Copa night in the NBA. With the excitement of the single-game playoffs, the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics played this Monday for a place in the semifinals of the new American professional basketball tournament. After changes on the scoreboard, the final five minutes were played with maximum parity. The score was tied when Tyrese Haliburton scored a triple on an extra shot with a minute and a half left. These four points knocked the Celtics out of the race. They failed on their next attack and the Pacers added the finishing touches with another three-pointer and a two-pointer. In the blink of an eye, a 9-0 run and the farewell to one of the big favorites for the title of the first NBA Cup.
The Celtics fought, but the gap was too great for such a short time and the score was 122-112. Boston suffered from Haliburton’s triple-double performance: 26 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Buddy Hield served as guard with 4 of 6 triples and 7 of 11 field goals.
The Celtics took the lead in the first half with more accurate shooting and greater rebounding power. They went into halftime with a 48-55 lead. However, they suffered a slump in the third quarter, in which they conceded a partial deficit of 37:23. They started the decisive part of the game on the uphill side, but with six minutes to play they evened the score (94-94) thanks to a hat-trick from Jaylen Brown.
The game started again. The two teams exchanged blows for more than four minutes, with neither team leading by more than two points. There was 1:33 left and the score was 105 when Haliburton made the game-winning three-pointer, which became a four-pointer due to Brown’s foul on the Indiana player. Two failed attacks by Boston, two more successes by Indiana and with 44 seconds left the score was 114-105. The game was decided. The Celtics’ desperate drive forward due to fouls resulted in many more points, but the miracle that awaited Boston failed to materialize.
Jayson Tatum, a player of enormous talent and physical strength, failed again at the crucial moment. He owned the missed three-point attempt on offense after Haliburton’s four-point play. The Celtics star finished the game with 32 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists, but only made 2 three-pointers in 8 attempts and, more importantly, felt like he couldn’t control the game or lead his team to victory. Victory. Brown added another 30 points, but wasn’t particularly good at three-pointers either.
Indiana’s greater accuracy from the three-point line was key. The Pacers made 19 of 40 three-point attempts (47.5%) while the Celtics only made 12 of 41 (29.3%). That’s a very low percentage for a team that has some of the best three-point shooters in the league. Boston was missing injured center Kristaps Porziņģis, who was a good shooter.
The Pacers will face the winner of the duel between the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks in the semifinals this Tuesday, in which Giannis Antetokounmpo’s team is the favorite. The first quarterfinal game of the Western Conference between the Sacramento Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans will also be played on the same Monday. This Tuesday there will be a quarterfinal game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns for a place in the semifinals.
The semi-finals will take place on December 7th at the spectacular La Esfera venue in Las Vegas. The two quarter-final winners from the East will meet in one semi-final and the two from the West in another. Once the Denver Nuggets and Celtics are eliminated, the Milwaukee Bucks are the favorites. However, anything can happen in single-game matchups, as the Pacers have already shown.
The final will also take place on December 9th in Las Vegas. It will be the only game in the Cup tournament that does not double as a regular season NBA game. The organization has done a lot of work to balance the calendar without overloading it, as each of the 30 teams already plays 82 games in less than six months (between October 24th and April 14th) before the playoffs for the title begin.
The champions will usher in the record of a new NBA title. The new tournament has, for now, focused attention on a competition that generated little interest until the second half, when the positions for the title play-offs were determined. The excitement with which the decisive day of the group phase and now the games in the fourth quarter were experienced this year shows that the NBA Cup has potential. The number of television viewers has grown significantly, but significant advertising efforts have also been made. The moment of truth will come with a Final Four like this in Las Vegas.
In addition to the title, the players on the champion team will each receive prize money of $500,000. The runners-up will receive $200,000 each, while the teams of the two losing semifinalists will receive $100,000 and those eliminated in the quarterfinals will receive $50,000.
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