Bucks, New York in good Knick ahead of NBA Cup quarters

Milwaukee and New York are back in the NBA Cup quarter-finals, just like they were a year ago.

The other six remaining Cup contenders – Oklahoma City, Golden State, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Orlando – are heading there for the first time.

Group play in the NBA Cup is over and next week’s quarter-final match-ups are set. Orlando will go to Milwaukee and Atlanta will visit New York on the Eastern Conference side of the bracket, while Oklahoma City host Dallas and Houston host Golden State in the Western Conference.

Milwaukee (4-0) clinched their berth by beating Detroit to win East Group B on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), while New York (4-0) beat Orlando (3-1) to win East Group A.

The Magic wound up as the East’s wildcards by winning a point-differential tiebreaker over Boston.

Atlanta (3-1) had previously wrapped up East Group C, largely because of a one-point win over the Celtics on November 12.

Oklahoma City’s win over Utah gave the Thunder the West Group B title, and they joined Houston (West Group A) and Golden State (West Group C) as qualifiers.

The Rockets and Warriors had clinched before Tuesday night.

Dallas rallied from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Memphis on Tuesday and clinch the West wildcard spot.

The four quarter-final winners will meet in the semi-finals in Las Vegas on December 14, and the title game is there on December 17.

“They put a tournament in front of us and we want to win it. And we said that early on,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said.

“We’re 4-0 but we still have a lot of work to do, but the bottom line is, we earned a chance to play at home – I think.”

Even in Year 2 of the event, some still aren’t clear on all the rules. Yes, Doc, you’ll be at home for the quarters.

All the Magic had to do to clinch the wildcard spot was not lose by more than 37 points in order to stay ahead of Boston in the point-differential race. They found themselves trailing by – you guessed it – 37 points in New York late in the third quarter. The Magic outscored the Knicks 40-18 the rest of the way, losing by 15 on the scoreboard but winning over the Celtics in the wildcard race.

“We earned our way into the quarter-final,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said.

“Obviously, not our best game today but that’s why you play every minute in the other games. It feels weird after a game like this to advance, but that’s just part of it.”

The Magic got through thanks to the point differential. The Thunder edged Phoenix for the West Group B title on a head-to-head tiebreaker – both went 3-1 in group play, but the Suns’ loss was to Oklahoma City 0 and point-differential wound up making OKC the top seeds out West over Houston.

“I don’t really know much about the Cup and how it works and everything,” Thunder guard Cason Wallace said. “I just know I want to win.”