Now in its third year of existence, the NBA Cup is still calibrating to basketball viewership and culture. There’s payoff with in-season tournament stakes, but questions endure beyond the colorful courts and stilted schedules. How much can we learn from these December outcomes? What does the trophy mean?

Tuesday’s 2025 final will bring some answers. For Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs, a tourney title would officially coronate their “ahead of schedule” status. For Jalen Brunson’s New York Knicks, it would bring the visual of a trophy lift to their long-languishing fans. Stakes up, chips down.

How to watch Knicks vs. Spurs in 2025 NBA Cup final
Venue: T-Mobile Arena — Las Vegas
Time: 8:30 p.m. ET, Tuesday
Streaming: Prime Video
Watching in person? Get tickets on StubHub.
The teamsNew York (18-7)

At large, it’s been several lifetimes since the Knicks hoisted hardware of any kind (J.R. Smith’s Sixth Man of the Year award does not count for this, but it was a rush). New York’s last NBA championship season was 1972-73, and while the Cup’s golden chalice is far from the Larry O’Brien Trophy, it would still be welcomed with the affection typified by 8th Avenue lifers.

The Knicks start this week with the league’s second-best offensive rating. They’re 26th in pace on the season, but they were zipping with a deliberate hyperspeed in Saturday’s semifinal win. New York slid past the Orlando Magic 132-120, and it shot a fantastic 60.7 percent from the field. Four Knicks had at least three assists. OG Anunoby and Josh Hart each tallied three steals. Mikal Bridges was pliant across a game-high 43 minutes, and Karl-Anthony Towns stayed efficient on 9-of-11 shooting. It was good stuff all around for the blue and orange, and it was merely a prelude to Brunson’s molten heat check.

HAVE MERCY JALEN BRUNSONNN 😳

37 PTS | 5 AST pic.twitter.com/0Huv0Q0Lns

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 14, 2025

Brunson finished with 40 points and eight dimes, delivered against an elite Magic defense. A win Tuesday would give some extra boost to new head coach Mike Brown, but the podium’s center would be held by New York’s “Captain Clutch.” He’s still getting better in Year 8, and he has another legacy highlight reserved under the Las Vegas lights.

San Antonio (18-7)

On the other end, the Spurs have unfurled five NBA championship banners since 1998-99. That first one was hung at the expense of the Houston-Sprewell miracle Knicks. But San Antonio’s mantle has collected that warm Texas dust since Tim Duncan’s retirement, and Tuesday’s Cup presents a totem of sorts for the Wembanyama era.

The galactic tower made his return from a calf strain Saturday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the results were all kinds of awesome:

ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!

📺 NBA on Prime pic.twitter.com/vxqY29Kpyy

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 14, 2025

San Antonio beat the league’s defending champions 111-109, stomping out their 16-game win streak. Wembanyama and his teammates disarmed the cyborg-like record-breakers with strident perimeter coverage. Devin Vassell was a bucket and paced the team with 23 points. Three other Spurs (Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox) scored 22 apiece. With the W, they improved to 12-3 in clutch games, defined by a lead of five points or fewer within the final five minutes.

A Cup win would accredit Mitch Johnson, the newly minted head coach. It would also put the rest of the league on notice. Wembanyama is 21 years old. Vassell is 25, Castle is 21 and No. 2 draft pick Dylan Harper is 19. Like the Knicks, the Spurs are also 18-7 through 25 games, but they’re doing it with much younger talent.

NBA Cup history

Both sides are bidding to become the third NBA Cup champion. The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural run in 2023, beating the Indiana Pacers behind Anthony Davis’ Cup final dominance and LeBron James’ tournament MVP run. Last year, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks knocked off the Thunder, and the Greek supernova two-stepped with the hardware.

So far, winning this NBA Cup title game has been a bad omen of sorts; losing it has been the inverse. In 2023-24, the Lakers took a first-round playoff loss (4-1 to the Denver Nuggets), while the Pacers surged to the conference finals. In 2024-25, the Bucks also lost in the opening round (4-1 to the Pacers), and OKC went all the way.

Prize money

There is cash on the line for this tournament — a total of $530,933 per member of the winning team. Each player on a Cup quarterfinalist gets $53,093; they earn another $53,000 for reaching the semis and another $159,000 for making the final. Knicks guard Tyler Kolek told The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III that he’d buy a car for his father with the prize money. Spurs wing Keldon Johnson told The Athletic’s Jared Weiss that he’d get a llama for his Texas ranch.

Fantasy fusion lineup

Best players for both teams

Rod Strickland
Maurice Cheeks
Charles Smith
David Lee
Kurt Thomas
Knicks vs. Spurs odds

The Knicks are a 2.5-point favorite over the Spurs at BetMGM, while Brunson has the best odds to take home NBA Cup MVP honors.

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