After the quarterfinals played this Monday and Tuesday, Las Vegas (USA) already has its four candidates to win the NBA Cup. On the one hand, the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Pelicans will face each other and on the other, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers will face each other. Both semifinals will be played this Thursday while the final will be played on Saturday, all in a single match and in Las Vegas. It should be remembered that Indiana and New Orleans are two NBA teams that have never won a championship
The last to get the ticket for the city of the game were the Lakers, who defeated Kevin Durant and Devin Booker's Phoenix Suns 106-103 this Tuesday with a great game from LeBron James (31 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists and 5 robberies).
In that semifinal the New Orleans Pelicans await them, who attacked Sacramento on Monday and defeated the Kings 117-127 thanks mainly to Brandon Ingram (30 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists).
On the East side, the Bucks defeated the New York Knicks 146-122 this Tuesday with a spectacular 23 of 38 from the three-point line and with 35 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists from Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Their rival will be the Pacers, who surprised the Boston Celtics 122-112 on Monday with an excellent Tyrese Haliburton (triple-double with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists).
The NBA Cup is not the only thing these four teams will fight for in Las Vegas, since there are financial prizes at stake. Thus, the players of the champion team will each take half a million dollars and those of the runner-up will pocket 200,000 dollars.
The Los Angeles Lakers booked their ticket to the semifinals by defeating the Phoenix Suns 106-103, but the outcome of this vibrant and very exciting game had a large dose of controversy due to a timeout in the last seconds.
With 11.2 seconds left and the Lakers ahead by 2 (105-103), LeBron James served for Austin Reaves, who received a two-on-one from the Suns immediately. The ball was divided without any team being able to control it one hundred percent. But at that moment, while the players were still struggling for the ball, LeBron James called a timeout and, although it was highly debatable whether the Lakers had possession, the referees granted it.
The Suns players and coaching staff complained very angrily to the referees but there was no turning back. From there, Anthony Davis scored a free throw (3 for Lakers) and Kevin Durant missed a long three-pointer to have forced overtime.
After the match and with a significant controversy on social networks, the referees offered their explanation of what happened through the NBA media.
"During the live play, the referee deemed that Los Angeles still had possession of the ball when LeBron James called a timeout. Through slow motion postgame video review, we saw that Austin Reaves had his left hand on the ball. ball while holding it against his left leg, which constitutes control," they said.
