LOS ANGELES – The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) inaugural in-season tournament breaks new ground again, with stars including LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo gearing up for the upcoming quarter-final clashes.
Four-time NBA champion James, who will turn 39 on Dec 30, has made no secret of the fact that he would love to add a new accomplishment to his resume in his 21st season in the league.
He has already scored the most points in the NBA and logged the most minutes of any player.
His Los Angeles Lakers reached the quarter-finals as unbeaten group winners and will take on wildcards the Phoenix Suns at home on Dec 5 (Dec 6 morning in Singapore), when Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks host wildcards the New York Knicks.
A day earlier, the Indiana Pacers welcome the Boston Celtics and the Sacramento Kings host the New Orleans Pelicans, with all eight teams vying to reach the semi-finals in Las Vegas on Dec 7.
The title game is on Dec 9 in Vegas as well – where the finalists will be competing for the first NBA Cup and US$500,000 (S$668,000) in prize money per player on the winning team.
“It will be a heavyweight match in Los Angeles,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “A lot on the line, winner goes to Vegas. Everyone is looking forward to it. It will be fun.”
The Lakers have already beaten the Suns twice this season, including in the group stage of the tournament.
Suns star Kevin Durant is averaging 31 points per game, third best in the league. The timeless James, meanwhile, has dazzled even at his age while the Lakers coped with a string of injuries.
“The most impressive thing is at what stage in his career he’s doing it in,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “He’s breaking barriers, it seems like, every day.
“We’re witnessing something that’s unprecedented. For him to be at that age, at this point in time in his NBA tenure and what he’s able to do still is unprecedented in my opinion.”
Four of the league’s top 10 scorers are in the quarter-finals – Durant at No. 3, Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox (fourth), Antetokounmpo (fifth) and Boston’s Jayson Tatum, who is ninth.
Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton leads the league in assists, keying a high-octane offence that has the Pacers scoring 123.8 points per 100 possessions this season.
The Celtics blew out the Pacers 155-104 on Nov 1 in Boston. Haliburton missed that game, but Indiana coach Rick Carlisle admitted that his team will have their work cut out to advance against a Celtics team who, at 15-4, share the best record in the league with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“But we do get to play them at home. So, that’s something important,” Carlisle said.
“We need our building to be as loud and raucous as it possibly can and we need to throw a game out there that’s exceptional.
“I just want to make every appeal I can to our fans that we need the loudest building possible.”
Like the Lakers, the Bucks advanced with a 4-0 record in group play, including a 110-105 win over the Knicks.
“It would be pretty cool to be part of history,” Bucks forward Khris Middleton said of potentially winning the first NBA Cup.
“You always want to be the first to win something. It would definitely be cool to win the first in-season tournament.”
For Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, the tournament could be a springboard to play-off success.
“For us, we haven’t won anything,” he said as the team prepares to face Sacramento. “That would be a starting step to try to go and win that.” AFP, REUTERS
