NBA

HOU 114 TOR 110
IND 122  SAC 95
DEN 132  NO 129

NHL

CAR 3 NYR 1
FLA 4 TB 2
LA 1  WAS 3
ANA 5 UTA 4
SEA 2 COL 5
OTT 1 EDM 3

Soccer

Chelsea 0 VS Everton 0
Southampton 0 VS Fulham 0
Heidenheim 0 VS Bochum 2
Dortmund 3 VS Wolfsburg 1
Liverpool 6 VS Hotspur 3
Juventus 2 VS Monza 1

NFL

CLE 6 CIN 24
LAR 19 NYJ 9
PHI 33 WAS 36
ARI 30 CAR 36
MIN 27 SEA 24
NE 21 BUF 24
JAX 14 LV 19
SF 17 MIA 29
TB 24 DAL 26

NBA Cup results, takeaways: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks will face Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder in final

The Milwaukee Bucks and the Oklahoma City Thunder will meet in Tuesday's NBA Cup final, after both teams won their semifinal matchups on Saturday in Las Vegas. The Bucks dispatched the Atlanta Hawks to earn the right to represent the Eastern Conference in the final, while the Thunder took down the Houston Rockets in a matchup of Western Conference powers in the nightcap.

In the first game, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard combined for 55 points as Milwaukee pulled away for a 110-102 win over Atlanta. Antetokounmpo finished one assist shy of a triple-double, posting 32 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists and four blocks. The Bucks have reached the championship game in 2024 after being knocked out in the semifinals of the In-Season Tournament in Vegas a season ago.

Saturday's second semifinal was a bruising affair between the NBA's two best defenses, but ultimately the OKC offense broke through in the second half for a 111-96 win, led by 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals from MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

OKC's Isaiah Hartenstein won the big-man battle in a big way with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting against Alperen Sengun's 13 points on 6 of 16. Lu Dort also stepped up under the bright lights for OKC, finishing with 19 points, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range. The Rockets were paced by Amen Thompson's 19 points off the bench.

Tuesday's NBA Cup final between the Bucks and Rockets will take place at 8:30 p.m. ET in Las Vegas and will air on ABC.

Here's a pair of takeaways from each of the semifinal games on Saturday, beginning with OKC's win over Houston.

Houston and Oklahoma City are both full of elite defenders, particularly on the wing, and now that the NBA actually allows these marvelous athletes to play defense with a reasonable amount of contact and without fear of bogus flopping whistles, it's incredibly hard to create offense against either one of them.

And that's what we saw all through a first half in which the Rockets and Thunder combined to miss 31 of their 37 3-pointers en route to just 82 combined points. Yes, there were some open looks for both teams, but by and large there was very little space with which to work.

OKC and Houston combined for 19 steals. Every dribble anyone took was nerve-wracking. Driving lanes were closed off immediately as swarms of reinforcements arrived on the scene.

But eventually, the offenses got going. And that's where the Thunder separated. OKC wound up hitting a respectable 45% of its shots including 36% from 3, while the Rockets finished at 36% and 24%, and that's not because OKC's defense is necessarily tougher than Houston's. In fact, I would argue Houston played a tougher brand of defense all night, but OKC has the shot creators and makers that Houston lacks.

With just over seven minutes to play, Houston had managed to keep the deficit at five. Then Gilgeous-Alexander reentered the game and scored six immediate points, first drawing a foul on a 3-point shot and then hitting a nasty step-back 3 from the left wing to stretch OKC's lead to 11. Jalen Williams then created his own midrange jumper to take the lead to 13.