Suns eliminated from NBA Cup despite win over Spurs

No more colorful courts for the Phoenix Suns this season.

The Suns picked up a 104-93 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday to close out group play in the NBA Cup, but they were eliminated from the tournament via tiebreakers.

The Suns finished 3-1 in Group B action, but the Oklahoma City Thunder won the group with a 3-1 record and the head-to-head tiebreaker over Phoenix.

Oklahoma City defeated the Utah Jazz 133-106 to end any chance the Suns had to win the group on Tuesday.

Each conference has three group winners and one Wild Card team advance, and Phoenix needed some help on Tuesday to earn the final spot.

The Dallas Mavericks, though, defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 121-116. Dallas improved to 3-1 and edged the Suns through the point differential tiebreaker +46 to +30.

Dallas shot 26 free throws in the fourth quarter to outscore Memphis 39-21 for the victory. A Mavs loss would have pushed Phoenix into the knockout rounds, as the only other team that could finish 3-1 were the Portland Trail Blazers who entered Tuesday with a -5 point differential.

Portland lost to the Los Angeles Clippers at the end of the night.

Instead, the Suns were assigned two non-NBA Cup regular season games to round out the schedule, as NBA Cup contests count toward a team’s record, excluding the tournament championship.

Phoenix will visit Utah on Dec. 13 and host Portland on Dec. 15.

The Thunder, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Mavericks advanced to the knockout rounds from the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference representatives are the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic.

Phoenix reached the knockout stage last year in the inaugural In-Season Tournament but fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the quarterfinals.

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