For those of you involved in Commissioner Adam Silver’s NBA Cup experiment, now in its second year, Tuesday night was a good day. Mainly because of a special rule in tiebreakers: the point difference.

Of all the close games, upsets and strategies that played a role in deciding which eight teams would advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals next week, the number of points by which a team won its games proved to be the most important factor.

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Utah Jazz by 27 points, the largest margin in a major Cup game on Tuesday, to clinch first place in the West heading into the knockout rounds.

“I don’t like the design because it incentivizes (increasing the score),” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said after his team’s 133-106 triumph. “There’s a certain grace with which you win… They’ve created an incentive that turns that on its head. ‘There’s an angel and a devil on your shoulder, we’re going with the angel.’

#EmiratesNBACup Quarterfinal schedule ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/V2EhsfPpWq

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 4, 2024

Whatever the case, the Thunder (3-1) got a lead even when they didn’t try, breaking a three-way tie in the West with Golden State and Houston – both of which lost on Tuesday. Oklahoma City hosts Dallas in a quarterfinal; In the other, the Rockets will host the Warriors.

In the East, the Orlando Magic almost missed out on a gift-wrapped spot in the quarterfinals. They lost to the New York Knicks 121-106, but trailed by 37 points at times in the second half. All they had to do to advance as the East’s wild cards was lose by 36 or less.

In addition, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Detroit Pistons 128:107 and won Group B in the East (4:0). New York (4-0 in Group A) won a home game against East Group C winner Atlanta (3-1) in the quarterfinals. The Bucks, the No. 1 seed in the East, will host the Magic (3-1).

“They have a tournament in front of us and we want to win it,” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said. “We are 4-0 and still have a lot of work to do, but the bottom line is that we deserve the chance to play at home. I don’t think I even know the rules (laughs), but I think that’s true.”

The Mavericks, who basically just had to beat Memphis to advance to the quarterfinals as the West’s wild card, rallied from trailing by 15 in the fourth quarter to win 121-116. The Phoenix Suns defeated the San Antonio Spurs 104-93, depriving the Spurs of a chance to win Group B (San Antonio’s loss and Oklahoma City’s win gave the Thunder the Group B title). The Spurs are eliminated from the Cup altogether, but the Suns are also eliminated, losing in a tiebreaker to Dallas on, you guessed it, points difference.

The Suns, whose plus-30 point differential wasn’t enough to beat the Mavs’ plus-46, and who lost the tiebreaker in their pool with a loss to the Thunder in an earlier Cup game against Oklahoma City, also lost star Kevin Durant to one Sprained left ankle in second quarter.

The Mavs appeared to be finished against the Grizzlies, but Spencer Dinwiddie hit two huge 3s down the stretch and PJ Washington Jr. tied Memphis with a 3-ball with 27 seconds left. Luka Dončić led all players with 31 points and 12 rebounds.

“I like this trophy. I used to play it in Spain – it was really fun there,” said Dončić.

The Warriors could have taken the No. 1 seed in the West with a win and a loss from the Rockets, but fell short in the final minute in Denver. Golden State, now five straight losers, fell 119-115. The Warriors were ahead by seven with about 3:30 left. The Nuggets’ Christian Braun appeared to signal a timeout due to a turnover situation when Denver was out with about 14 players, but was not warned for a technical foul. Had he been whistled for the infraction, the Warriors would have had a free throw and kept the ball; They were two points behind at that point. Instead, reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic made two free throws for Denver to seal the win.

“It’s up to the refs, that’s why we have three of them — someone has to see it,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “That made me angry. That means…we lost because we didn’t close again.”

The Rockets would have easily secured the top seed in the West with a win, but lost to the Sacramento Kings 120-111. Alperen Sengun was sent off in the fourth quarter and coach Ime Udoka received a technical penalty for attacking the referees after his player was thrown.

“Obviously missed calls right in front of you,” Udoka said. “You call out hectic moving screens and little things like that, but you don’t want to call out the obvious ones right in front of you. Alpi was fouled a few times on this drive and on the layup – they won’t say that. I told them to get glasses and open their eyes.”

Milwaukee lost eight of its first 10 games to start the season, but has won nine of 10 games since then. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 28 points and eight assists in 28 minutes, resting the entire fourth quarter at halftime. His team went on a game-wrenching 14-0 run late in the second quarter, making 15 of its first 21 three-pointers. Damian Lillard added 27 points and five 3s. The Bucks reached the semifinals of the tournament in Las Vegas last year, but were defeated by the Indiana Pacers.

The Pistons are a nice surprise story for the season under new coach JB Bickerstaff, considering they were the worst team in the league a year ago and are coming off the worst season in franchise history while maintaining a dubious NBA record set up for consecutive defeats. But Tuesday night’s game was Detroit’s first game in more than five years (since the organization’s last playoff appearance) that really meant a lot, and the team laid an egg together at home. Cade Cunningham was Detroit’s top scorer with 23 points.

The Pistons haven’t won a playoff game since 2008.

“For many of us in the NBA, this is the biggest game we’ve ever had,” said Bickerstaff, who didn’t speak in person — he won a playoff series as Cleveland’s coach last spring. “Playing against a team that has champions, guys who have been through fire before and understand what it takes to get to the next level. The NBA doesn’t let you skip steps.”

Karl-Anthony Towns dominated the Knicks-Magic game with 23 points and 15 boards. Josh Hart posted a triple double (11 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) and Jalen Brunson added 21 points. Orlando, which had won 12 of its last 13 and six in a row, was led by Franz Wagner with 30 points.

The Thunder, the West’s best team this season at 16-5, won with 28 points from Jalen Williams and 26 points from superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The quarterfinals will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, and the winners of those games will punch their tickets to Las Vegas for an NBA Cup semifinal on December 14 at 4:30 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena. The tournament championship will take place on December 17th at 8:30 p.m.

Players from each team that reached the knockout stages will receive pool money. Tournament winners will receive $514,971 per player; The runner-up will receive $205,988 per player; Teams that lose in the semifinals receive $102,994 per player; and players from teams that lose in the quarterfinals will each receive $51,497.

“I don’t really care if the guys at the end (of the bench) get the money. All I care about is what I want to spend,” Hart said in the Knicks’ locker room after the win. Brunson interjected, “You’re an asshole.”

“I’ll just stay at 100,” Hart continued. “I want a new watch, so maybe I can get it. JB, what else can I do to make spending the money easy? I can get a new car.”

In its very short lifespan – okay, one year – the season championship was not a harbinger of future success. The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural tournament last December and ended up having to get through the play-in tournament to get into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed, losing to Denver in the first round.

All NBA Cup games count toward a team’s regular season record, with the exception of the championship game.

The athleteHunter Patterson and Eric Nehm contributed to this story from Detroit; Fred Katz contributed from New York; Andrew Schlecht contributed from Oklahoma City; Tyler Batiste contributed from Dallas; Anthony Slater contributed from Denver; and Kelly Iko contributed from Sacramento.

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(Photo: Zach Beeker/NBAE via Getty Images)