Chris Haynes digs into New York’s run to the Emirates NBA Cup semifinals and how the team is improving of late.
It’s the third year of the Emirates NBA Cup, and four teams have made their way to Las Vegas for the semifinals on Saturday.
The Oklahoma City Thunder might be the best team in NBA history. The New York Knicks might be the favorite to face the Thunder in the NBA Finals. The Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs are on the come up, making good on the improvement many predicted for them before the season started.
The Thunder are the only one of these teams that have made it to this stage of the NBA Cup before, and we’re going to have a third different champion in the three years of the competition.
Here are some numbers to know regarding each of the semifinalists. All stats are through Thursday, Dec. 11.
OffRtg: Points scored per 100 possessions (League Rank)
DefRtg: Points allowed per 100 possessions (League Rank)
NetRtg: Point differential per 100 possessions (League Rank)
Pace: Possessions per 48 minutes (League Rank)
East No. 1: Orlando Magic (15-10 overall, 5-0 in NBA Cup)
OffRtg: 115.7 (11) DefRtg: 111.5 (5) NetRtg: +4.2 (8) Pace: 101.3 (11)
The Magic have played the toughest schedule in the Eastern Conference, and they’ve had both Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero fully available for just 12 of their 25 games. But they’re in the top four in the East, they’re 2-1 against the Knicks and they’re close to ranking in the top 10 on both ends of the floor.
1. The Magic have gotten 30.2% of their points, the league’s highest rate, from fast breaks (15.6%, third highest rate) or second chances (14.6%, fifth highest).
After 13 straight seasons in the bottom 10 in offensive efficiency, the Magic have seen the league’s second-biggest jump in points scored per 100 possessions and rank 11th on that end of the floor through Thursday. They’re still in the bottom half of the league in regard to half-court offense, but the improvement starts in transition, where they’ve added 7.3 more points per game than last season, per Synergy tracking.
They’re also one of the best teams in the league on the offensive glass, and one of the best teams at converting additional opportunities into points, ranking fourth in second-chance points per offensive rebound.
2. The Magic have allowed just 31.5 3-point attempts per 100 possessions, the league’s lowest rate by a healthy margin.
The Magic rank in the top five defensively for the third straight season, and part of that success is limiting opponents’ 3-point attempts. They have the league’s second-lowest opponent 3-point rate, with only 36.5% of their opponents’ shots coming from beyond the arc.
That obviously comes with a high percentage of their opponents’ shots coming in the paint, but the Magic rank 10th in opponent field goal percentage in the paint. And while they’re still in the bottom half of the league in opponent free-throw rate, they’re one of only five teams that have a lower rate than they did last season.
East No. 3: New York Knicks (17-10, 4-1)
OffRtg: 121.8 (2) DefRtg: 113.2 (10) NetRtg: +8.6 (4) Pace: 98.9 (26)
The Knicks are the only team to reach the Emirates NBA Cup quarterfinals in all three years of the competition, but this is the first time that they’ve made it to Las Vegas.
1. The Knicks have averaged 4.6 more shooting opportunities than their opponents, the league’s biggest differential.
The possession game is a point of emphasis for a lot of teams, and the Knicks are winning that more than any of them. They rank fifth in turnover rate, fourth in offensive rebounding percentage and seventh in defensive rebounding percentage.
Jalen Brunson’s 7.3 turnovers per 100 possessions used is the lowest rate of his career. Mitchell Robinson hasn’t played a lot, but he’s logged almost as many minutes (279) as he did all of last season (290), and he leads the league in individual rebounding percentage (22.2%). Karl-Anthony Towns (17.8%) is also in the top 20, and Josh Hart (12.9%) ranks third among players under 6-7.
2. The Knicks have taken 44.9% of their shots from 3-point range, the league’s seventh-highest rate and up from 38.2% (28th) last season.
That’s been the biggest jump by a large margin.
Biggest jump, 3-point rate (3PA / FGA)
TEAM
2024-25
Rank
2025-26
Rank
Diff.
New York
38.2%
28
44.9%
7
+6.7%
Portland
41.8%
17
45.6%
5
+3.8%
LA Clippers
38.7%
25
42.3%
12
+3.6%
Denver
35.6%
30
38.7%
23
+3.1%
Golden State
46.9%
2
49.9%
1
+3.0%
Through Dec. 11, 2025
Josh Hart (from 32.7% to 44.9%) and Miles McBride (from 57% to 68.5%) have seen huge jumps in their 3-point rate, while OG Anunoby (from 44.8% to 52.2%), Mikal Bridges (from 39.1% to 45.4%) and Karl-Anthony Towns (27.8% to 33.8%) have also seen significant jumps. Jalen Brunson’s 3-point rate (36.2%) is also the highest of his career.
The Knicks have also seen the league’s biggest jump in 3-point rate on the other end of the floor. Their opponents have taken 46.3% of their shots from beyond the arc, the league’s second-highest opponent rate and up from 40.7% (sixth-lowest) last season.
Chet Holmgren and the Thunder have been rolling through NBA Cup play this season.
West No. 1: Oklahoma City Thunder (24-1 overall, 5-0 in NBA Cup)
OffRtg: 120.5 (5) DefRtg: 103.3 (1) NetRtg: +17.2 (1) Pace: 101.0 (15)
The Thunder are, at this point, the most dominant team in NBA history, having outscored their opponents by 437 points. That differential is 90 points better than any other team has had through its first 25 games. They set a new record for regular-season point differential (+12.9 points per game) last season, and they’re destroying that record (+17.5 per game) this year.
The champs are also back in Las Vegas, having lost in the NBA Cup final a year ago.
1. The Thunder have allowed 11.6 fewer points per 100 possessions than the league average (114.9 per 100).
That is, by far, the best differential in the 30 seasons for which we have play-by-play data. The best mark prior to this year belong to the 2003-04 Spurs, who allowed 8.3 fewer per 100 than the league average. There’s almost as big of a differential between the Thunder and the second-ranked Golden State Warriors (110.7 allowed per 100).
The Thunder have played the league’s easiest schedule, with 14 of their 25 games having come against teams that rank in the bottom 10 offensively through Thursday. The NBA Cup semifinals will be just their fourth game against a team that currently ranks in the top 10 on offense.
2. The Thunder have outscored their opponents by 13.6 points in the paint per game, what would be the biggest differential for any team in the last 13 seasons.
The majority of the Thunder’s historic point differential has come inside. It starts with defense, but a differential that big only comes with success on both ends of the floor…
- Their opponents have shot just 50.3% in the paint, the league’s lowest opponent mark by a wide margin.
- Their opponents have taken just 44.2% of their shots in the paint, also the league’s lowest opponent rate.
- On offense, they’ve shot 61.9% in the paint, the league’s second best mark.
The Thunder have three of the 38 players who’ve averaged at least 10 points in the paint per game in 10 games or more, and that doesn’t include Jalen Williams, who’s averaged 10.7 in his six games.
West No. 3: San Antonio Spurs (17-7, 4-1)
OffRtg: 118.6 (6) DefRtg: 114.4 (16) NetRtg: +4.2 (8) Pace: 100.7 (16)
The Spurs are 9-3 over Victor Wembanyama’s 12-game absence and they’re comfortably in the top six in the West, looking to end the league’s second-longest active playoff drought (six seasons).
1. The Spurs are the only team that’s been at least three points per 100 possessions better than they were last season on both ends of the floor, when accounting for the league average.
Regarding winning percentage, the Spurs are the league’s most improved team. Statistically, the Philadelphia 76ers have improved a bit more. But San Antonio’s improvement has been significant on both offense and defense.
Biggest jump, point differential per 100 possessions, 2024-25 to ’25-26
Team
Adj. Off.
Adj. Def.
NetRtg
Philadelphia
+2.2
-5.0
+7.1
San Antonio
+3.9
-3.1
+7.0
Toronto
+4.3
-1.6
+6.0
Denver
+4.3
-1.5
+5.8
Houston
+5.3
-0.4
+5.7
Adj. Off = Jump in points scored per 100 possessions, adjusting for league average
Adj. Def = Drop in points allowed per 100 possessions, adjusting for league average
NetRtg = Jump in point differential per 100 possessions
League average jump: +1.2 points per 100 possessions from 2024-25 (113.7) to ’25-26 (114.9)
Through Dec. 11, 2025
The offensive improvement has come with the league’s third-biggest jump in free-throw rate, with both Stephon Castle (from 34.8 to 55.4 attempts per 100 shots from the field) and Wembanyama (from 22.1 to 38 per 100) seeing significant jumps. The Spurs are also the league’s second-most-improved rebounding team, having seen jumps in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage.
2. The Spurs have the league’s second-ranked clutch offense (131.9 points scored per 100 possessions).
Though they’re 9-3 during Wembanyama’s absence, they have just the league’s 12th-best point differential (plus-3.2 points per game) over that stretch. They’ve won their last five games that have been within five points in the last five minutes, scoring 58 points on 43 clutch possessions (1.35 per).
For the season, seven Spurs have scored more than 10 points in the clutch. De’Aaron Fox leads the group with 30 and, while he’s just 8-for-21 on clutch field goal attempts, he’s 11-for-11 on clutch free throws.
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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
