LAS VEGAS — It took them a second try, but the Milwaukee Bucks figured out how to get past the NBA Cup semifinals.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, the league’s leading scorer, finished with 32 points and the Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks 110-102 in front of 17,113 fans in Saturday’s first Cup semifinal. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets tipped off the second game at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Antetokounmpo added 14 rebounds, nine assists and four blocks. He scored 10 in the final quarter — which began with the Hawks ahead by one — and shot 10 of 15 for the game. One of those four swats came on Clint Capela’s dunk try off a lob with 2:35 left and the Bucks up by five.
“I think the conversation within the team is that nothing matters, only win,” Antetokounmpo said. “Stats don’t matter; it doesn’t add a win or a loss to our record. Nothing really matters. How many shots, if you go 0-15, if you go 15-15, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters right here is to get a win, and that’s the message within our team right now and everybody got to stay locked in.”
DAME FLOATER PUTS THE BUCKS UP 7 🙌
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Damian Lillard added 25 points and seven assists. His runner with 23.2 seconds left made it 107-100, and he poked away another attempted lob pass from Trae Young to Capela with 11.8 seconds remaining to seal the game. Brook Lopez added 16 points.
Young scored 35 points with 10 assists and seven rebounds in the loss. Jalen Johnson contributed 15 points and 10 boards for the Hawks.
The Bucks (14-11), who started the season just 2-8, were in the final four during the first in-season tournament last year but fell in the semis to Indiana. The Hawks (14-13) had won seven of their last eight with victories over the NBA’s top teams, including two over Cleveland and another over Boston.
“I think we probably looked a little sharper this time around,” Lillard said. “Last time, we were ready, but this time we came into it remembering our last experience. We came correct.”
The tournament champions get $514,971 per player and the runner-up receives $205,988 per player. Teams that lose in the semifinals get $102,994 per player. The NBA Cup championship game is the only one that does not count as a regular-season contest.
“It’s funny — a lot of people say it’s the money and it’s not. It’s the competition,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “Now, the guys who aren’t playing, it’s the money. I’ve never been hugged more by our rookies in my life. They came in and they were celebrating like it was a big game.”
The NBA sprinkled some Vegas into its game production, installing a red carpet for players to walk upon entering the arena with a lighted path, gold wing-like decals on the walls, and the NBA Cup itself on the route to the locker rooms. Cirque du Soleil dancers performed at halftime. The league also handed out 1,000 free tickets to Doral Academy, which a league spokesman described as being “part of our typical social responsibility efforts.”
It sounded like the Hawks had more fans than the Bucks (Milwaukee was booed by the crowd several times), perhaps because the Falcons will visit the Raiders on “Monday Night Football,” which would have given Atlanta fans months to plan to be in Las Vegas this weekend. One of the challenges of the NBA Cup is teams and their fan bases don’t find out who reaches the final four until a few days before the event, making it difficult to plan travel.
Prices for the Hawks-Bucks started at $29 and $39 for Thunder-Rockets. The average price of an NBA ticket is $94.
“I kinda figured there’d be a lot of Hawks fans with the Falcons playing Monday,” Young said. “Wish we could have won for ‘em.”
The Los Angeles Lakers, who have a massive, national following that extends to Las Vegas, drew 18,000 fans in one NBA Cup semifinal against New Orleans. The Bucks and Indiana Pacers drew 16,800 fans. For comparison, the USA-Canada exhibition game in July in preparation for last year’s Olympics drew nearly 21,000 fans.
The NBA Cup final will be played Tuesday in Vegas, tipping at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
This story will be updated.
(Photo: Kyle Terada / Imagn Images)
