In order to move to the Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who finished the evening with a decisive victory over the Houston Rockets, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Cup tournament semifinals on Saturday.
Milwaukee had a terrible start to the season but has improved in recent weeks, and assistant coach Darvin Ham added another honor to his impressive history of winning in-season tournaments as the team advanced to the NBA Cup championship matchup.
Ham is now 13-0 in NBA Cup games after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the Finals last year and winning the first NBA Cup as head coach last year.
Darvin Ham remains undefeated in the NBA Cup pic.twitter.com/93XG7fJapc
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) December 15, 2024
Fans undoubtedly enjoyed this distinction as well.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have begun to improve their play together, and the Bucks, who began 2-8, are currently comfortably sitting at 14-11.
In any case, 13-0 is a remarkable run. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, or perhaps Ham knows how to motivate his teams to step up their game in these mid-season tournaments.
Against OKC, who are youthful and hungry and currently leading the Western Conference with a 20-5 record thanks to a dynamic and adaptable group headlined by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is off to another MVP-caliber start to the season, we’ll see if he can cap it off with another NBA Cup.
The championship, which is scheduled for Tuesday night, may serve as a preview of the NBA Finals.
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