Giannis in bloom and the elephants in the room: seven NBA Cup takeaways

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Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks celebrates after winning the NBA Cup title with Tuesday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.Photograph: Logan Riely/NBAE/Getty Images

Antetokounmpo is having an MVP season

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s NBA Cup final opponent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokić have deservedly been garnering a lot of MVP buzz a quarter of the way through the regular season. But over three days in Las Vegas, Antetokounmpo added to what is already a pretty convincing case of his own to take home his third NBA MVP trophy. He’s been putting up tremendous numbers all season, averaging a preposterous 32.7 points, 11.5 rebounds and 6.1 assists while logging a 19-rebound triple-double in Tuesday’s final, a 97-81 win over Oklahoma City. But his stat line isn’t existing in a vacuum; he’s looking as dominant, if not moreso, than he ever has. And he’s been deadly from the mid-range this year (as Kevin Garnett gave him props for over the weekend), which is a significant complement to his near-unstoppable inside game. In Tuesday’s showdown between MVP frontrunners, Giannis looked decidedly like the best player on the floor.

Related: Giannis Antetokounmpo hauls in-form Bucks past Thunder to NBA Cup title

The elephant in the room

When flying out of Las Vegas from Harry Reid International Airport, one finds themselves shopping for magazines and water bottles amid a sea of zombies with blank stares, and it always feels like there’s this strange unspoken elephant in the room: this is a place where almost everyone is hungover, but no one verbally acknowledges it. It was hard not to notice the NBA’s own elephant in the room in Vegas this weekend: that a clear succession plan for a basketball world after LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant doesn’t really exist. The collective holding of breath from the NBA media machine after Curry’s Warriors were eliminated at the quarter-final stage, thus ensuring that no bona fide, tried-and-true needle-mover would be joining the party in Vegas, was palpable. Last year’s inaugural tournament featured James and the Los Angeles…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/giannis-bloom-elephants-room-seven-100149270.html

Author : The Guardian

Publish date : 2024-12-18 10:01:00

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