…Face Knicks in championship

AFTER six weeks of play, the 2025 NBA Cup is down to two teams: the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.

Both teams advanced to the in-season tournament’s championship game on Saturday with wins in Las Vegas. The Knicks put down the Orlando Magic behind a superb night from Jalen Brunson, then the Spurs took down the Oklahoma City Thunder in an instant classic.

The NBA Cup championship game is scheduled for Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET. It will not count toward regular-season records, but it will decide which team’s players bring home more than a half-million dollars each.

When the NBA was first conceptualising the NBA Cup, its best-case scenario might have sounded something like the league’s top team facing one of its biggest names in a playoff atmosphere in December.

It got that on Saturday and so much more.

In perhaps the game of the season, the Spurs came back from down 16 points to hand the Thunder their second loss of the season. They did it in Victor Wembanyama’s first game back from a calf injury, and they needed every one of his limited minutes.

The loss breaks a 16-game winning streak for the Thunder and leaves their record at 24-2. They’re still on pace to break the NBA’s regular-season wins record, but you get only so many off nights.

Few games have demonstrated the value — the change in court geometry — that comes with having the 7-foot-4 Frenchman on the court. Still limited in his first game in a month, Wembanyama had a minutes restriction and didn’t play at all in the first quarter. Correspondingly, the Spurs trailed 31-20 after the period.

Wembanyama entered the game in the second quarter and played in short bursts. It was an entirely different sport when he was in. Suddenly, the paint wasn’t so inviting for the Thunder on offense. Suddenly, defenders had to keep an eye on the biggest guy on the court. And suddenly, he was making plays like this:

The Spurs outscored the Thunder by 21 points when Wembanyama was playing and got outscored by 19 points when he was out. He finished with 22 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks in 21 minutes.

In addition to Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox all finished with 22 or 23 points. The Spurs made the Thunder look as uncomfortable as they have all season (so, mild-to-moderately uncomfortable), holding them to 41.3% shooting and 24.3% on 37 3-point shots.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 29 points, but needed 23 shots to get there, with only four free throws.

The New York Knicks have reached the knockout round of the NBA Cup all three times the tournament has been held. They are about to play in their first championship game, primarily thanks to Jalen Brunson.

Behind 40 points and eight assists from their All-Star guard, the Knicks survived a high-scoring thriller against the Orlando Magic in the East semifinal,

The Magic entered the game ranked fifth in the NBA in defensive efficiency, and the Knicks gashed them on that side of the court as much as any team has all season, despite shooting only 7-of-20 from 3-point range. The absence of defensive standout Franz Wagner loomed large.

It also didn’t help that Jalen Suggs, another defensive standout, left the game in clear discomfort in the fourth quarter. The Magic later announced he was questionable to return with a sore left hip, but he never made it back to the court. (Yahoo Sports)