Four Eastern Conference teams battled Tuesday for a spot in the NBA Cup semifinals with extra earnings on the line.

The Orlando Magic hosted their in-state rival Miami Heat before the New York Knicks took on the Toronto Raptors on the road.

Orlando defeated Miami 117-108 behind 37 points from guard Desmond Bane, his third game with 35-plus points this season, tied for the most in a season of his career, according to ESPN Research.

Bane’s fellow backcourt mate Jalen Suggs added 20 points, and forward Paolo Banchero added 18. Miami jumped out to a 15-0 lead in the first quarter before finishing the quarter 30-17. However, the Heat were outscored in each quarter the rest of the way. This marks the first NBA Cup semifinal appearance for the Magic.

New York will join Orlando in the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas after dominating the Raptors 117-101, with Knicks guard Jalen Brunson leading the way with 35 points.

Knicks guard Josh Hart added 21 points alongside Brunson. Karl-Anthony Towns dropped a 14-point, 16-rebound double-double — his 17th double-double of the season and the second most in the NBA in the 2025-26 campaign. Brandon Ingram had a team-high 31 points for Toronto after a 17-point opening frame. No other Raptor had over 20 points. New York used a 34-13 second-quarter advantage to pull away and maintain control for a victory.

The Magic and Knicks will face off in Las Vegas on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Below are the takeaways from each game, as well as top moments and highlights.

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah has announced a plan to help the athletic department generate new revenue streams, in part through a first-of-its-kind partnership with a private equity firm.

The school announced Tuesday the formation of Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC, which will be owned by the university’s foundation. It’s being touted as a way to build the school’s brand and enhance the athletic programs. The new company could generate around $500 million in capital, according to Yahoo Sports.

In a joint message, school president Taylor Randall and athletic director Mark Harlan spelled out the groundwork, saying the university will transfer some of its revenue-generating operations from athletics and auxiliary services to Utah Brands & Entertainment.

Through the new entity, the school will build its brand. That will include overseeing corporate sponsorships, ticketing, event-related revenues and campus-wide university trademarks and licensing.

The new business model has the backing of the university’s board of trustees and the deal could be finalized by early next year. The school added it plans to partner with prominent university supporters along with Otro Capital, a private equity firm with a sports and entertainment background.

The inclusion of private equity is a first in college sports, and it follows seismic changes in the industry, with players able to earn money from their name, image and likeness and receive direct payments from schools.

“Importantly, the university is not selling parts of our athletics department, ceding operational control to a third party or relinquishing control of any facilities,” Randall and Harlan wrote to the Utah community. “Decisions regarding sports, coaches, scheduling, operations, student-athlete care and other athletics matters will remain solely with the athletics department. … The university’s foundation will appoint a majority of the board of directors of Utah Brands & Entertainment, and the board will be chaired by the athletics director.”

The message from Randall and Harlan said that “as the world of college athletics continues to shift, this step positions us to remain competitive, innovative and firmly aligned with our academic mission, while continuing to unite our community through the power of Utah athletics.”

Australia‘s game against the United States at the 2026 FIFA World Cup won’t be the biggest game that the Socceroos have ever played at the global footballing showpiece.

In all honesty, between round-of-16 appearances against eventual champions Italy and Argentina, the drought-breaking win over Japan in 2006, the knockout-stage-securing win over Croatia in that same tournament, or group-stage games against defending champions such as France and Spain, it would struggle to break into the top 10. But when Tony Popovic’s side run out to face the Americans in Seattle on June 19, it might just be one of the most hyped games that the Socceroos have ever played.

Drawn into Group D at next year’s tournament alongside the co-hosts, as well as Paraguay and a European qualifier to be drawn from one of Slovakia, Kosovo, Türkiye, or Romania, Australia now, for the most part, knows what they’ll need to secure back-to-back appearances in the World Cup knockout stages. Supporters, meanwhile, can start to plan their journey alongside the Socceroos throughout the group and possibly beyond, trying to figure out how they’ll source tickets amongst high demand and significant prices, but also grapple with accommodation costs that a quick perusal of booking sites would suggest will run them back more than a grand for just a couple of nights.

– O’Hanlon: How the 2026 World Cup killed the ‘Group of Death’
– How travel will impact 2026 World Cup group stage, and why it matters
– 2026 World Cup Group D: How U.S. matches up against group-stage foes

Both cohorts also now know that their journey will begin on the West Coast of North America, with the Socceroos’ opening game against the European qualifier to take place in Vancouver, followed by the Seattle clash against the Americans and then a meeting with Paraguay in Santa Clara. Travel and logistics-wise, this should prove relatively simple for the team and travelling supporters alike, while the timezone also ensures favourable broadcast times for those watching at home. It also means that, for the most part, the sweltering heat of the North American summer will be dodged.

And while the progression of the eight best third-placed sides across a record 12 groups at the expanded 48-team World Cup somewhat reduces the jeopardy compared to previous 32-team tournaments, this also means that Popovic’s side’s knockout destiny likely rests upon their form in the Pacific Northwest.

Which brings us back to the United States. While Mauricio Pochettino’s side was placed in Pot 1 of the World Cup draw by virtue of their status as co-hosts (with Mexico in Group A and Canada in Group B afforded similar privileges), the USMNT’s FIFA ranking of 14 wasn’t too far off earning that right — only bettered in Pot 2 by Croatia, Morocco, and Colombia. In recent months, the side’s form, which had been stuttering and raising a few alarm bells, has taken a turn under their Argentine coach: unbeaten in five with wins over Japan, Uruguay, Paraguay and, back in September, Australia. And highlighted by the likes of Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic, they field top-line talent playing at some of the best clubs in the world.

When you add the luxury of hosting the tournament, which, Qatar aside, generally correlates with improved performances, the Americans are the favourites to top Group D and should hold hopes of staging a deep run into the competition. Indeed, if they don’t achieve the former, it will have to be considered a letdown on their part. Even if, given how difficult Australia and Paraguay (who conceded just 10 goals across 18 South American qualifiers) have proven to be in competitive games, to say nothing of Türkiye potentially joining, topping the group will perhaps not be as comfortable as some of the more boisterous sections of their professional commentariat, one of whom described Australia as a “lay-up” suggest.

play

Should USMNT be happy with their World Cup draw?

The “Futbol Americas” crew react to USMNT’s 2026 FIFA World Cup group draw.

From an Australian perspective, this means that if they can take something from that game in Seattle, a point or even a win, they’ll go a long way towards the knockouts — being able to take points off the strongest team in your group, assuming that they go ahead and do the job against your other rivals, carries obvious benefits.

Further, heavy lies the crown of favoritism and expectation, and with the weight of anticipation on the Americans’ shoulders from an expectant home crowd, it’s very easy to envisage the game being played out in a manner that suits the Socceroos’ strengths and tests their opponents with something they’ve struggled with: the hosts taking the onus of possession as they seek to break down an Australian outfit comfortable in sitting back in a low block, who can then look to pick their moments and break through in transition. This feeling may only heighten if the United States are frustrated by the stout Paraguayans in their opening game.

Their recent fixtures may have exposed the perils of regression to the mean and heightened scrutiny of the side’s urgent need to improve in possession, but if the Socceroos can be clinical — as they did when they vastly outperformed their expected goals (xG) in World Cup qualifying and secured wins over Japan and Saudi Arabia — this approach can prove effective. It wouldn’t be pretty — by any stretch — nor probably fun to watch. But if it gets wins at a World Cup, Popovic, who has already engineered one unfancied run when he took an unheralded Western Sydney Wanderers to a 2014 Asian Champions League crown, wouldn’t mind too much.

Yet the footballing aspects of the game against the United States are only part of the picture of why it will likely be so big. For one, this will be the first time that Australia has played a host nation since 1974, when a team largely comprised of semiprofessionals captained by the legendary Johnny Warren were grouped with West Germany. This means that the spotlight will be well and truly on Lumen Field when kick-off arrives, and that the stands and build-up will be just that bit more circus-like than otherwise.

While there were inevitably plenty of hot takes about the quality of Australian sides that took on Germany, Brazil, and Spain before they played in previous tournaments, these weren’t written in English and easily consumed Down Under. Nor were they as readily available as they will be in 2026, where the ability to spew outrage and polarisation is not only available to anyone with an internet connection but boosted by algorithms and monetisation programs that ensure that even the most Johnny No-Mates or Becky Bad-Opinions amongst us, Aussie or American, can be seen by tens of thousands if they hit the timeline just right.

Combine this with more of the “lay-up”-esque analysis likely to ramp up as kick-off approaches and the hyper-online and prickly habits of Aussie footballing fans (observe their reaction to the late Grant Wahl’s suggestion that the Socceroos’ might not have been very good in 2018), Australian sporting fans (just look at Oscar Piastri’s online following), and there’s going to be a lot of kindling for the fire. Common sense? Goodwill? Touching grass? The actual human interaction being fun and friendly? Not on my internet!

On- and off-the-field, then, the Socceroos being drawn against the United States promises to be big, potentially defining both of their World Cup campaigns. Toxic, too. But big. And fun.