The Milwaukee Bucks’ porous start to the season is a fastly fading memory. On Tuesday, they reminded the Detroit Pistons of the general malaise in which they’ve been stuck for five years.
The Bucks beat the Pistons 128-107 in NBA Cup play to sweep Group B in the East (4-0) on a night in which 12 teams are playing to either advance or claim a top seed in the league’s in-season tournament.
In the East’s Group A, the New York Knicks were clobbering the Orlando Magic, 71-51, at halftime. The winner of that game would host a quarterfinal and the loser would likely advance as the wild-card team in the East.
The Atlanta Hawks already won Group B and would play at New York next week if the Knicks hold on. The Magic would play at Milwaukee next week in the other Eastern quarterfinal unless they lose to the Knicks by 37 points. In that case, the Boston Celtics would sneak in as the East’s wild card.
There are as many as six games in the Western Conference with NBA Cup implications that all began after 8 p.m. ET. If Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns, they’re in the quarters. If the Spurs lose and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Utah Jazz, they win the West’s Group B. If the Suns beat the Spurs and the Thunder lose, then Phoenix wins the group. If the Dallas Mavericks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, the Mavs are in as the wild-card team.
The Golden State Warriors already won Group C and the Houston Rockets won Group A out West, but both are playing for seeding in the quarters.
Milwaukee began the season losing eight of its first 10 games but have won nine of 10 since. Giannis Antetokounmpo paced the Bucks with 28 points and eight assists in 28 minutes, resting the entire fourth quarter of the blowout. His team ripped off a 14-0 run late in the second quarter to blow the game wide open and made 15 of its first 21 3s. Damian Lillard added 27 points and five 3s. The Bucks advanced to the tournament’s semifinals in Las Vegas last year but were bounced by the Indiana Pacers.
The Pistons are a nice surprise story for the season under new coach J.B. Bickerstaff, given that they were the league’s worst team a year ago and are coming off the worst campaign in franchise history. But Tuesday night’s game was Detroit’s first that really meant much in more than five years (since the organization’s last playoff appearance) and the team laid a collective egg at home. Cade Cunningham was Detroit’s scorer with 23 points.
The quarterfinals are Tuesday and Wednesday next week, and the winners of those games punch their tickets to Las Vegas for an NBA Cup semifinal at 4:30 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 14 at T-Mobile Arena. The tournament championship is at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 17.
Players on every team that advanced to the knockout rounds get pool money. The tournament champions get $514,971 per player; runner up gets $205,988 per player; teams that lose in the semifinals get $102,994 per player; and players on teams that lose in the quarterfinal get $51,497 apiece.
In its very short life span — OK, one year — the in-season championship has not been a harbinger of future fortune to come. The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural tournament last December and wound up needing to advance through the Play-In Tournament to reach the playoffs as a No. 7 seed, losing in the first round to Denver.
This story will be updated.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
