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After an alternately exciting and confusing group stage, the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup now moves on to the knockout rounds. Eight teams, four from each conference, will compete in quarterfinal contests on Tuesday and Wednesday for the right to move on to the semifinals in Las Vegas, where they’ll have the chance to compete for the NBA Cup, for whatever bragging rights go with it — your mileage may vary on just how “forever” that particular flag flies — and, of course, for the estimable stacks of cold, hard cash that await the winners.
Before our quarterfinal quartet tips off, let’s reset the table as we return to our irregularly scheduled tournament, already in progress:
Where we left off
We detailed that frantic final evening of group-stage play, with 13 teams vying for the final five spots in the knockout round.
There was drama in Dallas, where the Mavericks had to roar back from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit against the Grizzlies to keep their hopes alive … and they did just that. Behind a monster final frame driven by the playmaking of Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, hot shooting from P.J. Washington and Spencer Dinwiddie, and a disastrous five-turnover, 15-foul stanza from Memphis, the Mavs overtook the Grizz, edging out the at-that-point-still-alive Suns and Trail Blazers to land the West’s wild-card spot.
There was intrigue in Manhattan, where the Knicks were beating the brakes off the Magic to such a degree that the visitors’ chances of securing a knockout spot — previously deemed all but a lock, as Orlando entered with a league-high +60 point differential — were suddenly in doubt. Fears of a total collapse proved premature, though, as the Magic clawed back to a respectable enough final margin to ensure that both participants in that finale advanced — the Knicks as the winners of Group A, and the Magic as the East’s wild card.
By the time the evening ended, we had our eight.
(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
In the West: the defending Western Conference champions (Dallas); a recent NBA champion led by one of the greatest players ever (Golden State); and the teams with the…
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Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-12-09 17:51:00
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