The second annual NBA Cup is in the books, with the Milwaukee Bucks dominating a poor-shooting Oklahoma City Thunder team in the anticlimactic final, winning 97-81.
As compared to last year's inaugural edition, briefly called the less memorable "In-Season Tournament," this NBA Cup felt more mature as a concept. Teams understood how to navigate the point differential tiebreaker from day one and bought into the significance of the NBA Cup despite (largely unfounded) concerns about how it might hurt them down the line.
The result was a tantalizing final matchup pitting the favorites to win the Western Conference against a championship hopeful from the East, featuring two of the top contenders for MVP in Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo -- who won NBA Cup MVP honors -- and Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.