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The Spurs, meanwhile, appear to have found their footing. After finishing last season with just 34 wins, the Spurs have already reached 17 victories in their first 24 games. The team has managed that record despite losing star big man Victor Wembanyama for 12 games due to a calf injury<\/a>, and now they\u2019re getting him back for a clash with the NBA\u2019s top team<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the exact kind of matchup the NBA was hoping for when it crafted this in-season tournament.<\/p>\n Jalen Brunson torches Magic as Knicks reach NBA Cup championship<\/p>\n The New York Knicks have reached the knockout round of the NBA Cup all three times the tournament has been held. They are about to play in their first championship game, primarily thanks to Jalen Brunson.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Behind 40 points and 8 assists from their All-Star guard, the Knicks survived a high-scoring thriller against the Orlando Magic in the East semifinal,<\/p>\n The Magic entered the game ranked fifth in the NBA in defensive efficiency, and the Knicks gashed them on that side of the court as much as any team has all season, despite shooting only 7-of-20 from 3-point range as a team. The absence of defensive standout Franz Wagner loomed large.<\/p>\n It also didn\u2019t help that Jalen Suggs, another defensive standout, left the game in clear discomfort in the fourth quarter. The Magic later announced he was questionable to return with a sore left hip, but he never made it back to the court.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The win guarantees Knicks players $205,998 each in NBA Cup prize money, with a chance to win $514,971 in the championship game. The Magic players will have to settle for $102,994.<\/p>\n Which teams will punch their tickets to the NBA Cup Championship on Tuesday? Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more from the 2025 NBA Cup semifinals:<\/p>\n Live46 updates<\/p>\n Sat, December 13, 2025 at 3:12 PM PST<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n If Victor Wembanyama isn\u2019t playing significant minutes this game, it\u2019s hard to see a Spurs win being possible without a really good shooting night. Unfortunately, they have missed their first 10 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n The reigning MVP has six points in six minutes.<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n No Wemby out of the time out for San Antonio. We might be talking about some very limited minutes for him tonight.<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n Welcome back, Isaiah Hartenstein.<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t been all bad for the Spurs, though.<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n All Thunder so far. OKC builds a 12-4 lead in the first three minutes, making all five shots inside the arc. No Wemby minutes yet, but the Spurs need to at least keep it close when he\u2019s out if he\u2019s not getting a full workload yet.<\/p>\n Jack Baer<\/p>\n The Spurs win the tip and we\u2019re off as the Thunder try to continue their all-time start.<\/p>\n Sat, December 13, 2025 at 6:15 PM PST<\/p>\n The Spurs aren\u2019t the only team getting its starting center back tonight. Isaiah Hartenstein is in the lineup for the Thunder after a six-game absence due to a calf strain.<\/p>\n Sat, December 13, 2025 at 6:11 PM PST<\/p>\n Sat, December 13, 2025 at 5:59 PM PST<\/p>\n Tarohn Finley<\/p>\n Jalen Brunson\u2019s 40 points helped the New York Knicks beat the Orlando Magic 132- 120 to advance to the NBA Cup Championship. Brunson passed Richie Guerin for the third-most 30+ point games in franchise history. The Knicks will play the winner of the San Antonio Spurs – Oklahoma City Thunder game for the NBA Cup Championship.<\/p>\n Magic\u2019s Jalen Suggs led the team in scoring but struggled to continue his momentum from the first half. Suggs scored 1 point in the second half after scoring a first-half career high of 25 points. Paolo Banchero added 25 points and 8 rebounds.<\/p>\n Tarohn Finley<\/p>\n Tarohn Finley<\/p>\n Tarohn Finley<\/p>\n Tarohn Finley<\/p>\n Tarohn Finley<\/p>\n Tarohn Finley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After six weeks of play, the NBA Cup was down to its final four teams entering Saturday: the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,191553,191552,86309,19711,20455,43113,590,1666,5548,12985,10549,85,191551,28021,12838],"class_list":{"0":"post-346616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-championship-game","11":"tag-cup-championship","12":"tag-dominant-team","13":"tag-franz-wagner","14":"tag-jalen-brunson","15":"tag-jalen-suggs","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-new-york-knicks","18":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","19":"tag-orlando-magic","20":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-the-magic","23":"tag-the-spurs","24":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sat, December 13, 2025 at 6:46 PM PST<\/p>\n
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![\"Tarohn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/14e93e10-b8ef-11f0-bffb-eaeb80a41d60.png\"\/)
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