Group play is over in the second annual NBA Cup and with 22 teams down, we have eight still playing. At this stage in the tournament, the teams are still divided by conference and, surprise surprise if you’ve been paying attention to the NBA over the past 25 years or so, the Western Conference looks a bit stronger right now. Their four remaining competitors? Last year’s No. 1 seed, last year’s conference champion, the league’s most recent dynasty and an ascending young team. That’s more or less who you’d expect to advance in an event like this.
The Eastern Conference? Yea, this one’s a bit more of a puzzler. Among our four remaining competitors we have an ascending young team in the Magic … that is missing its two best players. We have a former champion in the Bucks … who started the season so poorly there were trade rumors surrounding its best player. A Hawks team that is currently responsible for more than half of all Wizards victories this season. And, finally, a Knicks team still figuring out how to integrate two new major pieces.
This is the sort of eclectic mix the NBA likely hoped to create with this sort of event. Every sort of team, old and young, contending and retooling, guard-heavy and big-heavy, is represented in this final eight. But, for the purposes of the Cup, the magic number isn’t eight. It’s four. Those are the teams that will make the trip to Las Vegas this weekend to duke it out for the tournament title. Who actually gets there will be determined on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here’s everything you need to know about Tuesday’s games.
Orlando Magic at Milwaukee Bucks
- Location: Fiserv Forum; Milwaukee, WI
- Time: Tuesday, Dec. 10; 7:00 p.m. ET
- TV channel: TNT
- Betting line: Bucks -7.5; O/U 213.5
The Bucks are mostly healthy now, and while a lot of their recent success has been fueled by a relatively weak schedule, the Magic in their current state don’t exactly represent a greater challenge with Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero injured. This season, Magic lineups featuring neither of those stars are scoring only 100.7 points per 100 possession, according to Cleaning the Glass. That would place those lineups in the third percentile league-wide offensively. The Bucks may be a relatively weak defense, but unless you expect Anthony Black or Goga Bitadze to go wild, it’s just hard to envision Orlando scoring enough to keep up here. The Pick: Bucks -7.5
- Location: Paycom Center; Oklahoma City, OK
- Time: Tuesday, Dec. 10; 9:30 p.m. ET
- TV channel: TNT
- Beting line: Thunder -4.5; O/U 231
Dallas has won seven straight games, and with Luka Doncic healthy once again, the Mavericks look quite a bit closer to the team that reached the NBA Finals a year ago than they did during their 9-8 start. That’s not why I’m picking them with the points, though. No, it’s the fact that Dallas beat Oklahoma City in the playoffs a season ago that intrigues me here. The Thunder maintained a relatively consistent defensive approach in that matchup: double Doncic, make everyone else beat them. I suspect Oklahoma City will treat its regular-season matchups with Dallas this season as much more of a testing ground for other ideas to possibly deploy in the playoffs. They’ll try different matchups and coverages with an eye on the spring more so than the outcome of this specific game. The Pick: Mavericks +4.5
