The NBA Cup quarterfinals ended on Wednesday with two big Western Conference matchups. The Oklahoma City Thunder crushed the Phoenix Suns, and the San Antonio Spurs surprised the Los Angeles Lakers. Both games showed where each team stands as the tournament heads to the semifinals.

The 2025 NBA Cup offers major financial incentives, with players earning over $530,000 each for winning the tournament.

The NBA Cup has a tiered prize money system that starts with each of the eight teams that reach the quarterfinal round. Every player on a quarterfinalist receives $50,000. The exact numbers beyond that are related to a formula called Basketball-Related Income.

The 19-1 Thunder are currently the favorites to win the 2025 NBA Cup (-125 at FanDuel ). The Bucks won the competition last year, and the Lakers won the initial version in 2023.

The Phoenix Suns face the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup quarterfinals on Dec. 10.

Last night, Kevin Harlan — a known subscriber to The Bounce, which makes him an official Bouncer — mentioned me during the NBA on Prime broadcast and shouted out the great work The Athletic did with our front-office rankings. Is this insufferable for me to point out? Probably! But he’s my favorite announcer of all time, so I’m going with it.

Following the pushback from Kyle Kuzma and Kevin Porter Jr., the NBA world was left confused on whether or not this even happened. Former NBA players Kendrick Perkins and Richard Jefferson saw this incident and decided to address it on their podcast, ‘The Road Trippin Show,’ with Channing Frye and Allie Clifton.

The first week of the 2025-26 NBA season is through and, already, there’s no shortage of compelling story lines at work.

An NBA Champion turned media personality is confident that the Oklahoma City Thunder will set the record for the best regular season ever.

"There's a little added juice to it knowing what's at stake. If you win, you move on and try to win something," one player said.