We can dispense with the complications now: the jacked-up point differentials and byzantine tiebreakers, the special scheduling and alternate playing surfaces, etc. What’s left at the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup is all that’s ever left when the game matters most: two teams, with only one game and one another standing between them and a big ol’ gold trophy.
What began as a league-wide effort to inject some flavor into the period between opening night and Christmas Day concludes with just two teams vying for the crown.
Out of the West: the Oklahoma City Thunder, a two-way juggernaut on a 66-win pace that delivered its fifth-straight double-digit victory in the semifinals, outshining the Houston Rockets behind suffocating defense and a now-customary 30-plus-point outing from MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander:
Shai.