What do they have in common le Thunder, the Spurs, les Knicks et the Magic ? The four franchises were in Las Vegas in mid-December for the Final Four of the NBA Cup. And all have since seen their results decline. Oklahoma City, San Antonio, New York and Orlando each have a worse winning percentage after the Cup than before the competition. The same consequence, for the same causes?
Since the NBA Cup final, not included in the regular season results, the four teams have slowed down, on their own scale. After its victory Tuesday night against the Spurs, the Thunder has a record of 10 wins for 5 losses, one more success than San Antonio (9-6). Nothing dishonorable, or capable of making them lose – for the moment – the first two places in the Western Conference.
But the bad luck of the Texans, beaten six times in their last ten outings, tightened the top of the ranking with Denver back tied (27-13) and Minnesota now in ambush (27-14).
The Knicks stick out their tongues
For the Knicks and the Magic, the fall is more marked with an average 7-7 for Orlando and even a negative record (6-7) for New York after lifting the trophy in Las Vegas.
New York in particular seems to be suffering not only in the results, but also in the visual impression left in recent weeks by Jalen Brunson and his own.
The New York leader seems to have less juice, and is particularly struggling to impress his team’s play at the start of the match. From one place among the twenty players who cause the most fouls per match, he is at the bottom of the Top 30 in this statistical category since the last four of the NBA Cup (from 5.8 to 4.2). Less intense, less aggressive… If his impact remains enormous on his team’s play, his weight on opposing defenses becomes a little less oppressive.
« I think the NBA Cup is great, because it’s a different type of basketball than during the season » noted Jalen Brunson last week. “ But I don’t know, I wouldn’t say it’s the backlash, I don’t call it that. It’s just us not being where we should be. » « It’s not always going to be a smooth ride, especially at this time of year. » the coach tried to explain Mike Brown. « Our Cup run was a bit different, but those were the bad days of the year. »
The infirmaries are very busy
The return of the engine Josh Hart against the Blazers on Sunday did good to reinvigorate a struggling Knicks team. Like him, absent eight games after Christmas, other important players from the teams qualified for the Final Four of the Cup joined the infirmary shortly after Las Vegas (even though the NBA assures that the sequence of matches had nothing to do with it).
The Spurs had to do without Victor Wembanyama (hyperextension of the knee, two games absence) and Devin Vassellone more name in the long list of muscle injuries this season. The Magic saw Jalen Suggs injuring his hip against the Knicks in the Cup semi-finals, then his knee just two games after his return. The Thunder have seen several players go back and forth on the injured list, Isaiah Hartenstein in the lead, injured in the calf since December 28.
For Oklahoma City, the timing of this slump may be more of a coincidence. Starting at a breakneck pace, the reigning champion arrived in Las Vegas with a staggering record of 24-1. This dynamic seemed logically destined to be slowed down sooner or later, and the three defeats against the Spurs in a few weeks seriously slowed down OKC’s momentum. “ There are times in an NBA season when you have the wind in your face, other times when you have the wind at your back », summarized the coach Mark Daigneault after the surprise slap given by the Hornets on January 5. “ When you have the wind in your face, you have to overcome that. »
Seeing a team come out of a season with more than 100 games after winning the title in the seventh game of the final, then in the conversation for the best regular season record in all history being subject to moments of decompression is nothing illogical or illegitimate. And you don’t need to have gone on for such a long time for concentration and involvement to end up faltering. “ We are coming out of a very difficult period in our calendar, which we negotiated well, with matches which required a lot of mental concentration from us. » explained Victor Wembanyama on December 29 after a defeat against the Cavaliers. “And we had to get out of that. »
A topsy-turvy calendar
To achieve this, the four semi-finalists of the NBA Cup were not entitled to any preferential treatment. While some franchises took advantage of a welcome break to recharge their batteries and refine their game in training, the Knicks played three games in four days in four different cities starting with the Cup final. The situation is even more incongruous for the Magic, who played only one match in eight days during the Final Four following their defeat in the semi-final, before seeing the schedule shake up with 14 matches in 25 days… then playing the relocated matches in Berlin and London this week, and only playing twice in nine days. This convoluted schedule may well have played a role in Orlando’s current form, which has gone from winning to losing in its last 14 outings.
« The Cup is fun, it’s top level and all that, but nevertheless, they somehow have to take a look at the rest of the calendar, at least for the finalists » lamented Knicks coach Mike Brown. “ Because it’s like you’re penalized for winning it, from a scheduling standpoint. »
The precedents of the 2023 and 2024 Cups suggest that this 2025 opus has as many aggravating factors (cumulative fatigue, heavy schedule) as a combination of circumstances. Last season, none of the semi-finalists of the competition saw their momentum slowed down, on the contrary even for the Thunder, who bounced back perfectly from their lost final by signing ten victories in a row.
But the Bucks, like the Knicks this year, initially struggled to recover from their title and lost in five of their first eight games after Las Vegas. It was even worse for the Lakers in the first edition of what was then the In-Season Tournament, as the Angelinos won only five of their seventeen games after lifting the trophy in Nevada.
Two champions that New York will not seek to imitate for too long, since they subsequently did not go beyond the first round of the playoffs. A stage that only the Pacers in 2023/24 (conference final) and the Thunder 2024/25 (champion) have crossed among the previous qualifiers for the final four of the NBA Cup.
