Here's who the OKC Thunder might play depending on 2024 NBA Cup results

Here’s who the OKC Thunder might play depending on 2024 NBA Cup results

Posted by author December 8, 2024 NBA

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Looking at their schedule, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a weird upcoming week-and-a-half. They’re only scheduled to play the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

Unfortunately, it’s not an early Christmas break. Instead, it’s a scheduling quirk from the 2024 NBA Cup. The Thunder advanced to the eight-team knockout tournament after winning the West’s Group B with a 3-1 record and a plus-45 point differential.

The first-seeded Thunder will host the wildcard Mavericks in a quarterfinals matchup. The winner advances to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals. They will face the winner of the Golden State Warriors vs. Houston Rockets matchup.

The NBA Cup grand prize is purely financial. The NBA Cup winner will receive $515K for each player on the roster. The runner-up will receive $206K per player. The two semifinal losers will $103K per player. The four quarterfinal losers will receive $51K per player.

So with 81 games scheduled, who will the Thunder face for their 82nd game of the regular season? There are two possible scenarios:

If they beat the Mavericks, they’ll face the Warriors-Rockets winner in Las Vegas on Saturday, Dec. 14
If they lose to the Mavericks and the Rockets lose to the Warriors, the Thunder will host Houston on Sunday, Dec. 15
If they lose to the Mavericks and the Warriors lose to the Rockets, the Thunder will travel to Golden State on Sunday, Dec. 15.

If the Thunder advances to the NBA Cup finals, they will play the East winner in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Dec. 17. The championship game will not count towards the regular-season standings as it will be an 83rd game.

Here is the 2024 NBA Cup quarterfinals. The higher seed will host the contest:

Because of the NBA Cup’s nature, a lot is unknown right now about the Thunder’s short-term future. But from what it looks like, OKC will benefit from a multi-day break regardless of the result.