LAS VEGAS — The Milwaukee Bucks won the second NBA Cup in history on Tuesday, putting an exclamation point on their remarkable comeback from a terrible start to the season with a dominant performance by one of the greatest to ever play.
Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo ripped off a 26-point triple-double and the Bucks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 97-81 in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,519 at Las Vegas’ T Mobile Arena to win commissioner Adam Silver’s in-season tournament.
Antetokounmpo, who naturally was named MVP for the Cup, finished with 19 rebounds, 10 assists and three blocks in 36 minutes. Damian Lillard added 23 points and Brook Lopez contributed 13 points and nine rebounds.
The Bucks are the 2024 #EmiratesNBACup Champions! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/TiOp0m1iX7
— NBA (@NBA) December 18, 2024
The Thunder are the NBA’s top defensive team and the No. 1 team in the West, but had the clamps put on them by Milwaukee’s defense and couldn’t make anything. It was a 51-50 game at halftime, in favor of the Bucks, and Oklahoma City managed just 31 points in the second half and shot 5-of-32 on 3s. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 21 points.
Milwaukee, which won all seven of its Cup games, began the season 2-8. The Bucks have won well, we would say 13 of its last 16, but technically the Cup victory doesn’t count because it’s the only game on the schedule that isn’t a part of the regular season. So, 12 out of the last 15, plus $515,000 checks to each player on the Bucks for winning the Cup, will have to do.
The Thunder get $206,000 per man as the tournament runner-up.
“The league already knows we’re a good basketball team,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “We believe we can beat anybody, and if (other teams) don’t know, we don’t really care.”
The first Cup champion was the Los Angeles Lakers, and two members of that team are now with Milwaukee. Darvin Ham was the Lakers coach and is now on Rivers’ bench; Taurean Prince was a Laker rotation player and now holds a similar role with Milwaukee.
Ham and Prince are 14-0 all time in Cup games.
Milwaukee won this game without former All-Star Khris Middleton, who was out with an illness.
This story will be updated.
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(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
