The Milwaukee Bucks will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the final of the 2024 NBA Cup in Las Vegas this week.
It is the second year of the competition, which has a similar format to the football World Cup.
The Los Angeles Lakers, spearheaded by LeBron James, won the inaugural edition last year, beating the Indiana Pacers 123-109 in the final.
This is all you need to know about the 2024 NBA Cup final.
What is NBA Cup and what is format?
Intended to add more importance to the earlier part of the season, the NBA Cup is a shorter format compared to its regular 82-game league season.
“There was an opportunity to grow the league through additional competitions,” Evan Wasch, the NBA’s executive vice-president of basketball strategy and analytics told BBC Sport.
“If you look around the world, there’s so many examples out there where there is more than one thing for teams to win.
“We felt that it was an untapped opportunity. Not necessarily a need for us, but just something that would really grow the game.”
The 30 NBA sides were split into six regionalised groups of five teams.
After playing the other sides in their group once, the top team from the six pools advanced to the quarter-finals alongside the best second-best side from both the Eastern and Western conferences.
Quarter-finals and semi-finals were played regionally, with the best side from each conference going forward to the final.
“It’s basically a World Cup format with five teams in a group instead of four and eight teams advancing,” said Wasch on the format.
“A lot of the elements look very similar to international football. There’s not a lot of difference with what has been done, except building it into our season.
“It’s a pretty close one-to-one mapping.”
Do NBA Cup games count towards the regular season?
Due to its regionalisation and the busy NBA season schedule, the results of NBA Cup matches, barring this week’s final, also count towards the regular season standings.
The Bucks have an overall season record of 14 wins and 11 losses from their 25 matches. In NBA Cup matches, they have six wins from six, meaning their record would have been much worse without cup results taken into consideration.
The Thunder sit top of the Western Conference standings with 20 wins and five losses from their 25 matches. In the NBA Cup, their record has been five wins out of six.
When is the 2024 NBA Cup final?
The final takes place at 01:30 GMT on Wednesday morning, just three days after Sunday morning’s semi-finals.
The Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks 110-102 to reach the final, while the Thunder were 111-96 winners against the Houston Rockets.
The semi-finals were played back-to-back inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which is also the venue for the final.
Who are the players to watch?
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: Jalen Williams (pictured) scored 20 points during the Oklohoma City Thunder’s win over the Houston Rockets
For the Bucks, look no further than Greek power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) has averaged a league-leading 32.7 points per game this season.
Antetokounmpo also ranks fifth in the league for rebounds per game.
Shai-Gilgeous Alexander has been the pick of the bunch for the Thunder so far this season.
The Canadian, better known as ‘SGA’, was named as the Western Conference Player of the Month for January and February’s combined award. He also ranks fourth in the league for average points per game.
Will there be an MVP?
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers lifted the NBA Cup trophy 12 months ago
An MVP for the NBA Cup will be named following the final, as well as a five-man team of the tournament.
In 2023, James and LA Lakers team-mate Anthony Davis both made the team of the tournament, with the former also being named MVP.
Antetokounmpo was named in last year’s team of the tournament and has a chance of being the first player to be in two teams of the tournament.