The Bucks and the Lakers earned quarterfinal victories on Tuesday night, joining the Pacers and Pelicans as the final four teams that will head to Las Vegas to compete for the championship in the NBA’s first-ever in-season tournament.
Milwaukee pulled away from New York in the second half in Tuesday’s early game, with superstars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard combining for 63 points in the 146-122 victory.
In the late game, the Lakers benefited from a generous timeout call in the closing seconds (Twitter video link) and eked out Phoenix in a 106-103 nail-biter, led by LeBron James‘ 31 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds, and five steals.
The schedule for Thursday’s semifinals at T-Mobile Arena is as follows:
- Milwaukee Bucks vs. Indiana Pacers (4:00 pm Central time)
- Los Angeles Lakers vs. New Orleans Pelicans (8:00 pm CT)
The winners of those semifinal matchups will square off in the in-season tournament final at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday at 7:30 pm CT.
Players on standard contracts with the Bucks, Pacers, Lakers, and Pelicans have now secured bonuses worth at least $100K (two-way players will earn half that amount). A semifinal victory would increase those bonuses to at least $200K, while the champs will earn $500K apiece.
The Celtics, Knicks, Kings, and Suns, meanwhile, will come away with bonuses worth $50K per player for making the knockout round, but won’t get the opportunity to head to Vegas for the tournament’s final stage.
Instead, the Knicks will travel to Boston on Friday, while the Kings will visit Phoenix on the same night. Those newly added regular season contests represent the 82nd game on each team’s schedule. Thursday’s semifinals will also count toward the NBA’s regular season standings, but Saturday’s final won’t, since that will be the 83rd game on those teams’ schedules.
Boring
It’s a regular season win. Knicks got spanked, again. TWolves also.
Teams that play good D. Do give Knicks trouble. They play more iso. Not enough ball movement.
Bucks were hot last night. 60.4 FG, 3PT (23/38) 60.5 %, had 42 bench points.
This team looked good, especially with Dame.
Knicks scored 122 pts and still got spanked. Bucks ran away in 4Q to close it out. Looked like best team in East.
I’d love to see the Pelicans overcome the league’s pro-Lakers bias and upset the Lakers.
I’m kind of curious to see what the Pacers can do about Giannis, he put up 54 in the 1st game this season in the Pacers win (with Lillard out).
I’d love to see another franchise draw the amount of viewership and ratings and championships as the Lakers. Ain’t gonna happen. Maybe if the suns don’t turn the ball over 10 times in the 1st Quarter and give up 15 to a 40 year old in the 4th they’d come out on top.
I’m a Suns fan and as much as I hated that ridiculous stupid call at the end, the 2 flagrant fouls by Reddish on Booker that were not called and all the non-contact fouls called against the Suns, the reason why they lost were the turnovers. Cut those in half and it’s a landslide win by the Suns.
As much as I hate losing another regular season game to the Lakers, at least we won’t have to play an additional meaningless game in Vegas, risking an injury that could cost us the season
Injuries could happen at any point in time and clearly the games aren’t meaningless with 500k on the line. Chump change for a few guys on the team but significant for others. Are you saying you’d be okay if they got hurt in a game against San Antonio if it meant they finish one game higher in the standings? I’ll take this time to say Phoenix ain’t the real Valley that would be San Fernando, foo
NYK mailed it in on defense. Only (possible) saving grace is it teaches them they can’t win by outscoring teams. Best offensive half of the year (72 points) and still down by 3. Two more games against them this month.
MIL isn’t the defensive team they were, right now anyway, but their overall ceiling is higher. Biggest difference on offense isn’t even Lillard, it’s Middleton, who looks better than he has in 2 years.
It’s so weird seeing guys like A.J.Green (still no confirmation if he’s A.C.’s son..), Jackson and even Beauchamp get decent minutes for mke.
Beasley also has been a surprise, particularly his 3 point shooting.
Great defensive game by Lal last night, their ability to blitz ball handlers w Cam and Vando is going to be their North Star , man they gave Booker fits last night and I loved Hams game plan of picking up half court ( +sending early doubles ) and really making it difficult to even get into sets for Phx
Agreed. Who are the defensive stoppers on PHX? It’s gonna take 4 rounds of MVP basketball from Durant and Booker if they want that elusive Larry O’Brien trophy. Should’ve closed out on Paxson way back when