Thunder champions crush the competition and lead the quarterfinals of the National Basketball Association Cup | Basketball | Sports

The Oklahoma City Thunder, the current NBA champions, are a reel that threatens to break the era of equality in the NBA. After seven seasons with seven different champions, an unprecedented record in 80 years of the competition, the team led by reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showed almost no cracks at the start of the new season. The absolute leaders from the start, SGA and company tied for the second-best historic start to a regular season with 19 wins and just one loss, bested only by the Golden State Warriors who finished 2016 with the best record in the league (73-9) but were then left without a ring in the Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the past, the Knicks (1969-1970) and the Rockets (1993-1994) were able to build off their great start to a championship season, but the Blazers (1990-1991) fell short. The Thunder is the fourth team to achieve 19 victories in 20 matches at the beginning of the year, and all numbers confirm that it will be the competitor to beat again. They currently have their best active winning streak, 11, after beating the visiting Suns 123-119. They also boast the best points differential in history in relation to their rivals: +15.9 points average difference in their wins, which improves their record (+12.9) on the previous year.

They achieved all of this without counting Jalen Williams, the team’s second-string star and Gilgeous-Alexander’s main dance partner. In his return from wrist surgery, he scored 11 points and dished out eight assists in 29 minutes of play. The victory, of course, was led by Shay with 37 points and eight assists in the basket. Williams, 24, averaged 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists last season and was one of the key pieces of Mark Daigneault’s group on offense and defense. Its greatest asset is that the team has barely changed, and the gears have remained good. So far this year, Oklahoma City has been impenetrable again — they’ve conceded 106.3 points, fewer than anyone else — and impressive on offense — scoring 122.2 points, third-best.

OKC entered the quarterfinals of the third edition of the NBA Cup with a clean record (4-0) and as leaders. The team will meet Phoenix again in the first one-game elimination round on December 10, where the Lakers-Spurs will also participate in determining the Western Conference semifinalists. A day before, the Eastern Conference will host the Magic Heat, which will play in Orlando, and the Raptors-Knicks, which will play in Toronto.

The new format promoted by the NBA has had an irregular following since its inception. The league continues to adjust the cup calendar to avoid days without matches, and this will be the last year, for the time being, in which the four teams qualifying for the semi-finals meet in Las Vegas, the neutral zone where the title is contested. In the future, the Grand Final will likely only be held in Nevada City. In order not to reduce the number of matches and encourage competitiveness, the four group stage matches, the quarter-finals and the semi-finals are counted towards the teams’ balance in the league standings. Only the finalists play another match at the end of the tournament.

The Thunder team had already reached the final of the tournament last year, where it was defeated by Milwaukee Bucks coach Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Lakers were the format’s first champions in 2023 thanks to a boost from LeBron James. However, the European trophy tradition that inspired commissioner Adam Silver to create his own mid-season trophy in the NBA is still not widespread in the United States. Painting stadiums in bright colors to emphasize the importance of cup matches in front of the fans has created stability problems for players, and the Lakers, for example, withdrew their match last night against the Mavs due to complaints from their players. Eliminated teams also do not regret losing a championship that still needs to gain prestige, and fans of those who make it to Las Vegas rarely travel to cheer on their team “on site,” generating a cold atmosphere in the suite when there is a title at stake.

For the 2025 edition, the semi-finals are scheduled to take place on Saturday 13 December, and the Grand Final will take place on Tuesday 16, early on Wednesday 17 in Spain (2:30 am). All NBA Cup games this season are being offered through the Amazon Prime platform.