The final trips to Las Vegas are being booked in the 2025 NBA Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday, with the four remaining teams in the West squaring off.
The Orlando Magic and New York Knicks clinched their spots in the semifinals on Tuesday, leaving two left for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs to fight it out on the second day of action.
Let’s just say the first game went the Thunder’s way.
Reaching Vegas already means a significant raise for some players. Each full-time player on a semifinal roster earns a $106,187 paycheck, which escalates with each subsequent round of the NBA Cup. The championship-winning players will earn $530,933, a nice payday for anyone playing on or near the league minimum $1.366 million salary.
Thunder show no mercy to short-handed Suns
The Oklahoma City Thunder were 23-1. The Phoenix Suns were missing Devin Booker. What did you expect?
OKC took its first lead 53 seconds into the game and it’s first double-digit lead four minutes into the game. Less than a minute into the second quarter, it led by 20. Less than a minute into the third quarter, it led by 30. Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was taking his usual blowout rest.
And then the Thunder bench started working over Phoenix over.
The lone drama after the first quarter was Grayson Allen getting ejected for going old-school Grayson Allen on Chet Holmgren. Beyond that, it was a barbaric show of force at the Paycom Center, with the NBA’s current all-time leader in scoring margin posting the largest margin of victory of any NBA game this season.
The record is now 24-1, with 16 straight wins. They are the second team in NBA history to begin a season 24-1 or better, joining the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors.
Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting plus 8 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals. Chet Holmgren also had 28 points on 13 shots, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 assists.
It’s hard to imagine Booker’s presence swinging the result, not when the Thunder were executing at as high a level as we’ve seen all season. The Suns star was ruled out with a groin strain ahead of the game. He hasn’t played since the Suns’ win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 1 and has now missed three games.
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