The hottest NBA action took place in Las Vegas on Tuesday night as the second airline NBA Cup Championship Finals took place, pitting the Milwaukee Bucks against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Cell Phone Arena for a trophy likely to be awarded to a future NBA team is determined. Admittedly, it was the only NBA action on Tuesday night, thanks to the league’s continued efforts to make its regular-season tournament seem important. Still, a game between the NBA’s two hottest teams is usually worth the price of listening to Richard Jefferson for a few hours.

Things looked good for half an hour. Well, not Good; Both teams were a bit sloppy, and the Thunder shot six (!) percent from three in the first 24 minutes, but at least it was close. New and important addition to Oklahoma City, Isaiah Hartenstein, had 14 points and seven boards and enjoyed the paint as the Bucks simply decided never to guard him that closely. Jalen Williams, who received the full red carpet treatment from the announcing team (and rightly so; he really should be an All-Star this season), contributed 11 points himself to offset the Thunder’s atrocious shooting. On the other hand, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard did what stars are supposed to do in supposedly important games and combined for 26 points on 9 of 15 shooting (Antetokounmpo made zero three-pointers, which will still be the case in the second half). The Bucks went into halftime with a one-point lead, and while it wasn’t the prettiest of basketball, it was a little closer and more exciting than last year’s Lakers-Pacers finale; The Lakers took a five-point lead at halftime before winning by 14 points.

As in last year’s NBA Cup Final, any potential excitement in this game fizzled out pretty quickly on the other side of halftime. Although the Thunder increased their atrocious three-point shooting to poor levels, going 2 of 7 in the third period, that was about the only positive the Western Conference’s best team took away from the quarter. The Bucks held OKC to just 14 points, which was the Thunder’s lowest point total all season, and dropped 26 points of their own to build a comfortable lead. The defense stepped up, getting six steals, and the Bucks also grabbed five offensive rebounds, but that was about what you’d expect from a December game in which a team emerges from halftime a little more motivated.

The fourth quarter was where the Bucks really put their dominant stamp on this game and captured the prestigious Airline NBA Cup trophy. While the Thunder continued to find new ways to beat their usual shooting percentages, the Bucks only got better, making 6 of 11 three-pointers in the final period and building a 20-point lead after just two and a half minutes heading into the fourth. Gary Trent hit two game-changing three-pointers, Brook “Splash Mountain, I guess” Lopez hit two more, and the game was over, giving both teams plenty of time to start planning for the NBA Cup offseason, also known as ” Rest” is referred to as the regular season.

The presence of Antetokounmpo (who hasn’t attempted a shot from behind the arc once) doesn’t make the Bucks expect that kind of three-point shooting, and yet that’s exactly what they are. They have a shooting percentage of 38 this season .9 percent from distance (third best in the league) and made 14.3 attempts per game. While the 17 points on 42.5 percent shooting are a little above usual, it’s not a major outlier for a team that has turned the season around after a rough start, in part because of its accuracy from distance.

It’s hard to get too excited about the silly season tournament, but damn if the Bucks didn’t try after the final buzzer cemented their 97-81 win. To their credit, winning the NBA Cup is a nice sign for the first half of the season given the aforementioned rough start, and the players will receive a bonus of around $500,000 for the win, which is no slouch. But the team didn’t even celebrate as hard as last year’s Lakers team. That’s partly because Doc Rivers apparently talked to assistant coach Darvin Ham, who won the tournament last year as head coach of the Lakers, about the thrill that comes with winning the NBA Cup; the fact that the resulting conclusion was not “Celebrating too hard” says more about the value of the NBA Cup than any possible mockery I could muster.

Feel the excitement in this photo!

Antetokounmpo then tried his best to exaggerate the moment, concluding his postgame conference with, “Oh man, what a feeling. What a great feeling. I’ll see you again, I promise.” He’ll likely see those reporters again once the actual playoff tournament rolls around, but for now it’s back to what Rivers described as “the hustle and bustle” of the regular season. (Antetokounmpo at least had a better reason not to drink champagne, saying that the last time he drank it, after the Bucks’ 2021 title win, he got a full-body cramp.) But a win is a win, And although the Bucks have stolen the champagne to end any excitement by simply not forgetting how to shoot the ball, the team, unlike the Thunder, will certainly try to keep that momentum going even in the dog days of the game to use vacation time.

At least the Bucks will soon have another important game to play when they visit Cleveland on Friday. The most important thing this game has in common with the NBA Cup Finals is that the Bucks won’t be celebrating either with champagne. On the other hand, is there a big difference? The game against the Cavs, currently the best team in the league, actually has some significance for the rest of the Bucks season.