Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Devin Booker led the Phoenix Suns to a 120-112 win over the Utah Jazz.
- The NBA Cup lacks excitement, with players and fans showing little enthusiasm.
- A proposed solution is granting the Cup winner a playoff play-in spot.
SALT LAKE CITY — The court was different. The tournament name had even changed. The result, though, was still the same for the Utah Jazz.
Devin Booker had 31 points and Bradley Beal added 24 to lift the Phoenix Suns to a 120-112 win over the Utah Jazz Tuesday at the Delta Center in both team's first NBA Cup game. Utah has yet to win a game at home this season.
Utah used an 11-2 run in the third quarter — highlighted by a couple of drives by rookie Kyle Filipowski — to cut what had been an 18-point Suns lead down to 6. Despite hanging around in striking distance for most of the fourth quarter, the Jazz never got closer than that.
They have Booker to blame for that one. Each time the Jazz seemed to be making a push, Booker had an answer; he scored 15 points in the final frame and went 4-of-5 from 3-point range.
"I thought that Devin Booker made a couple of really tough ones," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "I thought Bradley Beal made a couple of tough ones. They're a good team."
The late-game heroics notwithstanding, Hardy said the Jazz lost the game in the first quarter when the Suns jumped out to an early 12-point lead. Utah was without Walker Kessler —who missed the game with right hip soreness — and struggled defensively in his absence.
Hardy said the team didn't come out without enough energy or physicality, and allowed the Suns to get to their spots without much resistance. And without Kessler to help clean things up, the Suns shot 54% from the field and 50% from 3-point range in the opening quarter to take the big, early lead.
Yes, despite what the Jazz said leading up to the game (Jordan Clarkson hinted that it was close to a playoff game), it was clear the NBA Cup didn't come with much, if any, more emotion than a regular NBA game.
This is the second year of the tournament that is supposed to breathe new life into what is often a mundane early part of the season. But, so far, it hasn't really landed — for anybody.
The courts are fun for the most part (Utah's gray court was lacking compared to some others), and the league has marketed the tournament as something different. The players and fans, though, have yet to fully get behind it.
Even when the Jazz made things a little interesting late, there wasn't energy from the mostly full Delta Center. It felt like any other November game.
So what can be done to spice things up?
As of now, the only real prize is money (each player on the winning team earns $514,000). LeBron James makes more than that playing any game — and he's far from alone.
The NBA's best players won't be motivated by a little extra money. Heck, there's a bonus that comes from winning the NBA Finals, too; players aren't thinking about that when they're playing in June — and, certainly, no fan is.
In the end, there's really only one thing that players truly care about and that's winning in the playoffs. To get the full buy-in from the players (and, honestly, the fans), the league has to give the tournament some playoff implications.
Our proposal: The NBA Cup champion gets an automatic seventh seed in the play-in tournament; and they get it without sacrificing lottery odds.
So if a tanking team — like the Jazz — wins the Cup, they would have the top spot in the play-in game and get two chances to get into the playoffs. And even if they make the postseason, they would still remain in the lottery. It would provide rebuilding teams the chance to have their cake and eat it too, as it were.
For teams that see themselves as contenders, the play-in spot would provide a nice insurance policy in case of injuries or just a bad few weeks in the season. The Western Conference is expected to be an 11-team battle for the playoffs — assuring a spot in the play-in in December is a pretty good reason to care about a tournament.
Would the prize be more advantageous for the teams with their eyes on the lottery? Maybe, but considering it's unlikely for them to win the tournament anyway, that shouldn't be seen as too big of a problem.
It seems like the perfect sweet spot. It would make the tournament worth something — for the players, for the teams, and for the fans. If the NBA Cup is to be an annual tradition, that's what the NBA should be shooting for in the next iteration.
