The third edition of the NBA Cup ended as it began, with a certain indifference and the unquestionable fact that plot advantage goes for everything: If you sneak into the playoffs for the title, things matter.but if you are left out at the first opportunity it is not that big of a deal. It is the daily bread of this In-Season Tournament renamed with its current nomenclature and with the addition of Emirates, for those relationships that the best league in the world maintains with everything and everyone. And all this in Las Vegas, with T-Mobile as its headquarters, that neutral field that is the basketball heart of a place that, as Adam Silver has said, could be part of the next expansion of the North American competition, which could also return to Seattle. Minutiae within a tournament that no one knows exactly what to think about. But it has come, like so many other things, to stay.
That is the determination of the commissioner who replaced David Stern to start making changes, reaching all corners of the planet on the one hand and trying to regular season becomes less tedious (a practically unanimous feeling) on the other. From there this tournament was born in imitation of the Old Continent that the NBA intends to conquer, but also the games played in Europe each season or the inclusion of that play in which landed with the excuse of the coronavirus and is now an indispensable part of a month of April that adds the occasional assault for the occasional team. Many things that have different opinions and they come from the boss and his magnetic speech while the course of the situation continues to happen without anyone (players, coaches, fans…) knowing very well what to think about it.
For this reason, the third edition of the NBA Cup has left everyone cold except for the Knicks, who won the title and put it in their showcases. in a match, it must be said, truly interesting. And with two teams that, at that point, tried to win the title by all means. On the one hand, the New Yorkers, hardened in a thousand battles as a historical franchise but in a wasteland from which they cannot emerge no matter how much they raise more and more hopes within the very poor Eastern Conference. They reached their first Conference finals a few months ago since 2000, but that didn’t stop Tom Thibodeau from being fired, an old-fashioned coach replaced by Mike Brownanother one who dances like that and who stepped into the Finals with LeBron James’ Cavaliers back in 2007. It has rained.
On the other side was the transgression, the change. Some Spurs that left the Lakers and Thunder on the way to the Cup (the latter, against all odds) and who are immersed in a fight against themselves, escaping the long shadow of Gregg Popovich and looking for their first participation in the playoffs since 2019. Seven years of absence after 22 uninterrupted steps in the final phaseall with the legendary coach as the creator of a dream team that won five rings in that period of time, in addition to reaching six Finals. With Tim Duncan and company, now it is Victor Wembanyama who seeks to be the leader of an entire era, something you can achieve if you avoid injurieswhile he is left with the bittersweet taste of falling in the NBA Cup (124-113) when he was tasting success and after having done the most difficult thing, eliminating the rivals from the West. Live to see.
A match that had everything
The battle promised and lived up to expectations. It was a constant give and take with a common denominator, that the Spurs dominated for the longest time but they were never able to separate themselves from the Knicks, who went down 11 in the third quarter thanks to the work and grace of Wembanyama, but rose from their ashes like the phoenix before putting together a simply spectacular last 12 minutes: 35-19 partial, final, defensive entrenchment and power under the rings. The basketball that Madison likes the most: grit, rebound and work. that place which was the epicenter of the world in the 70s with two rings and Mr. Cool, Reed, Holzman (with Phil Jackson as a player) doing everything and for everyone, and they were protagonists again in the 90s with Patrick Ewing and despite the absence of rings.
The New Yorkers want to return to that golden era, who win a minor title, but which serves to pay tribute to the past with a squad that we will see if it allows them to reach the Finals in that East so open that no one knows what is going to happen. OG Anunoby was key in winning the Cup: He already had 20 points at halftime and finished with 28, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 of 10 in triples. And the administration functioned as if everyone (except Jalen Brunson: now we will talk about him) were a single entity: Karl-Anthony Towns scored 16 points and 11 rebounds, being key in the defense against Wembanyama in the last quarter. Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart went to 11 for beards. Jordan Clarkson added 15 off the bench, while Tyler Kokek went to 14 (with 5 and 5). And Mitchell Robinson was essential: 4 points, but 15 rebounds, 10 of them offensive of his team’s 23. A key variable.
And then there’s Brunson, how not. That celestial being who before going to the Knicks was in the shadow of Luka Doncic in the Mavericks (the excesses of this team can be counted in trillions in recent years, through Nico Harrison) and who is now one of the best players in the NBA: 25 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks (at 188 centimeters tall) and essential in the end despite 11 of 27 shooting from the field. He has been chosen MVP of the tournament after playing more than 41 minutes in the final, replacing LeBron James (in the first edition) y Ginanis Antethonkonpo. in the list of honors, and he receives a well-deserved award that he thanked his teammates as it could not be otherwise. An extraordinary point guard who led a great victory that allowed the Knicks to feel proud of being the Knicks, something that no one had seen in a long time and that crowned those who deserved it most.
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Wembanyama, who continues to suffer injuries and played with minutes and substitute restrictions, played less than 25 and reached 18 points, but it was not the solution and he was surpassed by Towns in the final stretchbeing evident that he lacks a little physique to be as he should be. Dylan Harper went 21 (with 5 of 7 in triples), De’Aaron Fox 16 (with 9 assists), and Stephon Castle 15, with 7 rebounds and 12 assists. There were up to seven players above double digits in scoring, but that was not enough against a team highly respected by the referees when giving cakes like breads that were ignored, especially in the last few minutes, but he played better when he had to play better, in those hot moments that decide the battles that decide the wars. In the end, in a single game we saw moments of good basketball and 48 exciting minutes. But the historic Knicks won. Who starred in an authentic golden symphony.
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