After dismantling their semifinal matchup with a dominant 111-96 victory against the Houston Rockets, the Oklahoma City Thunder are now advancing to the 2024-25 Emirates NBA Cup Finals in which a much greater competition awaits them.
But for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, their attitude in approaching a basketball opponent won’t change as their championship face-off with the Milwaukee Bucks is now slated for Tuesday night.
“Obviously there’s some really good players over there. But it’s the same every night. We got to try to make sure that they play in their weaknesses instead of their strengths,” Gilgeous-Alexander said in postgame after leading OKC with a stellar 32-point performance.
“It’s a lot easier said than done. But if we want to win and get it done, that would be our main focus.”
Even though they are the current best in the deep Western Conference record-wise, OKC has no reason to take their foot off the gas pedal as they’ll collide against a seasoned red-hot Bucks team that is playing with a chip on their shoulder
From commencing the season with a horrendous 2-8 record that saw them being marred by league rumors and drama, Milwaukee instantly blazed for a dramatic turnaround to get themselves back on track. Led by Damian Lillard and another MVP-caliber campaign from Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks have gone 12-4 since then and are now sitting at the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference.
Their entire NBA Cup run serves as a testament to the Bucks’ resurgence. They went for a perfect 4-0 in the group play and proceeded to dismantle the Orlando Magic in the quarterfinals before ultimately outlasting the Atlanta Hawks on their semifinal play earlier this Saturday to advance to the Final round.
Both the Thunder and the Bucks haven’t met for a regular season matchup this year, and their upcoming finals bout would only serve as the first time they’ll play with each other.
While they will continue to watch the film and identify their assignments, Jalen Williams argued that the coaching and scouting of the team would play a much more important role in their looming NBA Cup Final clash against the Bucks.
“I think from the Xs and Os standpoint, we’ll leave it to coaches. But basketball is about who can make the other team play on their terms,” Williams said.
“We’ll go out there and play what we usually do and I’m sure the coaches would have a good game plan for us to be able to get back out there and do our thing.”
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