Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder vie for NBA Cup crown

The GIST: The NBA’s in-season tournament is wrapping up just in time for the holidays with tomorrow’s 8:30 p.m. ET winner-take-all NBA Cup finale that will feature a pair of No. 1 seeds: the Milwaukee Bucks and the Oklahoma City (OKC) Thunder.

• The only question remaining is which of these star-studded squads will have the ace up their sleeve that earns each championship-winning player a cool $514.9K?

How it happened: The NBA’s ratings are down, but you wouldn’t know it from the raucous crowds waking up in Vegas after two action-packed semifinals. Saturday’s first game was the Giannis Antetokounmpo (pronounced ah-det-oh-KOON-boh) show as the two-time league MVP stuffed the stat sheet to lead the Bucks to a 110–102 win over the No. 3 seed Atlanta Hawks.

• Not to be outdone, OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander exploded for 20 second-half points (of his 32 total) to top the No. 2 seed Houston Rockets 111–96 in the second semi.

Superstars vie for NBA Cup crown: Both Antetokounmpo and Gilgeous-Alexander have been stellar this season, averaging 32.7 and 30.3 points, respectively. Expect more big numbers from both superstars in the final — that’s just what perennial MVP candidates do.

• That means the difference in this one could be how effective the Bucks’ Damian Lillard can be against OKC’s league-leading defense. If Lillard can come up clutch once more, it might be just enough to dismantle the favored Thunder.