Green courts. Point differential. October and November Fridays (and the occassional Tuesday) deliver the majesty and tradition of the Emirates NBA Cup. The Celtics kicked off their fourth Cup run on Friday with a 125-111 win over the Bulls in Boston.
Year 4, and yet the Cup still hasn’t quite reached the level it deserves. Friday morning, I did my part in trying to spread the spirit of the Cup, and was met with vitriol from “Hank” on Twitter, who said the competition “means nothing.”
The Cup may not mean as much as winning an NBA title, but it’s not nothing. Quite frankly, you could argue that it’s harder to win the Cup, in terms of room for error, than it is to lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy. There are six groups, one group winner from each, and one wild card winner from each conference. Those eight squads compete in a single elimination knockout tournament to crown a Champion.
No team has ever advanced having lost more than one game. So, en route to a Cup Championship, you’ve either got to go 8-0 or 8-1.
Despite the strenous climb, the Cup still doesn’t quite get the respect that it deserves, but it’s getting there.
Joe Mazzulla described Friday’s Cup win as just one of 82.
“At the end of the day, you got to play, you got to get better, got to work on stuff, got to win, got to stick to the process of winning,” Mazzulla said postgame. “But I like the idea of what it can become in the future.”
What it can become has yet to be seen, but it’ll take a little more time. Failure may actually play a role in building a desire to win around the league. Neemias Queta cited the Celtics’ previous shortcomings as motivation for putting together a run this fall.
“Yeah, I think over the years we’ve been we’ve been emphasizing how important it is, and I’d say for the guys that been here, like not having it go the way we wanted to for over over the last couple of years, it’s it’s even more motivation for us right now,” he explained in the locker room. “I think the tournament is a good thing for the NBA, and eventually we’ll we’ll get over that hump and get there.”
Last season’s Cup actually gave us all an NBA Finals preview. The Spurs and Knicks faced off in Las Vegas, then met in the Finals seven months later. Each team got a taste of playing in high-pressure, high-stakes games early in the season and parlayed that experience into playoff success.
“I would say,” Payton Pritchard said of the Cup gaining merit around the league. “People definitely want to win. There’s quite a bit of money on the table. I definitely want to win. Even if there wasn’t any money on the table I’d still want to win. Playing in that environment and trying to be in those final four teams and playing in that championship mode again, it gets you ready for the playoffs. You see the Spurs and Knicks, I think they were in the (NBA Cup) finals last year. It’s a good test and it can help you build for the future.”
After their win Friday, Boston sits second in Group B with a +14 point differential. They’ll resume Cup play next Friday when they head to Charlotte to take on the Hornets.
