LAS VEGAS A brief altercation between the two rising Western Conference rivals occurred on the court toward the conclusion of Saturday’s second NBA Cup semifinal between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets.
Eventually, the chippiness turned into some jawing, posturing, and light shoving after a rough game between two defenses who enjoy mauling one another.
After the game, Thunder forward Jalen Williams stated that the NBA Cup “does have a certain energy to it that makes it very competitive.” The money is most likely the reason. However, it has a highly competitive element. Everyone wants free money, of course.
NBA executives were likely pleased to see the animosity between the teams and Williams’ remarks, even though the league would never fully acknowledge that it was okay for players to fight on the court. This is because the goal of the NBA Cup, which is currently in its second season, was to make early-season games more exciting. Additionally, it appears that coaches, players, and fans are all on board in Year 2.
It has been enjoyable, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a Thunder player and MVP contender, stated on Monday, the day before his team’s Cup final matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks. The game obviously has a slightly different feel because of the higher stakes. It is an excellent prelude to the postseason. There are clearly higher stakes than in a typical season, and it’s beneficial to gain experience in games with slightly higher stakes and significance.
Prize money, as Williams noted, is one factor contributing to the higher stakes. The victorious team’s players get $514,971, while the runners-up earn $205,988 and the semifinal losers earn $102,994.
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Before the semifinals, Bucks coach Doc Rivers stated, “I like the tournament.” Throughout the weekend, Rivers expressed his wish for his team to be competitive and fearless in their pursuit of the Cup.
He added: I think it s a litmus test for the team. When I looked at last year, I wondered if Indiana would go to the Eastern Finals without this tournament.
Both players and coaches from all the teams involved seem to agree that the Cup hasn t reached the level of the NBA Playoffs, but there s a little more energy to the games than a typical regular season matchup. The games’ scheduling even contributes a little flair. Rivers, for example, said the two days off between the semifinal and final allows his coaching staff to come up with a more detailed game plan than it could for most games.
Perhaps even more important for the league, fans seem to have noticed the uptick in energy as well.
I know they added the Cup to try to make it more competitive early in the season, said Brandon Jones, a 36-year-old Los Angeles Lakers fan who drove to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. Jones bought tickets for the West semifinal before he knew which teams would appear, and then bought tickets for the East as well when he saw how affordable the seats were. As a fan, it s cool because it kind of makes you care a little bit more.
I like that it s added a little bit of intensity and there s a difference, you know? said Rishab Aida, a 24-year-old Golden State Warriors fan who lives in nearby Henderson, Nevada. I like that they ve incentivized every level of the Cup so players have something to play for. It s cool that the players have taken it seriously a little bit.
The league, though open to evolving and tinkering with the tournament, also seems pleased with the growth of the Cup in its second season. After the first Cup, NBA execs embarked on what they called a listening tour with players, coaches and front office members to solicit candid feedback about what worked and what didn t.
One tweak the NBA made was moving the back-to-back semifinal games from a weekday to the weekend after the league admitted the afternoon start time on a Thursday last year may have deflated attendance. This year, both semis drew over 17,000 fans, according to the league.
No issue is too small for the NBA when it comes to fine-tuning the Cup. This year, for example, the league tweaked the Cup s scoring and point differential rules so as to not incentivize teams to intentionally play for overtime to give themselves five extra minutes to run up the score. (Point differential is a key tiebreaker in Cup group games.)
Evan Wasch, the NBA s head of strategy and analytics, says the tournament will continue to evolve in the coming years. Two points of pride for the league this year though, Wasch says, were the buy-in from the players, who seemed to have a much better understanding of the format in the Cup s second season. And also the willingness of teams to embrace the point differential tiebreaker and try to keep scoring at the end of games.
Ultimately, the NBA is aware the Cup still has to grow quite a bit to reach its ultimate goal.
These things take time, you don t establish traditions overnight, Wasch told NBC News on Monday. I certainly wasn t alive in the 1940s, but I would imagine the NBA Finals back then did not carry the same gravitas. We had no illusions that in year one or year two, or maybe even year three, four or five, that this would reach the level that it ultimately could be. And I don t think anyone can say exactly when it will hit that peak or plateau that we hope they can get to.
Wasch said the hope is that the Cup becomes a true second championship, that the idea that there s only one thing to win each year is going to be challenged over time by this Cup.
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