks kept their foot on OKC’s throat till the end of the game. The Thunder responded by showing their youth in panicking and playing sloppy. Overall the game was very entertaining and I highly recommend going back to watch, especially if you’re a fan of Milwaukee. 

SGA was only allowed to score 8-24, 33% for field goals and Williams 8-20. Giannis went 10-19 and Dame 6-12 scoring significantly more efficient than OKC and both achieving a 50% field goal percentage. 

Between the bigs at battle, Lopez and Bobby each got 9 rebounds where Hartenstein grabbed 12. To blow this fight out of the water Giannis ended up with 19 rebounds which is INSANE. Chet Holmgren was out with an injury, if he had been part of the matchup the game may had gone differently.

Giannis went NUTS by achieving a triple-double of 26 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists. During a mid-game interview Hartenstein told the media their strategy was to keep Giannis out of the paint. OKC threw everything they had at Antetokounmpo with Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, and Alex Caruso; but they ultimately couldn’t put a stop to the Greek Freak. 

Milwaukee hoisted the NBA Cup trophy, defeating Oklahoma City by the low score of 97-81. Although the NBA Cup isn’t a “real championship” the Bucks used it as a huge breakthrough and turning point of the season. The early season struggles could have been a team chemistry issue, difficulty establishing team roles, or trouble with Giannis and Dame figuring out how to share a team together. It doesn’t matter what the issue was, the added pressure applied by the NBA Cup tournament forced the team to figure it out in order to win. The NBA Cup success, and the addition of Khris Middleton, has helped the Milwaukee Bucks become a dangerous threat to the Larry O’Brien trophy. 

-Grace Solveson

Photo Credits; NBA.com(x2), Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Marca.com, NBC News, Jordan Times, CNN, New York Times

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