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    • What you need to know about the start of the Bucks’ Emirates Cup match against Raptors
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    What you need to know about the start of the Bucks’ Emirates Cup match against Raptors

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    The NBA begins the second year of its season-long tournament, now called the Emirates Cup, across the league on Tuesday evening.

    The Milwaukee Bucks will begin pool play by hosting the Toronto Raptors at 7 p.m., and fans will be reminded of the added significance of the regular season game by a fully painted court in varying shades of blue, along with the Cup trophy.

    Bucks head coach Doc Rivers was part of ESPN’s Cup semifinals broadcast teams last season, which the Bucks were a part of under former head coach Adrian Griffin.

    The Bucks were the tournament’s top seeds, winning 5–0 in the group and quarterfinals. But Milwaukee lost to Indiana, and there were record team stress fractures over its organization and preparedness.

    Ironically, Rivers replaced Griffin as head coach of the Bucks just over a month later.

    “I was very skeptical when they brought it in,” Rivers recalled. “I was on the board when they first started talking about it. I was in favor of it, even though I was still skeptical, because I thought change is good. What the hell? Do it. See how it turns out. I liked it. I thought it definitely created interest in our league in the middle of football. People talked about it. Maybe because it was the first, I don’t know yet. I thought there were teams attacking it. And I thought there were teams that were just playing in it. I think more teams will attack it this year and want to win.”

    Last year, the Bucks treated the in-season tournament games seriously — Khris Middleton played one in Charlotte and not the next night in Dallas — and the players talked about how the cash prize was motivating not only for them as individuals, but for the assistant coaches as well and lower-paid team members.

    While Rivers is still not a fan of the league’s emphasis on the Cup trophy and banner-hoisting — the Los Angeles Lakers did indeed hang a banner next to its fourteen championships — he acknowledged that there can be something when a team applies for the cup. title.

    Especially for his team, which is now one of the worst in the league as they play the Raptors in the pool on Tuesday night.

    “Yeah, I mean, all of a sudden you’re (2-8) and the next thing you know you’re winning the cup – what does that mean? It says something for your team,” Rivers acknowledged. “I think you’ll see every team regardless of their record, but I think people will take it a lot more seriously. First of all, I think they understand it now. I mean, I did a lot of interviews and I interviewed guys in Vegas who were making it but didn’t get it. They didn’t know how they got there. But now I think everyone understands it a bit. I think the league will continue to tweak it to make it even better.”

    More: Bucks guard Delon Wright is trying to find his way after being benched early in the season

    Coaches can point to the Pacers, who ultimately lost to Darvin Ham’s Lakers in the Cup finals, as a team that benefited from the series. They took the nation by storm with their swagger (Tyrese Haliburton pantomiming Damian Lillard’s “Dame Time” viewing tap celebration after a big chance against the Bucks) and their romp to the Cup final.

    Months later, they played the Boston Celtics for the right to go to the NBA Finals.

    “If you talk to Rick Carlisle, he said he doesn’t know if that would have happened if they didn’t have the season tournament,” Rivers said. “That experience, and the fact that they were on the podium in a big game – and they laid an egg in that game – taught them a life lesson. You can’t teach that to a team. You can’t go through that and they have experienced that. I think if you’re all the other teams, you’ve seen that. And that team made it to the Eastern finals.”

    The core of the Bucks team does have a Finals ring, but the majority of the team doesn’t know what that experience is like. And without Middleton and starting shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. (back spasms) they are struggling to win matches – so a second trip to Las Vegas power mean something.

    More: Injury report for the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2024-2025 NBA season

    But they have to get there first.

    “You know, at this point I’ll probably treat it the same way fairly,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said. “I don’t know which copy they have for us – I don’t think we have one in the safe…”

    He laughed.

    “…This is probably wrong, but honestly I’m sure it’s the same for many of us in the locker room. It’s a different game for us. We only look at the one in front of us. That’s all we’re preparing for. It would be the same if we were 8-2 or whatever our record is now. Whatever the game is for us, we just have to take care of business there.

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    What is the Emirates Cup?

    Created last year by the league and called the “In-Season Tournament,” it was intended to generate more interest in regular-season games and give the league’s stars reason to play more games. The Los Angeles Lakers won the opening tournament by beating Indiana under current Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham.

    What is the cash prize for the Emirates Cup?

    All players on the winning Cup team will receive $514,970, while players on two-way contracts will receive half of that. The second team earns $205,988 per player, while semifinalists get $102,994 and quarterfinalists get $51,497.

    Head coaches receive the same amount as the players and assistant coaches receive 75% of the head coach’s total.

    Which group are the Bucks in?

    The Bucks are in East Group B with Indiana, Miami, Detroit and Toronto. Last year, the Bucks went undefeated in group play and earned an extra home game in the quarterfinals.

    Group play matches take place on Tuesdays and Fridays from November 12 to December 3 and these are the only matches scheduled. All games will be broadcast nationally on TNT and ESPN (a combined 14 games) and NBA TV (three).

    More: Here’s the full lineup of Milwaukee Bucks theme nights and giveaways for the 2024-2025 season

    Are there different courts and jerseys for the cup matches?

    Yes. Like last year, each team will feature more team-specific, fully painted courts and contrast with the home team’s Statement Edition kits.

    What is the Bucks’ Cup schedule?

    • November 12: Bucks vs. Raptors
    • November 22: Bucks vs. Pacers
    • November 26: Bucks at Heat
    • December 3: Bucks at Pistons

    The top two teams from the six groups, along with two wildcards, will advance to the quarter-finals on the home markets on December 10 and 11.

    This story has been updated with new information.

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