NBA Cup — Day 11

 Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler. OKC is the youngest team in the league, and the Bucks are one of the oldest.

Right in the middle of a very stressful midterms week was the NBA Cup final. My time management skills were put to the test, but I think I pulled off studying and watching 2 and a half hours of basketball. Of course, we won’t know until grades drop, but I’ve got high hopes. I can promise you that this will be a great blog. The NBA Cup finals between the Bucks and the Thunder was last night, and while the game wasn’t as close as one would’ve wanted, I still feel it revealed a lot about these two teams and the league as a whole.

The Bucks scored over 16 points less than their season average, they still won by 16. The final score of the NBA Cup final was 97 to 81 in favor of Milwaukee. This was a defensively oriented game that had neither team shoot over 42% from the field. The game was very close in the first half, closing out the second quarter 51 to 50 with the Bucks narrowly ahead. One thing made me confident that the Bucks would pull through: Dame and Giannis were without a doubt the best two players on the court. Shai was cold to start off the game, which forced J-Dub to try and take over. While he definitely showed a winner’s mentality and aggression on the court, the Thunder were only able to stay in this game during the first half due to their elite defense and low turnover count. Their three-point shot wasn’t hitting as often as they wanted, but surely they couldn’t keep shooting this badly. In the second half, Giannis fully took over; as for the Thunder, their threes still weren’t falling, and turnover counts got higher.

In a game with such low percentages, Giannis managed to shoot 10 for 19 from the field. The Greek Freak showed up with 26 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, and 5 stocks. The only area he truly struggled in was at the stripe, where he went 6 for 11; the blaring 10-second countdown from the Vegas crowd proved to be too much for Giannis to handle. The Thunder’s game plan defensively was to pack things in when Giannis got a head full of steam, but Giannis either called them little boys or kicked it out to one of his many more-than-capable shooters on the perimeter. While this game will be remembered as Giannis’ NBA Cup MVP performance, Dame did contribute to this victory in a significant manner, dropping 23 on 5-for-10 shooting from the arc. One word stuck out to me from an interview with Dame after the game: “connectedness.” While injury derailed this team’s playoff hopes last year and they had a less-than-stellar start, it's important to remember that the guys we see on the court aren’t basketball robots; they’re people. Dame played 11 years for the Blazers and spent most of his tenure as the number one guy. He was then shipped to a team with one of the best players in the league, where he had to learn to take a backseat in order to find true success. Giannis was some years off a championship and a couple of MVPs and had to learn to coexist with the most skilled and ball-dominant player he’s ever shared the court with. I think this Cup championship is a sign that this team is meshing. Dame and Giannis have a sense of unity on the court, and the Bucks have found their shooters. This team has the potential to be one of the best comeback stories of all time, starting off the year 2-8 and having a legit shot at coming away with their second championship trophy this season in June.

I feel the Thunder’s performance last night could somehow put an old head on cloud nine and pull him off of it all at the same time. The Thunder played hard-nosed, disciplined defense but also shot 5 for 32 from three. I do have to give flowers to some OKC players. Isaiah Joe started the game 5 for 5 from the field and looked great as a starter and an offensive hub, especially with Shai ice cold. J-Dub maintained quality rim pressure during the game-long shooting slump and was able to give himself opportunities to earn easy points at the stripe. Shai, who in the past has said he doesn’t even like shooting threes, looked hopelessly in love with them last night, shooting 2 for 9 from deep. As one of the best iso players and mid-range shooters in our league, you would think Shai could easily figure out how to thrive in a game where triples actually falling were few and far between, but he just didn’t understand it. Ten years ago, a team would have seen the abysmal percentages they were hitting from deep and taken the hint, but it seems like today's teams don’t even see that as an option.

I am very proud of Giannis and the Bucks. Giannis is one of the most humble and genuine players this league has seen, and that, on top of his unparalleled play, makes it so easy to root for him. Dame can finally call himself an NBA champion, but I know this victory in Vegas just made him and the rest of the Bucks roster even hungrier to bring home the Larry O’B. The Bucks’ semifinal run last year and their chip this year make them the undisputed most dominant team in the short history of the NBA Cup. As for the Thunder, I’m sure the young men that make up that roster will learn a lot from this loss, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw them with this same opportunity for the next five years. More than anything, though, Darvin Ham remains undefeated as a coach in NBA Cup play.

I think Adam Silver was right: the NBA Cup works; it was a good idea. The intensity on the court is real. We saw fights break out in a December game that doesn’t even count towards the regular season. These regular season games hold more value not just to the players who are competing for cash but also to the fans watching. It’s things like the NBA Cup that will continue to propel our league forward and that’s why it’s so amazing to see it find such success. With the league’ viewership down as of late we all know that we will need innovation to continue our march forward. 

I’ve covered every single game of the NBA Cup. I did not miss one, even though there were times I wanted to. Eleven blog posts total. I rewatched games, wrote for hours (especially in the beginning of the Cup when we had days with 10+ games slated), took time on vacation, and truly leaned into covering the Cup. I’m very happy I stayed true to my promise and remained consistent. Now that the Cup is over, I have plans to start a new series that will sporadically exist throughout the lifetime of my blog. One that doesn’t have anything to do with on-court play. I have a passion to tell a lot of stories like that, stories that delve into the philosophy of the NBA. My first philosophical writing will be in some way related to the Heat, so stay tuned.

That’s going to cap your last Cup recap; you’ll hear from me soon.

Thank you for coming on this journey with me.