Bucks, Knicks cruise, advance to NBA Cup's knockout stage - ESPN

NEW YORK — The field for the knockout rounds of the NBA Cup is set, and there will be a new champion as well as an almost entirely different field than last year's inaugural version.

By the time the dust settled Tuesday night, the eight teams were set: the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference; and the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference.

Last year's NBA Cup champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, were eliminated from advancing to the knockout rounds with losses to the Phoenix Suns and the Thunder last week. The Bucks and the Knicks are only teams from the eight who also advanced to the in-season tournament last year.

The quarterfinal matchups next week will be the Magic at the Bucks and the Thunder hosting the Mavericks on Tuesday, with the Hawks at the Knicks and the Warriors visiting the Rockets on Wednesday.

«Yeah, it's great,» Bucks coach Doc Rivers said of his team advancing to the quarterfinals. «They put a tournament in front of us, and we want to win it. We said that early on, and we're 4-0. But we still have a lot of work to do.»

Entering Tuesday, there was a lot still up for grabs. The Hawks, Rockets and Warriors were locked into quarterfinal spots as group winners, but the other five spots were available to be grabbed, including two games in the East — Magic at Knicks and Bucks at Pistons — that had direct win-and-in stakes, as they would determine the winners of Groups A and B, respectively.

The drama in each game didn't last long, with the Knicks and Bucks racing out to sizable halftime leads and cruising from there. The only thing up for debate at that point? Whether the Knicks could