Thunder vs. Bucks: One Game for the Cup

Game Info

Tip-off: 7:30 PM | Broadcast: ABC

🏆💰 The money matters

Unlike the earlier rounds of cup play, the championship game doesn't count as a regular season contest. From the supermaxed Shai to the two-way Ajay, the Thunder win a trophy, money, and bragging rights with a victory tonight. Oklahoma City is treating it like a playoff preview, wading through the media and travel demands that have accompanied their tournament run.

We get to simulate a lot of what's going on during the playoffs, during those stretches, to where we can kind of flex that muscle now and be better later in the season. - Jalen Williams

🏆🇬🇷 Freak Fight

Giannis is a monster, and playing like it. OKC has succeeded against some other behemoths with waves of wings and/or the backstop of IHart or Chet, but they still have to execute and live with any heroics the Greek Freak manages.

On the other end, Milwaukee isn't what they once were, but they do still have a frontcourt capable of standing up the Thunder attack inside. Again: Giannis is a monster, capable of closing in on the freakishly able shot creation of SGA at the second- or first-line of defense. If the threes aren't falling, someone will likely need to cook in the midrange. Speaking of...

🏆⌚ Dame's Time

I can admit that Damian Lillard ended the last Thunder/Blazers rivalry, decisively on top. I can also admit that watching OKC's rebuilt pieces overwhelm Dame all night--whether JDub and Shai picking on him in isolation, or Cason and Caruso walling him off in the backcourt--would bring me sweet, petty joy.

Prediction: OKC 108 MIL 92

I expect one of those flat starts common to single-elimination games on neutral ground. But the Thunder formula should hold, keeping Milwaukee under wraps while OKC's takeaway carnage and offensive execution blow another game open.