Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs Punch Tickets To Las Vegas
The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonia Spurs punched their tickets to the Emirates NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas with knockout-round wins on Wednesday.
In a home game at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, the NBA defending-champion Thunder crushed the Phoenix Suns, 138-89, behind 28 points from 6-foot-6 guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Known as SGA, Gilgeous-Alexander was last season's NBA Most Valuable Player and currently is second in the league in scoring at 32.8 points a game, only trailing NBA scoring leader Luka Dončić of the Lakers (35 points a game).
Led by 30 points from 6-foot-6 guard Stephon Castle, the Spurs upset the Lakers, 132-119, at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles. The Spurs won despite being without 7-foot-4 star Victor Wembanyama, who could be out for at least one more game with a calf strain.
Las Vegas Semifinals Set
The Western Conference Thunder and Spurs go head-to-head on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for the right to play in the NBA Cup championship game against either the New York Knicks or Orlando Magic.
The Eastern Conference Knicks and Magic also face off Saturday at the arena on the Las Vegas Strip for a chance at this season's NBA Cup championship.
The NBA Cup title game between the East and West winners is set for Tuesday, Dec. 16, in Las Vegas.
This is the third in-season NBA Cup tournament. The Lakers won the first tournament, followed the next year by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Meanwhile, the regular season NBA title game is set to be played in June 2026. If Oklahoma City wins the regular-season championship this season, the Thunder will be first team to capture back-to-back league titles since the Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship in 2017 and 2018.
So far this season, Oklahoma City has won 24 games and only lost one, a two-point road loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in November.
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