Can the Spurs turn their NBA Cup run into a Finals berth?

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When the Indiana Pacers got to within a game of the 2025 NBA championship, taking the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder the distance before losing Game 7 with Tyrese Haliburton suffering an Achilles rupture, there was an echo of the team's first run to a title game.

Eighteen months earlier, the Pacers had reached the final of the inaugural NBA Cup, then, temporarily branded as the In-Season Tournament. And though Indiana also lost that final to the Los Angeles Lakers, the lessons learned in Las Vegas proved useful for a Pacers team that hadn't won a playoff series since 2014.

Now, the San Antonio Spurs find themselves in a similar position, having triumphed in four…