NBA Cup Reaction

 Year 2 of the NBA cup experiment is now complete! I feel like last year with the novelty of it all it felt more exciting and like it actually meant something. This year, maybe it's just me, but I felt like it wasn't all that important. I can't even say that it's because I didn't care about the teams in it because the Thunder are my second favorite team this year, the Bucks are my favorite team to hate and I've had a good time watching Hawks and Rockets games all season. Better incentives next year is my solution. In any case, we got a bonus basketball game last night and while it wasn't the most fun one down the stretch, it gave me something to write about! 

Giannis is a Beast

A lot of talk this season, and rightfully so, about how Jokic is the best player in the world putting up God like numbers on a nightly basis. Lost in the best player in the world conversation though is Giannis Antetokounmpo. Giannis showed last night why he deserves to still be in that conversation putting up 26 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists to go along with 3 blocks and 2 steals. Giannis was impressive and physically imposing on offense like he usually is, but I was even more impressed with his defense. Giannis is absolutely everywhere on the defensive end. There were multiple times last night when a Thunder player thought he had a clear lane to the basket only to have Giannis appear out of nowhere to block or alter the shot. The Thunder struggled mightily to hit their 3s last night which did not help at all with Giannis roaming around the paint wiping away any opportunity. Offensively, Giannis was bigger and stronger than anyone the Thunder could throw at him. This isn't a surprise, Giannis is bigger and stronger than almost anyone in the NBA, but for the Thunder in particular size is still an issue. Without Chet Holmgren, the best options to toss at Giannis last night were 6'4 Lu Dort, 6'5 Alex Caruso or 6'5 Jalen Williams. Giannis has 6 inches at least on all of these guys and was using his size very effectively. While the Thunder are great at causing deflections and poking the ball loose, it's hard to constantly lose the size battle against such a physical player. Giannis is going to go down as one of the best players I ever got to watch in his prime, and last night really showed why. 

Shai Struggled

Tough one for my favorite player, maybe of all time, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Shai was being guarded for most of the game by Andre Jackson Jr, a long and physical defender in the Bucks starting lineup specifically to guard. Shai is definitely not a stranger to seeing the other team's best defender and has diced up tons of guys who fit that description, but last night was just not his night. It seems like early in games, Shai is focused on getting up 3s, which still at this point is not the strong part of his game. Once he calmed this down and started going to the basket, things started to look a little better for him. The Bucks have a great front court for rim protection though with Brook Lopez and Giannis down low and these shots weren't going to be there for Shai all game. Luckily, SGA has maybe the best mid range game in the league. Shai was getting to his spots as well as ever and finding those little slivers of daylight to get off his tough middys, but they were just not falling last night. Shai missed probably 10 shots that I've seen him hit a million times, including some that I saw him hit live just last week at Scotiabank Arena. Shai is always going to be active on defense and as a playmaker so his impact is never negative, but last night with the rest of the Thunder unable to muster anything, they really needed Shai to hit the tough shots he's capable of hitting and it just didn't happen. This is why playoff series are 7 games! Tough games happen for stars all the time and I am sure that if you played this one 7 times, Shai wouldn't have a performance like this again. We still love you here at Lohensports Shai. 

Cason Wallace

Yeah I am talking about another Thunder player in a game that they lost, I just really dislike the Bucks I don't even know why. Cason Wallace though, holy this guy is good! The Thunder traded Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso in the offseason to get another feisty guard that does the dirty work along with Lu Dort. Little did we know they already had Alex Caruso at home as well in Cason Wallace. Wallace was everywhere last night doing all the little things that help a team win. He's great as a help defender getting his hands on the ball on digs, he's awesome guarding 1 on 1 always staying in front of his man and has the length and toughness to switch onto anyone. He is constantly around loose balls fighting harder than anyone to get another possession for his team and on offense, he doesn't take anything away with the ability to spot up, handle a little bit and good instincts finishing around the rim. Cason Wallace is just a winning player. This is a guy who would be the star role player on any contending team and the Thunder bring him off their bench along with their other star role player Alex Caruso. The Thunder definitely lack size as outlined in the Giannis dominance segment, but they do not lack heart and Cason Wallace is a perfect example of that. 

NBA Cup as a Whole

Again, I don't know, but to me I feel like this season the NBA Cup wasn't as exciting as last year. I think the concept is a good idea and it is minimally invasive on the NBA schedule so at the end of the day it doesn't really matter if you like it or not, but I can't say I was any more amped to watch NBA cup games vs just normal regular season basketball. I feel like there needs to be a much stronger incentive structure for the NBA Cup going forward. Some suggest that the winning team gets a draft pick at the end of the first round. While this might add some intrigue for the fans, I would think the players wouldn't have as much excitement around this idea considering it doesn't help their current season in any way. I think a good idea would be to have the NBA Cup winner automatically make the playoffs. If a terrible team somehow makes it all the way and wins the NBA Cup it could cause some issues, but that would be a highly unlikely scenario and lets face it, the fans would love it if a team could pull off this kind of Cinderella act. Ultimately, maybe it's just not for me! I am a diehard of this sport and I will casually watch regular season games featuring 2 teams I don't necessarily care about. Maybe the NBA Cup is more popular among the casual fans who tune in for high intensity playoff games? Either way, I am hating on a product that I spent the next morning writing about for free so obviously they caught my attention anyway. 

That's that! A little less lazy today! I don't know what it was, I just was not feeling the NFL week 15 so I do apologize for the lackluster reaction. I will be back tomorrow of course with something else that I need to dream up, but for next week the schedule might get a little spotty! That being said the Steelers play both on Saturday and Christmas Day and I have a strong feeling that I'll have some thoughts that I need to get down after those games so stay tuned for that! Go Steelers, Go Raptors, Go NBA!