LAS VEGAS — Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo smiled Friday when asked about the second round of the NBA Cup and if he would change anything about the event.
“I don’t think there’s anything that would change,” said Antetokounmpo, who lost to the Bucks in the semifinals last season in Las Vegas. “I like my room. The stadium here is good. You guys (assembled media) make it feel real.
“As we were walking in, I overheard a couple of players talking and they said, ‘Wow, this is real.’ “It was like that last year too.”
Last season, NBA Cup champion LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers failed to return to Las Vegas. The defending NBA champion Boston Celtics also failed to advance past the group stage. But there will be plenty of star power on display Tuesday night as the tournament concludes with a matchup between MVP candidates Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to determine a second NBA Cup champion.
“We’re really excited about the second year of this format and the first year of the Emirates NBA Cup,” Evan Wasch, the league’s senior vice president of strategy and analytics, told ESPN. “It’s great to see players buying into something and actually competing this early in the season.”
That doesn’t mean the league’s seasonal tournaments are a finished product.
Ahead of Tuesday’s final between the Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), we spoke with league power brokers in Las Vegas and coaches and executives from the tournament’s final four teams and teams around the league. . What worked, what didn’t, and what’s next for the NBA Cup?
The adjusted schedule worked.
The biggest change the league has made since the first NBA Cup last year is adjusting the knockout round schedule. Last season, the entire process was completed in six days.
-
Quarterfinals at home on Monday and Tuesday
-
Thursday Las Vegas semifinals
-
Saturday’s Las Vegas Championship Game
As a result, last year’s Bucks arrived in Las Vegas early on Wednesday morning and played in the early afternoon on Thursday, about 30 hours later. This also meant the NBA would face the NFL on Monday and Thursday.
This year, the NBA has made several changes to its schedule, extending it to a total of eight days.
-
Quarterfinals at home on Tuesday and Wednesday
-
Saturday semifinals in Las Vegas
-
Tuesday’s Las Vegas Championship Game
The change was welcomed by everyone involved as it allowed the team to take a breather, fully prepare for an elimination game, and avoid the tough upset Milwaukee faced last year. It also featured two lively, competitive performances in Saturday’s semifinals, with plenty of dramatic moments in the quarter.
1:27
The Rockets won as the Warriors were stunned in a controversial finish.
The controversial call set up Jalen Green’s free throw to give the Rockets the lead, and Houston held off the Warriors on its final possession to advance to the NBA Cup semifinals.
However, fitting the tournament into the existing schedule will continue to present many challenges. In 10 days, the NBA has one day without a game, two days with one game, and three days with only two games. All of this was necessary for the NBA Cup to be highlighted, but the league was not in favor of cutting back-to-back games from its schedule. “The schedule this week is really rocky,” said one Western Conference executive.
But all four quarterfinals and two semifinals were exciting and competitive, drawing attention to the league’s early schedule, which is typically skewed toward the NFL and college football.
“We achieved the desired results,” the official said. “There is more to this game than the original.
“You heard (Steve) Kerr’s remarks after (Golden State’s quarterfinal loss). They got angry. They wanted to be there.”
Neutral site games are still ongoing.
Tuesday night’s Finals will show how much the Finals’ move from Saturday to Tuesday will impact both attendance and TV ratings (although the Lakers not participating will likely impact both as well).
Despite the fierce competition in Saturday’s semifinals, the atmosphere inside T-Mobile Arena was chilly. Attendance numbers for both games were similar to last year’s league attendance. The attendance for the first game increased slightly from 16,837 to 17,113, and the attendance for the second semifinal (Lakers game) decreased slightly from 18,017 (sold out) to 17,937.
League officials were pleased with these attendance numbers, which were boosted by a strong Atlanta contingent that was in town to watch the Falcons play the Las Vegas Raiders on “Monday Night Football.”
“You could definitely hear it in the crowd tonight,” Hawks star Trae Young said after Atlanta’s semifinal loss. “It was nice to have people here supporting us. “I wish we could have won for them.”
Nonetheless, the game clearly lacked the energy of a home game, a stark contrast to the atmosphere of a cup quarter-final. Last year, the NBA benefited from its first Cup win by the Lakers, who have the league’s largest fan base within a four-hour drive. So far this year’s tournament has shown how difficult it is to play the game in a neutral environment, regardless of competition.
What changes could come to the NBA Cup?
In conversations this week, multiple sources mentioned the possibility of having the semifinals in their home stadium and the championship game in Vegas. This is similar to how the UEFA Champions League in soccer and other cup-style tournaments are played. And it will undoubtedly create a better atmosphere for the game.
The counter argument is that it removes the carrot of a mid-season trip to Las Vegas for two of the four teams currently making the trip. Perhaps more importantly, the team needs to keep more stadium dates open to host games. This is a significant hurdle to overcome for many franchises with multi-use stadiums.
But one change is definitely coming to the NBA Cup. This is the next generation TV home.
After TNT and ESPN split hosting duties for the first two seasons, Amazon will take over the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games. There have been discussions between the NBA and Amazon about possible future schedule changes, league sources told ESPN.
1:28
SGA dropped 32 points to lead OKC to the NBA Cup Finals.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dished the Rockets with 32 points, leading the Thunder to the NBA Cup Finals.
This includes moving the tournament deeper into the regular season. However, the same source warned that such discussions were preliminary and there was absolutely no chance of any changes being implemented next season.
The conclusion of the second half of the season will allow for another adjustment, multiple sources mentioned over the weekend. The group stage period will be doubled from four to eight matches. The argument for such a change is to increase the chances of the best teams developing.
Last year, none of the top five teams in the West advanced to the knockout rounds. This year, the top two teams in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Celtics, were eliminated.
“If we play eight group games, the Celtics will advance to the knockout rounds,” said another West executive.
The NBA immediately changed the knockout round schedule after the opening game of last season, showing its intention to make immediate adjustments. While the league is pleased with how the tournament is progressing as part of the calendar, it is clear that the NBA Cup will continue to evolve.
“When it comes to future changes, we will always be looking at ways to improve the experience for our teams, players, fans and partners,” Wasch said. “So there’s nothing we can say for sure that’s going to come, but it’s something we’re always looking at fine-tuning.”
