The Emirates NBA Cup has been a success, in terms of how teams competed to make it past the Group Stage. The stage has been set for this year’s semi-final round and four teams have secured their spots. The Oklahoma City Thunder will play against the Houston Rockets for the Western Conference. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks will face the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference.
All four teams will play their games in Las Vegas, for a chance to win the NBA Cup. The games will take place on Saturday, Dec. 14, with the Bucks-Hawks as the first match at 4:30 p.m. ET. The Rockets-Thunder will follow at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The final round, the championship round, will be on Tuesday, Dec, 17.
Last season, the Bucks were also participants in the semifinal round. They played against the Indiana Pacers, who went on to win and advance to the final round following a 128-119 victory. For the West, the Los Angeles Lakers faced the New Orleans Pelicans and had a dominating 133-89 win.
The Pacers gave it their all to try and win the first NBA Cup but the Lakers were too much for them. The Los Angeles-based team had a 123-109 win and LeBron James was awarded the MVP.
A new champion will be crowned this season as the Lakers were eliminated and didn’t reach the succeeding rounds. Sadly for the league, fans aren’t interested in seeing the semi-final round.
Fans react to the difference in ticket prices for the NBA Cup
According to TickPick, there’s a massive difference in last year’s ticket prices for the Las Vegas games. During the first year of the NBA Cup, the average was $237. But this season, it has dropped to $98 and is still declining.
Fans couldn’t believe it and talked about it on X (formerly Twitter).
“That happens when you fail to market players outside of LeBron, Steph, and KD,” one fan said.
“This what happens when u gas up 40 year olds instead of the young talent in the league,” another fan shared the same thoughts.
“The goat isn’t playing that’s why,” a fan said.
The goat isn’t playing that’s why pic.twitter.com/zdJ8kMiOFb
— zaiire 💫 (@_zaiire_) December 12, 2024
Others don’t see the problem with the low ticket prices.
“This ain’t a bad thing tf y’all saying ‘yikes’ for”
“why do yall want high prices? haven’t we been sayin nba tickets are too expensive lmao”
“good these are prices I like to see”
good these are prices I like to see
— hXnd (@hxndcorpz) December 12, 2024
“They invest to much in the sorry lakers year after year”
“Prices have decreased due to the absence of LeBron, KD, Curry”
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Follow me on X at @BarbecueBro, and follow us at @HardwoodHeroics and @GridironHeroics. You can also reach out to Reign Amurao via email at [email protected]. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
