All eight teams left in the running for the NBA Cup are now playing for a shot at going to Las Vegas for the tournament semifinals, along with a chance of picking up more than $500,000 per player as a reward for claiming the title.
And for the Oklahoma City Thunder, there's something more: History is at stake.
The NBA Cup quarterfinal games — Miami at Orlando, New York at Toronto, Phoenix at Oklahoma City, and San Antonio at the Los Angeles Lakers — are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. The winners will head to Vegas for semifinal games this weekend.
If the Thunder beat the Suns, they'll improve to 24-1 this season and tie Golden State for the best 25-game start in NBA history.
There are also cash incentives: Players on the quarterfinalist teams have already assured themselves of $53,093 apiece in a bonus, with two-way players getting half that much. A trip to the semifinal round doubles that to $106,187.
A semifinal win guarantees players $212,373 in bonus money, and players with standard contracts on the Cup-winning roster will get $530,933 apiece. Again, two-way players get half of whatever the bonus amount is.
Where to watch and listen
All seven remaining games — the quarterfinals, semifinals and title game — are on Amazon Prime. Some quarterfinal games will also get local-market coverage, while the semifinals and final are Prime-exclusive.
