Indiana’s team surprises the Milwaukee Bucks with the star performance of
their base, while Los Angeles roams the New Orleans Pelicans
The NBA’s
most laureate team against another who has never won a title. Los Angeles
Lakers veteran LeBron James vs Indiana Pacers of rising star Tyrese Haliburton.
The NBA Cup final, the new American professional basketball tournament, is
served and is quite a surprise. At the start of the competition, no one would
have bet on a final like this, but the cup is the cup, even if it is the first
time it has been played. Single-game qualifiers in such an equal championship
lend themselves to any outcome. On Saturday in Las Vegas the honors of the new
trophy will premiere.
On the
way, all the favourites have been left. The first to fall were Nikola Jovic’s
Denver Nuggets, which didn’t even go beyond the group phase. The Boston Celtics
stumbled in quarters with Indiana, which Thursday was also able against Giannis
Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks (128-119).
The NBA
Cup has seen a star grow. Tyrese Haliburton is for now the tournament’s most
prominent player. Since he began his NBA career he has been able to maintain
averages of more than 40% hit on 2-point shots and about 50% in field shots. At
23 years and 1.96 meters tall, the base was already the third best rookie of
the season of its premiere, the 2020-2021, with the Sacramento Kings. In
February 2022 he entered a transfer for which Domantas Sabonis left the Pacers
for California and he ended up in Indiana. Last time was his first full season
and he already made a hole in the All Star in Salt Lake City, after showing an
inappropriate maturity of his age and a range of resources difficult to stop. In
their matches against the Celtics and against the Bucks he has consecrated
himself and the Pacers caress what can be his first title.
In front
of Boston, he scored the first triple of his career with 26 points, 13 assists
and 10 rebounds without any loss of ball. He was key to his team’s triumph, as
was Thursday. Against Milwaukee he has scored 27 points, 15 assists and 7
rebounds. We’re playing the right way and we’re surprising the world right now.
“We’re going to keep doing it”, Haliburton said at the end of the game.
Myles
Turner scored 26 points for Indiana, while Obi Toppin contributed 14 in a six-hit
series on eight field shots. The Indiana team is unleashed in attack all
season, with 128.3 points on average, and 132.6 in cup games.
Giannis
Antetokounmpo scored as much as he could and scored 37 points and 10 rebounds
for the Milwaukee Bucks. Damiam Lillard scored 24 points; Khris Middleton,20,
and Brook Lopez,18. However, Indiana’s alternatives far ousted Milwaukee’s,
adding 43 points to 13. “Our bench really made a difference in today’s game”,
Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “We have one of the best benches in the NBA, if
not the best bench in the NBA”, Haliburton said. We are a very deep team, with
many different players who can bring their grain of sand. I’m sure we have a lot
of guys that people aren’t very familiar with, but they’re sure to be very
familiar with”, he added.
The
semifinal was fairly even until the end. The first quarter ended Milwaukee’s
lead 27-29. In the second, Indiana’s alternates were in charge of opening the
gap with a 36-22 partial. The Bucks recovered in the third quarter and came to
the decisive moment with an advantage for them (91-94). Indiana was plugged in
the last quarter, with a 14-8 partial and Haliburton’s successes at the key
moments consolidated and expanded that advantage in the face of Antetokounmpo’s
impotence.
Meanwhile,
the semi-final of the Western Conference had much less history. The current
Lakers are an irregular team, but except in their days of nonsense they are far
superior to the Pelicans. New Orleans held only the first quarter (29-30 in
their favour). In the second they sank (38-24) and in third they disappeared
(43-17). He reached the last quarter with a 110-71 advantage in favour of the
Lakers or, what is the same, with the semifinal more than resolved. In the end,
the distance widened even further, to 133-89 at the end of the game.
Darvin Ham,
the Angels coach, decided to give rest to LeBron James, who went to the bench
with 30 points in just 23 minutes, and Anthony Davis, who scored 16 points and
15 rebounds in 31 minutes.
The NBA
has bet heavily on this new competition format, similar to the traditional European
cup tournaments, with a strong promotion, new designs of the pavilions and the excitement
of the single-party qualifiers. The new tournament seems to have boosted
television audiences in this early part of the season.
In addition
to the title, the champion team players will receive a $500,000 prize each. The
runners-up will have $200,000 a head, while those of the two losing semifinal
teams charge $100,000 and the players of those eliminated in the quarterfinals,
$50,000. This Saturday the best player of the tournament and the ideal quintet
will also be chosen. LeBron Jamen and Tyrese Haliburton have plenty of ballots.
