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.

The Emirates NBA Cup Semifinals are set for Saturday in Vegas on Prime, with the Magic taking on the Knicks (5:30 ET) and the Spurs facing the Thunder (9 ET). The NBA Cup Championship will also be held in Vegas on Tuesday, Dec. 16 (8:30 ET), and it’s not too late to secure your seat. Grab tickets here for both the Semifinals and the Championship.

On the Eastern Conference side of the bracket on Tuesday, the Orlando Magic came back from a 15-0 deficit to defeat their in-state rivals, the Miami Heat, while the surging New York Knicks used a dominant second quarter to race past the Toronto Raptors and win for the eighth time in their last nine games.

Los Angeles struggled in a loss to the Spurs, who will join the Thunder, Knicks and Magic in Las Vegas for Saturday’s semifinals.

Sure, I want the Suns to compete, and I want them to win every game. That is the goal. But they ended up in a spot where they were the doormat in the quarterfinals, lined up against a team that looks historically good.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder advanced to the NBA Cup semifinals with machine-like efficiency. Alonzo Adams / Imagn Images The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter.

Doncic recently said the NBA Cup courts pose a safety issue. Between the design and such concerns, what are players’ actual feelings about the courts? Jonathan Isaac, Magic forward: “I would say (they’re) a little bit of a distraction,