Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder are the two teams facing this Tuesday in the NBA Cup final. During the semifinals last weekend, Bucks won 110 - 102 versus Atlanta Hawks, while Thunder won Houston Rockets 111 - 96.
This NBA Cup is played alongside regular seasons. Due to the knockout nature of the semifinals, quarterfinals and just four games during the group stage, some of the larger teams are eliminated, including last year's champions Los Angeles Lakers.
Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks, which last night made history with the largest ever talle of three pointers, got eliminated in the quarterfinals.
In fact, only one of the four teams that have played the semifinals was in the semifinals the previous year, Milwaukee Bucks.
So, does the NBA Cup mirror the level shown in the regular season? In the case of the East Conference, yes: Oklhaoma City Thunder are the leaders of the East, with 20 victories and only 5 defeats.
However, the West Conference is difference: the best team in all NBA so far, Cleveland Cavaliers (22 wins, only 4 losses) didn't even make it to the quarterfinals. Milwaukee Bucks is sixth (14/11), meaning Thunder is, in theory, the favourite to lift the second ever NBA Cup in Las Vegas.
That's the beauty of this mid-season competition: it might not matter much in terms of prestige (it was created just one year ago anyway) but it allows for a greater diversity of teams to lift trophies and earn titles.
If you're interested, the match -the only one in the NBA Cup that isn't embedded in the regular season, and is played on neutral grounds in Las Vegas- will be seen on Wednesday December 18, at 2:30 AM CET.