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Last night, Kevin Harlan — a known subscriber to The Bounce, which makes him an official Bouncer — mentioned me during the NBA on Prime broadcast and shouted out the great work The Athletic did with our front-office rankings. Is this insufferable for me to point out? Probably! But he’s my favorite announcer of all time, so I’m going with it.
Vegas-bound
Thunder, Spurs reach NBA Cup semifinals
On Tuesday night, we welcomed the Eastern Conference winners to Las Vegas in their quest for the NBA Cup, and more specifically, the $500,000 prize money for each player on the winning team. Last night, two Western Conference teams punched their tickets. The semis will pit the Knicks against the Magic and the Thunder against the Spurs on Saturday night. Let’s dive into what happened.
Spurs 132, Lakers 119: There were various points in the game when it felt like the Lakers might make a run to take control. Like the ridiculous sequence at the end of the first half, galvanized by a LeBron James dunk on Luke Kornet that had the crowd hyped. Or Marcus Smart leading a 3-point barrage in the fourth quarter.
But a Kornet block here, a Stephon Castle or a De’Aaron Fox bucket there, and those runs were quelled by the Spurs. Even though the Lakers have the big-name stars and the veteran experience, the younger San Antonio team showed resilience, poise and an understanding of how to put this away.
The Lakers won’t win their second NBA Cup in three years. They had a chance to start hoarding these things, but the Spurs weren’t having it. This is the perfect opportunity for a good, young team looking to establish itself in the vaunted West. Break up the Thunder party in Vegas and announce your presence with authority. Although, the problem of actually beating the Thunder stands in the way.
Thunder 138, Suns 89: I don’t know if the Thunder think point differential still matters once the NBA Cup reaches its elimination games. But they sure seemed to treat the Suns like it still matters. They led by as many as 53 points in this one, which shows just how brutal OKC chooses to be. I’ll remind you that this was a close contest last time these two teams played to determine who would win the group.
Of course, the Suns had Devin Booker for that one, and they didn’t last night. No disrespect, but there’s no way his absence should jump the final score from four points to 49 in the matter of about a week.
This Thunder squad is the lore and fear of “the machines will take over the world.” This feels like what Sarah Connor was warning people about in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
Everything they do is mechanical, and yet free-flowing. They’re not moved by the moment. They’re just wired to deconstruct whatever is in front of them. Last night, that was the Suns, and now OKC continues on its mission. The Thunder lost the NBA Cup championship game to the Bucks last year. It was one of the few vulnerabilities we saw from them all season.
This season? They’ve lost one game, and it feels like a decade ago. They’ve won 16 in a row and tied the 2015-16 Warriors for the greatest start to a season (24-1) on their way to Vegas. Will they even enjoy it? Do they enjoy any of this? Do they not get bored by their own dominance? How do you get inside the mind of the sentient machines?
We’ll have a full preview of Saturday’s Vegas semifinals games in tomorrow’s Bounce.
The last 24
Mavs lose a big man for the year. Not that one
🏀 Season-ending. Dallas has had a disaster of a season. Now Dereck Lively II is done after foot surgery.
🏆 Cup fever? How are players and coaches feeling about the NBA Cup in Year 3? We asked them, and their reactions were mixed.
☘️ Whose choice? Joe Mazzulla has a pretty simple answer about a Jayson Tatum return: “It’s all up to him.”
🪣 Still improving. Jalen Brunson has been a scoring star in New York. And now he’s even better.
👀 He’s back? Steph Curry is nearing a return to the court. He’s practicing again.
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