Bucks & Thunder square up for the NBA Cup | Shai or Giannis for MVP?
The Athletic NBA Daily
The Athletic
4.1 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2024
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks will face off in the NBA Cup Championship game. Dave DuFour, Es Baraheni, and Eric Nehm discuss the Bucks recent success, their approach to the Cup, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s MVP caliber season to this point. Then, Dave, Zena Keita, and Andrew Schlecht flip to the Thunder’s side of the matchup, their claim to the “best defense ever”, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP presence.
Host: Dave DuFour
With: Zena Keita, Es Baraheni, Eric Nehm, Andrew Schlecht
Executive Producer: Andrew Schlecht
Audio Producer: Grayson Moody
Submit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for December 17th, 2024. |
| 0:11.0 | Coming up, it's NBA Cup Championship Day. |
| 0:14.7 | So we're doing a big preview show. |
| 0:16.2 | We got Eric Name on to talk about the Bucks and his big piece on Janus Antecoompo and his MVP push. |
| 0:22.7 | And then in the B block, we've got Andrew Select to talk about the Thunder and what's |
| 0:26.8 | happening with that team after the Cup. |
| 0:34.4 | Good morning, everybody. |
| 0:35.8 | Good morning, S. |
| 0:37.0 | Good morning, Eric, although full disclosure, this is afternoon the day before because it's how podcasting works. I've got Vegas voice, guys. I haven't been out particularly late. It's just the air is very dry. It's been cold. |
| 0:52.1 | For the first time, S, I'm used to sweating when I'm walking around |
| 0:55.7 | outside and I forgot a coat the other day. Big mistake. Huge mistake. Eric, how is the weather |
| 1:02.3 | here treating you compared to Milwaukee? It was five degrees when I left Milwaukee. So it's nice. It's very nice here. But also, I've lived Groundhog Day enough days. |
| 1:16.5 | I somehow just keep waking up in Vegas and I'm not going to leave for another couple |
| 1:20.5 | days. So I would love to be done with that. Yeah. Well, look, man, the cup means more and the |
| 1:26.1 | bucks, they look like they want to win it. I mean, the game the other night, it started out. Yannis had so much energy, so much. I mean, he really was almost too fired up. I was worried he was going to run out of gas. And, you know, we saw that a little bit in the third quarter when the Hawks made that run. But looking ahead to the game tonight, it's a freebie. |
| 1:44.9 | You know, this is a, this is a championship game, but it doesn't count toward either |
| 1:48.4 | team's record. |
| 1:49.6 | And for the Bucks, it's a measuring stick game. |
| 1:52.9 | The Oklahoma City Thunder been the best team in the West all year long. |
| 1:56.7 | They look like the finals favorite from the West. |
| 1:59.7 | And potentially, you know, if you were going to name two or three teams that might beat the Celtics, they're on that list. |
| 2:06.4 | So if you're the Bucks, I'm assuming, you know, this game matters probably a great deal to your own internal perspective. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.