May 16, 2025 • 44 mins
Jason reacts live after the Denver Nuggets force Game 7 vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder. He discusses the big games from Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray to outplay Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren, and what to expect in Game 7.
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(01:57):
All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume.
Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having
a great week. Well, this excellent second round series between
the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder, which has been
rife with highly Entertaining Games gave us another great one tonight,
the Julian Strather Games. Julian Strather comes into this one
and scores fifteen points for a Nuggets team that desperately
(02:18):
needed someone to come in and start hitting shots.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
As a team.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
The Nuggets finally started to hit their catch and shoot
threes in this game, as they go twelve for thirty
two from three thirty eight percent, a high step up
from where they've been in their losses in the series.
Jamal Murray also excellent in a game when he woke
up very sick and was questionable to start the game.
Another nightmare shooting performance for the Oklahoma City Thunder, another
(02:43):
example of their youth showing in terms of j dubs inconsistency.
Lots of interesting stuff to get into in this game
from the perspective of both teams. Will be breaking this
game down. Then at the tail end of the show,
we'll take ten fifteen minutes of mailback questions with Jackson,
and then when we fit this here tonight, we're gonna
move over to playback again. That's playback dot tv slash
(03:05):
Hoops tonight where we'll hang out for after show. That's
where we take callers, we watch film. We have a
more informal, just kind of fun, we talk hoops for
an extra you know, forty five minutes to an hour
at the tail end of the show. You guys are
the job before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops
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(03:26):
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us there and the last but not at least, keep dropping
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we will get to them at the tail end of
the show for a solid ten fifteen minutes. And like
we mentioned earlier, over to playback dot tv slash Hoops Tonight.
When we finish up here a right, let's talk some basketball.
(03:48):
So I thought that was really the theme for tonight's
game for Denver, the need to hit shots. If you
go back to the last two games in particular, it
was their offense that let them down down the stretch,
leading Game four, nine point leading Game five in the
fourth quarter, and just an inability to close the deal
from there, and specifically in Game five, not a single
(04:08):
Nugget was able to really contribute offensively in that fourth
quarter run when Yokic was setting them up. I mean,
I saw a stat this morning and I double checked
it to make sure it was fair but accurate. But
he had twenty potential assists in Game five and ended
that game with five assists because of the types of shots.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
They were missing.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Even if you really zoom in on that fourth quarter run,
there's a couple of wide open threes for Christian Brown.
There's a wide open three for Jamal Murray in the
right corner. And this is a team that typically shoots
really well. They shot thirty nine percent on wide open threes.
This is for NBA dot Com tracking data. This is
with the defender minimum of six feet away, So these
(04:49):
are like really open threes. They shot thirty nine percent
on them in the regular season, forty percent in the
first round series against the Clippers in the first five
games of this series.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Excuse me.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
In the three losses in the three losses in this
series so far, the Nuggets or a combined fifteen for
sixty six on wide open threes. That's just twenty three percent.
I thought there was an interesting interview brought to light
by the broadcast about Christian Brown and now he was
just kind of like evaluating the way he's performed so
(05:26):
far in this postseason or really in this entire season,
and he said, like, you know, I had a great
regular season. Can't really play any better than I did.
And he's right about that. He did a great job
stepping in for Contavious Calbo Pope into that starting two
guard role and turned into this devastating transition scorer who
also was a solid catch and shoot player, good defensive player,
(05:46):
all that stuff. And then he said in the postseason,
he's happy with the way he's defended. It's been a
little bit of a mixed bag in this Okay seat
a series, but specifically at the end of games I
feel like he's been pretty good outside of maybe a
couple plays at the tail end of Game five, but
he has been pretty good defensively in this series. But
what he said was, I have to find a way
to knock down these open threes that I'm getting A
(06:10):
big part of it is just that's the way the
defense is attending to Nikola Jokic in the middle of
the floor. They are conceding these open threes, especially out
of the corner. And what I appreciated about what Christian
Brown was saying is like he understands that they're yeah,
you're playing fine, Yeah it's physical.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, no one's really shooting. Well.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'm sure there's a lot of thunder guys sitting in
the locker room wishing they should shoot or could shoot better.
But the bottom line is Christian knows they have a
really good chance to win this series if guys make shots.
And the thing that I thought stood out the most
in that little tidbit provided by the broadcast was when
Christian said, I got two games to figure it out.
One just the confidence knowing that he believed in his
(06:52):
team to win Game six, but also just understanding that
he can flip the script by making shots. And I'm
highlighting Christian Brown just because of the comments from the broadcast,
but it was down the line, guys for Denver finally
just made shots. They shot thirty eight percent as a team.
Christian Brown was three for six from three. Jamal Murray
was two for six from three. He was fantastic tonight.
We'll talk about him here in a minute. Playing dealing
(07:15):
with an illness. Michael Porter Junior finally got a couple
shots to go down, and then Julian Strather. He also
made some other plays. He had this baseline cut, a
really impressive finish that three sixty kind of like lob
finish she had from Jamal Murray. Way tougher shot than
that looks on TV because he's right at the front
of the rim. But to coordinate yourself in traffic like that, well,
(07:36):
I guess he wasn't in traffic, but again, to coordinate
himself on a spin where he can't even see the
rim to then find the rim and lay it in,
that was a really impressive finish. He had a play
where he kind of ended up with the ball, kind
of a classic grenade situation where he ended up with
the ball at the top of the key against jadub
in a late shot clock situation, and all the other
guys on the floor kind of just looked at him,
like you do it. He put the ball on the
(07:58):
floor and made a play and drew a and I
think I think specifically those things are you know, kind
of found money in a certain way. But the shot
making is the important part. Him stepping confidently into semi contested, intense,
high stakes threes in that second half run and hitting
three of them, two big ones in the late third
(08:18):
quarter at another one when things were kind of already
in hand in the fourth quarter. All those shots were
super important. And the reason why this is specifically important
for this matchup is we spent a lot of time
talking on playback and and in the broadcast after Game
five about how the Nuggets kind of seemed to be
dealing with a fifth closer problem. We talked about Russell Westbrook.
(08:40):
I mean, he he made a big play tonight in
the in the late third quarter that we'll touch on
in a minute, but he had a nightmare first quarter
and in general just has been just uneven over the
tail end of this series. So he's not a great option.
Michael Porter Junior, as we discussed two nights ago, has
just been incapable of knocking down open threes while also
bringing some defense and rebounding issues to the table. So
(09:02):
like there wasn't like a legitimate option to go for.
We actually were talking on the broadcast about Peyton Watson
because at the very least Peyton Watson would be able
to defend and grab rebounds and at least just be
an athletic presence on the floor if you're not going
to get any sort of shooting from anywhere down the roster.
But like he just you know, that shooting stretch from
Julian Strawther just gives Adalman another option that he can consider.
(09:26):
Should Michael Porter Junior struggle in game seven, Should Russell
Westbrook struggle in game seven? You know, should Peyton Watson
struggle in game seven? If he needs like a guy
that can just be out there, that can hit a shot.
He has his struggles defensively from time to time, but
it's not like there's anybody who's doing an amazing job
defensively in this series. Containing the ball that was kind
of the story of the game for Okay. See, I
(09:47):
thought Tim Legler did an amazing job in the broadcast
breaking down the way that Oklahoma City was penetrating the
shell of Denver zone, which is putting Jokic and all
these like simple like do I have to step up
to this guy who's dry being in just give up
a baseline cut for an easy dunk, or am I
gonna stay back on my heels and let this dude
just drive right into my face and make a layup?
(10:09):
Like he Jokich was putting a lot of compromising positions
just simply because the shell of the Denver defense wasn't holding,
and so having another option is a guy that, like,
at least you're getting some shot making out of him.
I think that's an interesting thing to keep an eye on,
uh heading into game seven. But again, like these are
these are the shots that are gonna be there with
(10:29):
the way that Oklahoma City is just swarming Yokic in
the middle of the floor, and I thought that was
really the story of the game tonight. Denver's young guys,
Denver's veterans, Denver's role players confidently stepping into shots and
knocking them down when their team desperately needed them to
hit shots. Let's talk about Jamal Murray for a minute.
I I was venting in an unserious manner with Jackson
(10:53):
during the game because I watched a certain player for
my favorite team play with an illness in Game three
of the Minnesota Timberwolve series, and there was just like
no competitive fire at all. It was almost like Luca
just kind of wanted us all to know he was sick,
and I don't. I don't want to be you know too.
I don't want to jump to conclusion, so to speak,
(11:14):
because you never know how sick Luca was or how
sick Jamal was. But both players were questionable. Both players
attempted to play, and I thought there was an obvious
competitive fire with Jamal right away when he came into
the game, and there were some stretches where he lost
seen there's a stretch there in that second quarter where
you can tell he was getting to him a little bit.
Case on Wallace had some success, he had a couple turnovers,
(11:34):
but like he came right out the gates and was
aggressive both in his pull up shooting situations and going
to the basket. And you could see, like Jamal, if
you didn't know Jamal Murray was sick, you would have
no idea watching that game. There was no you know,
kind of poudy body language or like exaggerating the symptoms
(11:55):
that he was dealing with. He was like, fuck all that,
I my team needs me to win this game. And
he went out there and just immediately brought that competitive
fire and may play after play after play. I thought
he was fantastic in the late third quarter run really
setting things up on offense. He was the guy that
kind of set up those couple Julian strawtherbuckets got a
(12:17):
big transition finish. Jackson was texting during the game talking
about his unbelievable finishing ability. He kind of has this
remarkable talent to get into your body and then find
these like blow the rim finishing angles where he can
put it softly up off the glass from way off
to the side. He can finish on either side of
the rim in a way that like can even surprise
you on the broadcast where you're like, is he going
(12:39):
up on the strong side. Nope, He's going reverse, and
you're like surprised as it's happening. And his supreme talent
is he's just one of the great shot makers to
ever play this game. Like, if you really get down
to it and you think about the guys who again
that specific trait. I'm not talking about super high level
point guard play, although I thought Jamal passed the ball
really well tonight. I'm not talking about elite two way
(13:01):
play in the form of defense at the guard position.
I'm not talking about, you know, some sort of indomitable
downhill attack. But if you strictly just taking synthesizing a
player's game down to the ability to hit tough shots,
the ability to hit jumpers off the move and off
the dribble, from every single possible footwork in dribble combination,
(13:25):
that there's There aren't many players that I've watched that
are more gifted with that specific trait. And every one
of those buckets he got tonight they needed. I was
just I just I just I just think Jamal is
a legend. It's hard to explain because I hated his
guts when I was rooting against him as a Lakers fan, obviously,
But like when I think about the players in the
(13:46):
game that have the true competitive spirit, I always refer
to this as like hatred of losing, not a love
of basketball. Obviously, you need both in order to have
success at the highest levels, but there is like a
there is like a competitive spirit you can see from
a basketball player that manifests from a singular emotion, which
(14:08):
is like a hatred and a fear of losing. I
actually think that matters more than any other trait when
it comes to basketball, because it manifests in a willingness
to do whatever it takes. And even when I think
back to Jamal in his previous playoff highs, like in
twenty twenty three, in twenty twenty two, he has or
(14:28):
should say in twenty twenty three, he has like a
defensive playmaking side to his game too, where he'll get
into a spot in a big spot and put his
body on the line for a charge, or make a
help side rotation where he'll get a big block. Or
there's a big one he had in the Lakers series
three years ago where he stripped Lebron on a key
clutch possession on a help side off of the week
(14:48):
side corner. He'll fight for a contested rebound. There was
one late tonight. It was in that crazy run when
the Thunder were just ball pressuring like crazy and they
forced all those turnovers in a row, and somebody missed
the off the right wing. I can't remember who it was.
I think it was J dub but a Thunder player
missed at three and like Alex Crusoe comes flying in
and Hartenstein's flying in, and like the Thunder is still
(15:09):
playing with that like chaotic energy and who came up
with the ball in the mix of all those players
with Jamal Murray. Jo Kisch was in there battling and
somehow the ball just ended up in Jamal Murray's hands. Because,
like we can be critical of Jamal in other ways,
he takes the regular season less serious than a lot
of his peers do in the league, and comes into
camp out of shape and could probably stand to take
(15:31):
care of his body a little bit better. But when
it comes to the principal concept of winning basketball games
in the playoffs, He's just one of the better guards
that I've seen in this era because of his ability
to shot make and because of his willingness to do
the things that you need to do to win basketball games.
And I thought tonight, you know, should they win this series,
if they go on the road and they win Game seven,
(15:52):
I will think back to this Jamal Murray Game six
against the Thunder very fondly as one of the better
games in his career.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So shout out to Jamal. Third quarter run.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
This is really when the game started to flip in
Denver's favor. E lead defense in this stretch here, we
were giving up these like kind of easy baskets right
along the baseline off of drop offs, and there were
just a few sequences like Aaron Gordon threw a better
contest at Alex Caruso reverse layup where he forced to miss,
Jamal Murray got in the way on one, forced to
(16:21):
miss Peyton Watson that huge block that he had in transition.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Just there were a few efforts.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Around the rim during that stretch that turned what would
have been easy points into opportunities for Denver going the
other way. And then that was the stretch when Jamal
Murray really attacked offensively as a shot maker and as
a playmaker. That was when Julian Strather had all those
buckets in the late third quarter stretch. And then there
was a huge sequence at the tail end of that.
(16:49):
There was a huge sequence in that run if you
guys remember where they kind of started to lose control
and Denver turns it over, okase he's run in the
length of the floor. Drawther gets the huge block at
the rim, and then they go down the other end
and Russell Westbrook, who had had a turnover in this
sequence and it had had a really rough game, gave
(17:10):
an extra effort and got an offensive rebound put back
that bumped it. Instead of going down to five, it
pushed it back up to nine and just kind of
changed the psychology the game. And I just thought that
was a very important run. And then Nikola Jokics wasn't
super aggressive as a scorer in this game, but there
there was a stretch where when he first came in
(17:32):
in the mid fourth quarter, I think they were up
by eight or nine at this point, and as we know,
that's that same kind of margin that Oklahoma City was
able to overcome in the previous two games, right, and
Nikole Jokicic came in and I was literally thinking, like,
they need him.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
To score the basketball.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Tim Legler was doing a great job calling that out
on the broadcast as well. And he came in and
he hit a contested three and a contested floater in
the middle of the lane, two quick buckets that the
lead all the way out to like thirteen or fourteen points,
and that was when everyone kind of could at least
feel less pressure in terms of how difficult it was
going to be to close out the game. And then
(18:10):
I Couets ended up getting a much needed win tonight
to extend the series.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
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Speaker 2 (18:49):
On the OKC front, I did think that Oklahoma City
found some stuff with Denver Zone in terms of just
dribble penetration and then cutting along the baseline. There were
some real opportunities there that they canalized on. I thought
this was Shay's best game in terms of his overall
shot making in rhythm the game. You know, they lost
control of it through a couple of key stretches, but
(19:10):
overall they played well when when Shaye was on the floor,
and I thought that this was the game where he
was most efficient and surgical offensively. Again, thirty two points
on just sixteen shots. Jay Doug again, this was something
that I called out before the postseason, and it's just
the reality of young basketball players. Like Jadeb's a really
good player and I'm a big believer in him. I
(19:30):
think he has the potential to be like a Jalen
Brown mixed with a little bit of Jimmy Butler within
the next you know, five to ten years of his career.
But like he's young and doesn't have a ton of
experience on the stage, and he's really struggled to be
consistently impactful in this setting. Again, three for sixteen in
a long line of some brutal shooting performances in this series.
(19:52):
They're going to need him to be better in Game seven.
And then I just wanted to shout out case on Wallace.
I don't know what he's going to be in the
long run. I feel like there's some real potential there
because of his athleticism, just his ability to get up
in traffic, both in transition and underneath the basket, almost
finishing like a big man as a guard around the rim,
his ball pressure bothered. He bothers Jamal Murray more than
(20:14):
Lou Door does. He's doing some real damage to him
attacking the basketball Keyson's a great player, and I'm just
really excited to see what he becomes in the long run. Now,
as far as Game seven goes, this is gonna be
a super interesting game.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
On the road.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Right for Denver, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be substantially favored.
Right they are the young team though, And I was
really I was looking back at just the previous examples
in recent NBA history, in like the last decade or so,
if teams have won Game seven on the road, and
every single time there's a consistent theme, it's the star,
(20:52):
the superstar, apex superstar. Every time it's been a top
tier guy. The only example you'll find kind of one
that's not really is the Trey Young Game seven against
Philly back in twenty twenty one, if you remember correctly.
But even then, I have to go back and watch
that game to remember exactly what happened. But I remember
Trey making a bunch of big plays late in that game,
(21:13):
like right in the final minutes as they pulled away
from Philly. But if you look at the other examples
of recent games where a team won a road Game seven,
you go back to like twenty eighteen, and it's Lebron
James and Boston won game one at home, they won
Game two at home, they won Game five at home,
and then suddenly in game seven when all of the
(21:35):
pressure was on all of their young players. Now, mind you,
they were younger players than Oklahoma City even in terms
of Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum at that point in time,
but Lebron just kind of alpha dogged them and was like,
far and away the best player in the game, far
and away the most comfortable player in the game, made
all the big plays late, and they ended up winning.
Fast forward to twenty twenty three, Steph Curry Game seven
(21:57):
on the road in Sacramento. Steph drops a piece on
those dudes, and they just have no idea what to do.
They just immediately crumble in their confidence and drop a
Game seven at home. Go to twenty twenty two, Luka
Doncic on the road in Phoenix, just right out the
gates in the first quarter. Just alpha dogs those dudes.
They all get super nervous and they end up falling apart.
(22:21):
And specifically with the Celtics in twenty eighteen, but especially
the Suns in twenty twenty two, those were highly ranked
teams in the regular season, they were teams that won
a ton of games. They were teams that were viewed
as favorites in the series like this this was, you know,
this series will follow a somewhat similar trend, except for
(22:43):
Shay is also an APEX star in my opinion, and
this is a more talented, better Oklahoma City Thunder team.
But that dynamic is the dynamic that the Thunder have
to avoid. If Yoki rolls up into Oklahoma City in
Game seven and right away just looks like by far
the most confident and comfortable player on the floor, and
(23:04):
he just strangles the pace and the flow, and a
bunch of these young Oklahoma City Thunder players get nervous.
That's where it could get dangerous. And as Denver just
showed in Game five, they can go into Oklahoma City
and control a game for a large portion. They again,
they blew that one in the late fourth quarter, but
they were right there with the chance to win that
(23:24):
with that game, to win that game, So games Haven,
all eyes are on Yo Kitchen Sha. You know, I
expect a lot of inconsistency from the role players in
that game, but like, you know, like as as likely
as Jamal and Jada bar to go off. They're just
as likely to have nightmare games. It's gonna be Yo
Kitchen Shae one of those two dominates that matchup. You're
(23:45):
gonna see that team win that game. And I can't wait.
After what's been a pretty boring tail end the second round,
I feel fortunate that we're gonna get an epic Game
seven on Is it on Saturday or Sunday? I think
it's on Sunday actually, so we get a couple day off. Wow,
that's a big deal. That's a huge deal. So Denver
doesn't play till Sunday. That's a big deal that Denver
(24:06):
is gonna get a little bit of time off before
they have to roll up into that arena. That's advantage
to Denver for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
As well.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
If I had to pick right now, I picked Oklahoma
City in seven before the series. I still feel like
they probably deserve to be about a sixty to forty
favorite in Game seven, So I'm gonna stick with OKAC
and seven at this point. But I would not be
even the slightest bit surprised if Denver rolled up in
there and got the job done. And either way, Minnesota
(24:36):
Denver and Minnesota Minnesota OKC are both excellent Western Conference
Finals matchups, So US as basketball fans, we will be
fine either way. But I can't wait to break that
game down when the time comes. All right, let's bring
Jackson on and let's take a solid ten fifteen minutes
of questions.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
First question, aside from the superstars who are obviously the
driving force for each team, what is an x FI
for each team going into Game seven? It could be
a player, a concept, whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So the obvious one is shooting, right, there's a certain
amount of like whether or not we get a confident
role player night for either team. You know, that could
be Dort, that could be Michael Porter Junior, that could
be Christian Brown, that could be you know, case On
Wallace and Alex Caruso. Like, there's definitely a role player
(25:25):
swing either way. I'm gonna go with Jamal versus Jadubb
as just shot makers. One of the things that I
think we've seen a pretty good example of is like
Jamal has a couple of crafty finishes in this series,
especially in transition, but both teams are doing a good
job of keeping specifically Ja dub and Jamal from getting
(25:46):
all the way to the rim. J Dub's having to
settle for a lot of like tough stuff in the
short to mid range, and so is Jamal, And so
I think there's a certain amount of like shot making
comfortability between those two guys that I think would be
a big swing in the in this game seven. I
also think the whistle could play a role. Is Oklahoma
City allowed to just beat the shit out of Jokic
(26:07):
or are they gonna get a little more ticky tech
Shay's whistled. That could be a big factor. Oklahoma City
in general, just processing against the zone and knocking down shots.
I think that's a big one too. There are a
lot of examples, but you know how it is, Jackson,
Like this point in the series, everyone knows what everyone's doing,
and it's really it's really just about guys, you know,
executing the game plan and knocking down shots.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
For sure, Let's steal a game from Bill Simmons. Guess
the line for game set.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I'm gonna guess, Okay, see minus.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Eight and a half seven? Almost I was thinking that.
I was like, no, I'm gonna be more aggressive.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I was gonna say more like five or six I'm
kind of surprised.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I'm kind of well after okay, see was a minus
four and a half favorite on the road tonight. I
was like, I was like, man, like, they gotta be
up there that like seven or eight range. But yeah,
I think that's the right line because the dynamic at
play is it's either going to be a close game
or okay, see you we'll pull away and kind of
blow them out, you know, ten to fifteen, because you know,
(27:13):
veteran team, once they lose sight of their opportunity to win,
they'll probably you know, let go of the rope a
little bit. I do think it's going to be very
low scoring, though that would be a game that I
would take the under for sure.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
This is a question about sort of something that you mentioned,
which is the Thunder finding success with some of those
middle drives and the baseline cutter specifically against the zone.
Can you sort of break down why that works and
also do you think that that st of sort of
success will result in less zone from Denver in game seven?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
There's a way to run the zone better than they've
been running it in terms of just I mean to
put it very simply, just guys containing the ball better.
But think of it like this. So if you guys
think about this zone in the in the context of
each guy kind of has a job. You have your
top guys, and you have your guys that are in
the corners right, and then you have yokich in the
(28:10):
middle of the floor, and Yo Kitch's responsibility the middleman
responsibility for basically every two three zone. I've seen some
variations like Houston was not using Steven Adams to cover
the middle. They use a top guy to cover the middle.
You'll see a couple of weird variations around the league.
But Yo Kic's responsibility basically is the basket.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And up to the elbows.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
You know, he'll if a guy catches in the middle
of the floor. In many cases, he's the guy who
will come up and then the two baseline guys will
pinch down. But what was happening is all of those
four guys on the outside were doing a poor job
of one containing the ball and two filling in for
Yo Kic when he would step up. So imagine a
scenario where A and guys, when we go to playback later,
(28:52):
we I'll pull up some video clips of this so
you guys can see some specific examples of that. But
so if you give up dribble penetration in the middle,
Yokic has no choice but to step up, because if
he doesn't step up, he's on his heels for an
athlete who's going to elevate right at the front of
the rim. So he needs to step up to stop
the driver before he can get into basically the zone
(29:14):
where he can take off and make a play. And
then at that point, the two bottom guys have to
pinch in to rotate to the basket, and they were
missing that rotation constantly, and so when that guy would
just cut along the baseline, when Yokich would step up,
it'd be just an easy drop off pass and there'd
be an easy, you know, dunk or a layup right
underneath the basket. But theoretically, if you're in the zone,
(29:34):
that dribble penetration is something you should be able to contain.
The whole point of the zone is to force them
to swing the ball around the perimeter and take threes. So,
like your job, like a three to two zone or
you know these other variations, a three to two in particular,
you're trying to take away threes and there's opportunities around
the basket, but in a two three zone, the entire
premise of the zone is these guys are young and
(29:55):
they don't know how to make shots under pressure and
kind of a funky zone situation. So your job there
is essentially to contain the ball and force them to
take threes off of swing passes instead of paint touches.
And they just didn't do a good job. But again
we'll get into more examples of that when we get
over to playback later so you guys can see some video.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Next question, with MPJ hurt and missing most of his shots,
do you think it's better for Russ, Peyton, Watson or
even Strawther to eat up those minutes and sort of
to focus the question a little bit. That's obviously depending
on the flow of the game who's playing better. But
in a vacuum, if you had to pick someone else
to be the fifth closer along with their four main guys,
who would you go with?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
First of all, just so that you guys know, because
I pulled up the numbers, Oklahoma City twenty three possessions
of zone offense a one hundred and nine offensive rating
that's very good. Sixty three possessions of half court manned
Man a seventy eight offensive rating, So obviously I don't
(30:57):
think we'll see zero zone in game seven. But I
wouldn't be surprised if Denver ended up running more Man
just because of the fact that Oklahoma City had so
much success against it. Now to the question, we had
a similar kind of like topic during the meat and
potatoes of the start of this show.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
But uh, I think you got it. This is this
is literally the.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Job for Addalman in game seven. You gotta have a
you gotta be willing to make a change, but willing
to throw a quick hook. This is a zero margin
for air game. You cannot afford to lose this particular game.
So with that being the case, you give Strawther a chance. Well,
he started with Michael Porter Junior, right, and if MPJ
(31:36):
has it going and he's getting rebounds, he's in the
right spots defensively, and he's you know, four for his
first seven from the field. You push his minutes all
the way up. Because he's been in a lot of
big games in his career. He's not going to be
as uncomfortable as a Julian Strawther or something along those lines.
But if Mike, if Michael Porter Junior starts, you know,
one for five and has a couple of sloppy turnovers
(31:56):
and it just looks like he's not in it, and
Russ is out of it. But Julian Strawther is at
the least in the right spots and stepping confidently into shots.
You give him a shot and you ride him out
in that sort of situation. But these are these are
the kinds of games, like you've got to be willing
to try something, but you've got to have a quick
hook for anybody who's out of it. Like if Russ
(32:18):
comes in in a late first quarter shift and starts
shit in the bed, you get him the hell out
of there, and you get him out of there quick, because,
like I mean, this game flipped in that first quarter
from being like a ten point Denver lead to suddenly
it was a neck and neck again again because Russ
just lost control of his decision making for like a
ninety second stretch in the late first quarter, and that
could be the difference between going home and advancing to
(32:40):
the next round. So to answer the question, I don't
think it's about picking a guy right now. All of
those guys are inconsistent. Julian Strothers a kid relative to
NBA talent, like he had a great game tonight, but
he could just as easily go oh for six with
a bunch of mistakes in game seven. Russell Westbrook, same
sort of range of outcomes. Michael Porter, same sort of
(33:01):
range of outcomes. I think Peyton Watson's a much higher
floor but a lower ceiling option in the sense that
he's not going to do a ton for you offensively,
but there's a higher floor there, And I think I'll
give you a more concrete answer like this, if the
shit hits the fan and everyone's playing poorly, I'd close
with Watson.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
What do you think, Jackson?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Would you close with Watson if everyone else is struggling?
Speaker 4 (33:21):
I was going to say the same thing. I would
close with Watson sort of. That's for my initial reaction,
but especially if if no one really has it going,
just because his defensive ability is he's kind of a
game changing defensive player. That bad transition block on Jalen
Williams was insane when Okase he was trying to make
sort of regain control of it for a second there
in insane play, and he's also less. You know, he's
(33:42):
less likely to make a big shot, but he's less
likely to make a stupid mistake on that And like Russ,
my is sort of you know, Russ is very talented,
but he's prone to mistakes. Michael Porter junr Is prone
to some bad shots selection at time times, and Julian Strawther,
even compared.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
To Pitton, Watson is a child.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
So I think for the Peyton Watson's floor is definitely
and his defensive capabilities is where I would lean.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
I totally agree with you, especially especially in a Game.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Seven that's likely to be very physical, likely to be
very low scoring, where you probably don't even want Michael
Porter Junior taking a shot with a minute left anyways.
I probably I don't even care if it's bad, if
it's a hard shot, I want Jokich, your Murray taking
the shot anyways. So considering that's the case, it's like,
go with the defense.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I'm glad you brought this up too, because I think
this is important for a mentality thing for Jokich, Like
like it bothered me in Game five that he took
that crazy fade away over Chet at the top of
the key, and I thought he it was a decent
look for Michael Porter Junior at the top of the key,
(34:42):
but I he had a size advantage in the middle
of the floor.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
He could have.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Gone to another turnaround or a hook in the middle
of the floor, and he just sprayed it out instead.
And I'm not trying to be too critical because over
the years, I'd like, I've rooted for a player in
Lebron James who did the exact same thing, trusting Donielle Marshall,
trusting Kyle.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Korver, whoever it was.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
But like, there is a certain amount of like when
you're dealing with these star archetypes, the Jokic Lebron types
there that make the right play guys, and there will
be moments at the end of games where you're like, you.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Got to shoot the ball.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
But then with the Kobe, Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan types,
there will be times where it's like, bro, you got
three dudes on you.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You got to trust your teammates.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
And that's kind of just like the give and take
of those different archetypes of players.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yeah, that's sort of the inherent challenge. Yeah, exactly, a
couple more questions that won't go over to playback. If
oka See loses in Game seven, if okay See now,
that would be a second second round exit. And you know,
and back to my second exit in back to back
years with their only series wins becoming against an injured
Pelicans team and then.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
The Grizzlies this year.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Does that say anything greater about the Thunder and their
flaws or is it just they ranted a two tough
matchups and back to back seasons.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I think it's just the simple fact that every single
player in the rotation other than Alex Alex Crusoe is
twenty six or younger. Like, there is a real youth
and inexperience. It's problem with Oklahoma City, and frankly, we've
never seen a team this young have championship level success
(36:09):
in the NBA. It has literally never happened. Like that's
my thing. Like the way that Oklahoma City was discussed
during the regular season, I viewed them as a legitimate
championship threat ranked him second. But NBA history tells us
that teams like this don't win now. They win like
two or three years from now when they have lost
(36:31):
a bunch of times, and as a result of that
have made these like seemingly minuscule improvements, but in a
way that manifests specifically in the playoff setting. They basically
get better at getting their regular season success to translate
to the postseason because they've just been there so many times.
They're just so comfortable. And I just can't tell you
how many times in my life I've seen playoff series
(36:51):
where the older, more experienced team just looks more comfortable
than the younger, inexperienced team. It is not a harder
fast rule. There are teams that buck that trend. But
the whole thing is like, if Oklahoma City wins Game
seven and then they beat Minnesota and then they beat
whoever comes out of the East, they are breaking a trend.
They are breaking a historical NBA trend, which is that
(37:12):
super young teams don't win at this level. And Frankly Jackson,
like I the reason the series is going seven is
the youth and inexperience of Oklahoma City. They are a
better basketball team than Denver. They have controlled large portions
of this series. But yo, like, I'm watching these dudes,
(37:33):
and I'm watching Jamal, and I'm watching Aaron Gordon, and
I'm watching Jokic. These guys have been in wars over years,
they have seen it all, and so there's just a
level of comfortability that they have in these settings. And
as far as the big picture goes for Oklahoma City,
let's say they lose, there's a certain conversation to have
(37:53):
about like, Okay, well you have all this draft compensation,
what are you gonna do just keep drafting players and
then letting them walk, Like you gotta do something with
these picks. And you know, maybe that ends up being
them trading for a big rangy wing, which is the
kind of player they don't really have. They just don't
have that like six', eight you, Know jada McDaniel's type of.
Player maybe it is a super aggressive star trade sort of.
(38:15):
Thing but ultimately what's going to put them over the
top is their. Experience it's going to Be shay having
more games like tonight in fewer games like he's had
the rest of this playoff. Run it's gonna Be chet
going from a guy that like can completely disappear for
large portions of the game to a guy that leverages
his gifts for the entirety of the forty two to
forty three minutes that he's on the. Floor that's what's
(38:37):
going to put these guys over the. TOP i remember
watching one of my favorite examples of this was the
two thousand and TWELVE Nba finals between The thunder and The,
heat and there was a rebound on a on a
missed free, throw A heat free throw In game, five
That Shane battier came away. With and this was if
(38:57):
you remember That thunder, team they were so athletic And,
shane the old slow, guy beat everyone to the. Ball
and it's because like he just has been in so
many games that he understands that that singular moment was
just as important as every other possession in the, game
(39:18):
and that if you engage and fight for every, inch
you might gain three or four inches over the course
of that. Game that could be the difference between winning and,
losing which could be the difference in the. Series and
you go back to that, series every fucking game was
right down to the final, possessions to like The katie
neerfoul In game, two to Like game three And game
(39:39):
four both came down to clutch. SITUATIONS i even think
back To lebron And Pulp heerce going for a loose
ball in the two thousand and Seven game seven between
The cavs and The, celtics Where lebron had forty five
or whatever And Paul pierce had forty two or. Whatever
Paul pierce's old fat ass Beat lebron to the ball
(39:59):
because he's just an old dude who just understands that
every inch of the game is worth fighting. For and
there are just so many missed opportunities with the, thunder
so many bad shots early in the, clock so many silly,
mistakes just simply because they haven't understood through time and,
experience how valuable every possession is in a basketball.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Game, YEAH i last last year when The celtics wondered
ALL i looked this up BECAUSE i was curious as
A celtics. Fan how many teams in this century have
won with their best player being twenty six or. Younger not.
Many it's Like steph in that their first title, Year Dwayne,
wade and then that's pretty much it Because kobe was
not the best player on those Early lakers, teams right
(40:43):
there's and that's just for the best, player never mind
the rest of the. Roster both of those teams that
had their best player twenty six years old had legitimate
had multiple contributing, Vets Drew, Holliday Al, Horfrid Christaps perzingis
in his last, Round Andrew, Bogan Andre, udala.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
And Sean, Livings Andrew Bart But, john let me.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Say, yeah, right like it's it takes even for your
if your never mind the whole contract of your, team
if your best player is, young you're probably not gonna.
Win and if your best player is, young you're gonna
need more than one rotation impactful that most of the.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Time most of the, TIME i totally.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
Agree let's do one more question and then we'll go
over to, play, uh sort of a more general. Question
what makes a player fun to watch for?
Speaker 1 (41:27):
You you, know this is.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
FASCINATING i saw some people debating this on On, twitter
Between Jason tatum And Anthony. Edwards in this concept of,
aura AND i do think that that plays a big
role with casual. FANS i think THERE i think there's an,
aura like a confidence of, bravado a backing up of
that confidence in.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Bravado with your.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
PLAY i think that there are certain players that fans
see act a certain way and they kind of see through.
It you'll see that sometimes, too in a negative. WAY
i think that basketball players enjoy watching talented basketball players
LIKE i don't think it's a coincidence that everyone every
TIME i talk to a basketball, player like a person
(42:08):
who's played extensively in their, life they Love steph and
they Love. Lebron but then you talk to a casual
fan and they love one guy hate the next, guy
because there's all about, aura it's all about who they're rooting,
For it's all about like these different. THINGS i think
that it kind of just depends on the kind of
person you. Are for, ME i gravitate to like specific basketball,
(42:29):
traits like even with the guys THAT i don't necessarily,
like like Joe El, Embiid i'm impressed by his. Footwork James,
Harden i've literally stolen his footwork on step. BACKTORIES i
use him all the. Time a guy like With embiid specifically,
Too he's got like really strong footwork on like his pivot,
moves on his turnarounds over both. Shoulders there's like a
(42:50):
there's a certain element of like imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery that you'll see with basketball players.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Too Like Shay shae is a player that.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
The moves that he's been working on That i've that
he's been using a lot in the last couple of
years That i've been working on a ton is that
hesitation dribble where you kind of turn sideways and then
you just kind of robe with a jab step and
you just cover ground going back towards your left for
a step back. Three that's like a a like a
really fascinating basketball move THAT i think is really useful
for a dribble drive guard just because he sells the
(43:21):
left handed drive with that move and he'll drive out
of that move a lot of, times but then he'll
just pull back out of it with that step. Back
so for basketball, PLAYERS i think they're attracted to like
specific basketball skills and. TRAITS i think for casual fans
it's a lot of aura that kind of, stuff and
THEN i DO i think there's something to be said
about just like must SEE tv kinds of. Stuff, so for,
(43:41):
instance like you want to know Why steph And lebron
have crazy amounts of, fans because there's nothing like a step.
Heater when you watch A steph, heater it is one
of the most, incredible incredible bits of television you'll ever.
See Older lebron has been a tougher, watch but Younger
lebron was like the most incredible freight train athlete you've ever.
Seen it was like If zion took care of his
(44:02):
body like it. Was it was literally, insane and so
there's a certain like MUSTY tv element to, it uh
to it as. Well all, right, guys that's all we
have for tonight is always do sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting us and supporting the. Show head over to
playback dot tv Slash hoops. Tonight we'll be there in
just a couple of minutes for our after, Show What's?
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Up?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Guys as, ALWAYS i appreciate you for listening to and
Supporting oops. Tonight they would actually be really helpful for
us if you guys would take a second and leave
a rating and a. Review as, ALWAYS i appreciate you
guys supporting, us but if you could take a minute
to do, THAT i really appreciate.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
It the volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
I can't wait.
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(01:57):
All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume.
Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having
a great week. Well, this excellent second round series between
the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder, which has been
rife with highly Entertaining Games gave us another great one tonight,
the Julian Strather Games. Julian Strather comes into this one
and scores fifteen points for a Nuggets team that desperately
(02:18):
needed someone to come in and start hitting shots.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
As a team.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
The Nuggets finally started to hit their catch and shoot
threes in this game, as they go twelve for thirty
two from three thirty eight percent, a high step up
from where they've been in their losses in the series.
Jamal Murray also excellent in a game when he woke
up very sick and was questionable to start the game.
Another nightmare shooting performance for the Oklahoma City Thunder, another
(02:43):
example of their youth showing in terms of j dubs inconsistency.
Lots of interesting stuff to get into in this game
from the perspective of both teams. Will be breaking this
game down. Then at the tail end of the show,
we'll take ten fifteen minutes of mailback questions with Jackson,
and then when we fit this here tonight, we're gonna
move over to playback again. That's playback dot tv slash
(03:05):
Hoops tonight where we'll hang out for after show. That's
where we take callers, we watch film. We have a
more informal, just kind of fun, we talk hoops for
an extra you know, forty five minutes to an hour
at the tail end of the show. You guys are
the job before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops
and Oight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of
our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys,
don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
where you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also
(03:26):
super helpful if you leave a rating and a review
on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social
media feeds Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Make sure you guys follow
us there and the last but not at least, keep dropping
those mail bag questions in the YouTube chat there and
we will get to them at the tail end of
the show for a solid ten fifteen minutes. And like
we mentioned earlier, over to playback dot tv slash Hoops Tonight.
When we finish up here a right, let's talk some basketball.
(03:48):
So I thought that was really the theme for tonight's
game for Denver, the need to hit shots. If you
go back to the last two games in particular, it
was their offense that let them down down the stretch,
leading Game four, nine point leading Game five in the
fourth quarter, and just an inability to close the deal
from there, and specifically in Game five, not a single
(04:08):
Nugget was able to really contribute offensively in that fourth
quarter run when Yokic was setting them up. I mean,
I saw a stat this morning and I double checked
it to make sure it was fair but accurate. But
he had twenty potential assists in Game five and ended
that game with five assists because of the types of shots.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
They were missing.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Even if you really zoom in on that fourth quarter run,
there's a couple of wide open threes for Christian Brown.
There's a wide open three for Jamal Murray in the
right corner. And this is a team that typically shoots
really well. They shot thirty nine percent on wide open threes.
This is for NBA dot Com tracking data. This is
with the defender minimum of six feet away, So these
(04:49):
are like really open threes. They shot thirty nine percent
on them in the regular season, forty percent in the
first round series against the Clippers in the first five
games of this series.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Excuse me.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
In the three losses in the three losses in this
series so far, the Nuggets or a combined fifteen for
sixty six on wide open threes. That's just twenty three percent.
I thought there was an interesting interview brought to light
by the broadcast about Christian Brown and now he was
just kind of like evaluating the way he's performed so
(05:26):
far in this postseason or really in this entire season,
and he said, like, you know, I had a great
regular season. Can't really play any better than I did.
And he's right about that. He did a great job
stepping in for Contavious Calbo Pope into that starting two
guard role and turned into this devastating transition scorer who
also was a solid catch and shoot player, good defensive player,
(05:46):
all that stuff. And then he said in the postseason,
he's happy with the way he's defended. It's been a
little bit of a mixed bag in this Okay seat
a series, but specifically at the end of games I
feel like he's been pretty good outside of maybe a
couple plays at the tail end of Game five, but
he has been pretty good defensively in this series. But
what he said was, I have to find a way
to knock down these open threes that I'm getting A
(06:10):
big part of it is just that's the way the
defense is attending to Nikola Jokic in the middle of
the floor. They are conceding these open threes, especially out
of the corner. And what I appreciated about what Christian
Brown was saying is like he understands that they're yeah,
you're playing fine, Yeah it's physical.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, no one's really shooting. Well.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'm sure there's a lot of thunder guys sitting in
the locker room wishing they should shoot or could shoot better.
But the bottom line is Christian knows they have a
really good chance to win this series if guys make shots.
And the thing that I thought stood out the most
in that little tidbit provided by the broadcast was when
Christian said, I got two games to figure it out.
One just the confidence knowing that he believed in his
(06:52):
team to win Game six, but also just understanding that
he can flip the script by making shots. And I'm
highlighting Christian Brown just because of the comments from the broadcast,
but it was down the line, guys for Denver finally
just made shots. They shot thirty eight percent as a team.
Christian Brown was three for six from three. Jamal Murray
was two for six from three. He was fantastic tonight.
We'll talk about him here in a minute. Playing dealing
(07:15):
with an illness. Michael Porter Junior finally got a couple
shots to go down, and then Julian Strather. He also
made some other plays. He had this baseline cut, a
really impressive finish that three sixty kind of like lob
finish she had from Jamal Murray. Way tougher shot than
that looks on TV because he's right at the front
of the rim. But to coordinate yourself in traffic like that, well,
(07:36):
I guess he wasn't in traffic, but again, to coordinate
himself on a spin where he can't even see the
rim to then find the rim and lay it in,
that was a really impressive finish. He had a play
where he kind of ended up with the ball, kind
of a classic grenade situation where he ended up with
the ball at the top of the key against jadub
in a late shot clock situation, and all the other
guys on the floor kind of just looked at him,
like you do it. He put the ball on the
(07:58):
floor and made a play and drew a and I
think I think specifically those things are you know, kind
of found money in a certain way. But the shot
making is the important part. Him stepping confidently into semi contested, intense,
high stakes threes in that second half run and hitting
three of them, two big ones in the late third
(08:18):
quarter at another one when things were kind of already
in hand in the fourth quarter. All those shots were
super important. And the reason why this is specifically important
for this matchup is we spent a lot of time
talking on playback and and in the broadcast after Game
five about how the Nuggets kind of seemed to be
dealing with a fifth closer problem. We talked about Russell Westbrook.
(08:40):
I mean, he he made a big play tonight in
the in the late third quarter that we'll touch on
in a minute, but he had a nightmare first quarter
and in general just has been just uneven over the
tail end of this series. So he's not a great option.
Michael Porter Junior, as we discussed two nights ago, has
just been incapable of knocking down open threes while also
bringing some defense and rebounding issues to the table. So
(09:02):
like there wasn't like a legitimate option to go for.
We actually were talking on the broadcast about Peyton Watson
because at the very least Peyton Watson would be able
to defend and grab rebounds and at least just be
an athletic presence on the floor if you're not going
to get any sort of shooting from anywhere down the roster.
But like he just you know, that shooting stretch from
Julian Strawther just gives Adalman another option that he can consider.
(09:26):
Should Michael Porter Junior struggle in game seven, Should Russell
Westbrook struggle in game seven? You know, should Peyton Watson
struggle in game seven? If he needs like a guy
that can just be out there, that can hit a shot.
He has his struggles defensively from time to time, but
it's not like there's anybody who's doing an amazing job
defensively in this series. Containing the ball that was kind
of the story of the game for Okay. See, I
(09:47):
thought Tim Legler did an amazing job in the broadcast
breaking down the way that Oklahoma City was penetrating the
shell of Denver zone, which is putting Jokic and all
these like simple like do I have to step up
to this guy who's dry being in just give up
a baseline cut for an easy dunk, or am I
gonna stay back on my heels and let this dude
just drive right into my face and make a layup?
(10:09):
Like he Jokich was putting a lot of compromising positions
just simply because the shell of the Denver defense wasn't holding,
and so having another option is a guy that, like,
at least you're getting some shot making out of him.
I think that's an interesting thing to keep an eye on,
uh heading into game seven. But again, like these are
these are the shots that are gonna be there with
(10:29):
the way that Oklahoma City is just swarming Yokic in
the middle of the floor, and I thought that was
really the story of the game tonight. Denver's young guys,
Denver's veterans, Denver's role players confidently stepping into shots and
knocking them down when their team desperately needed them to
hit shots. Let's talk about Jamal Murray for a minute.
I I was venting in an unserious manner with Jackson
(10:53):
during the game because I watched a certain player for
my favorite team play with an illness in Game three
of the Minnesota Timberwolve series, and there was just like
no competitive fire at all. It was almost like Luca
just kind of wanted us all to know he was sick,
and I don't. I don't want to be you know too.
I don't want to jump to conclusion, so to speak,
(11:14):
because you never know how sick Luca was or how
sick Jamal was. But both players were questionable. Both players
attempted to play, and I thought there was an obvious
competitive fire with Jamal right away when he came into
the game, and there were some stretches where he lost
seen there's a stretch there in that second quarter where
you can tell he was getting to him a little bit.
Case on Wallace had some success, he had a couple turnovers,
(11:34):
but like he came right out the gates and was
aggressive both in his pull up shooting situations and going
to the basket. And you could see, like Jamal, if
you didn't know Jamal Murray was sick, you would have
no idea watching that game. There was no you know,
kind of poudy body language or like exaggerating the symptoms
(11:55):
that he was dealing with. He was like, fuck all that,
I my team needs me to win this game. And
he went out there and just immediately brought that competitive
fire and may play after play after play. I thought
he was fantastic in the late third quarter run really
setting things up on offense. He was the guy that
kind of set up those couple Julian strawtherbuckets got a
(12:17):
big transition finish. Jackson was texting during the game talking
about his unbelievable finishing ability. He kind of has this
remarkable talent to get into your body and then find
these like blow the rim finishing angles where he can
put it softly up off the glass from way off
to the side. He can finish on either side of
the rim in a way that like can even surprise
you on the broadcast where you're like, is he going
(12:39):
up on the strong side. Nope, He's going reverse, and
you're like surprised as it's happening. And his supreme talent
is he's just one of the great shot makers to
ever play this game. Like, if you really get down
to it and you think about the guys who again
that specific trait. I'm not talking about super high level
point guard play, although I thought Jamal passed the ball
really well tonight. I'm not talking about elite two way
(13:01):
play in the form of defense at the guard position.
I'm not talking about, you know, some sort of indomitable
downhill attack. But if you strictly just taking synthesizing a
player's game down to the ability to hit tough shots,
the ability to hit jumpers off the move and off
the dribble, from every single possible footwork in dribble combination,
(13:25):
that there's There aren't many players that I've watched that
are more gifted with that specific trait. And every one
of those buckets he got tonight they needed. I was
just I just I just I just think Jamal is
a legend. It's hard to explain because I hated his
guts when I was rooting against him as a Lakers fan, obviously,
But like when I think about the players in the
(13:46):
game that have the true competitive spirit, I always refer
to this as like hatred of losing, not a love
of basketball. Obviously, you need both in order to have
success at the highest levels, but there is like a
there is like a competitive spirit you can see from
a basketball player that manifests from a singular emotion, which
(14:08):
is like a hatred and a fear of losing. I
actually think that matters more than any other trait when
it comes to basketball, because it manifests in a willingness
to do whatever it takes. And even when I think
back to Jamal in his previous playoff highs, like in
twenty twenty three, in twenty twenty two, he has or
(14:28):
should say in twenty twenty three, he has like a
defensive playmaking side to his game too, where he'll get
into a spot in a big spot and put his
body on the line for a charge, or make a
help side rotation where he'll get a big block. Or
there's a big one he had in the Lakers series
three years ago where he stripped Lebron on a key
clutch possession on a help side off of the week
(14:48):
side corner. He'll fight for a contested rebound. There was
one late tonight. It was in that crazy run when
the Thunder were just ball pressuring like crazy and they
forced all those turnovers in a row, and somebody missed
the off the right wing. I can't remember who it was.
I think it was J dub but a Thunder player
missed at three and like Alex Crusoe comes flying in
and Hartenstein's flying in, and like the Thunder is still
(15:09):
playing with that like chaotic energy and who came up
with the ball in the mix of all those players
with Jamal Murray. Jo Kisch was in there battling and
somehow the ball just ended up in Jamal Murray's hands. Because,
like we can be critical of Jamal in other ways,
he takes the regular season less serious than a lot
of his peers do in the league, and comes into
camp out of shape and could probably stand to take
(15:31):
care of his body a little bit better. But when
it comes to the principal concept of winning basketball games
in the playoffs, He's just one of the better guards
that I've seen in this era because of his ability
to shot make and because of his willingness to do
the things that you need to do to win basketball games.
And I thought tonight, you know, should they win this series,
if they go on the road and they win Game seven,
(15:52):
I will think back to this Jamal Murray Game six
against the Thunder very fondly as one of the better
games in his career.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So shout out to Jamal. Third quarter run.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
This is really when the game started to flip in
Denver's favor. E lead defense in this stretch here, we
were giving up these like kind of easy baskets right
along the baseline off of drop offs, and there were
just a few sequences like Aaron Gordon threw a better
contest at Alex Caruso reverse layup where he forced to miss,
Jamal Murray got in the way on one, forced to
(16:21):
miss Peyton Watson that huge block that he had in transition.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Just there were a few efforts.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Around the rim during that stretch that turned what would
have been easy points into opportunities for Denver going the
other way. And then that was the stretch when Jamal
Murray really attacked offensively as a shot maker and as
a playmaker. That was when Julian Strather had all those
buckets in the late third quarter stretch. And then there
was a huge sequence at the tail end of that.
(16:49):
There was a huge sequence in that run if you
guys remember where they kind of started to lose control
and Denver turns it over, okase he's run in the
length of the floor. Drawther gets the huge block at
the rim, and then they go down the other end
and Russell Westbrook, who had had a turnover in this
sequence and it had had a really rough game, gave
(17:10):
an extra effort and got an offensive rebound put back
that bumped it. Instead of going down to five, it
pushed it back up to nine and just kind of
changed the psychology the game. And I just thought that
was a very important run. And then Nikola Jokics wasn't
super aggressive as a scorer in this game, but there
there was a stretch where when he first came in
(17:32):
in the mid fourth quarter, I think they were up
by eight or nine at this point, and as we know,
that's that same kind of margin that Oklahoma City was
able to overcome in the previous two games, right, and
Nikole Jokicic came in and I was literally thinking, like,
they need him.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
To score the basketball.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Tim Legler was doing a great job calling that out
on the broadcast as well. And he came in and
he hit a contested three and a contested floater in
the middle of the lane, two quick buckets that the
lead all the way out to like thirteen or fourteen points,
and that was when everyone kind of could at least
feel less pressure in terms of how difficult it was
going to be to close out the game. And then
(18:10):
I Couets ended up getting a much needed win tonight
to extend the series.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
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(18:38):
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Speaker 2 (18:49):
On the OKC front, I did think that Oklahoma City
found some stuff with Denver Zone in terms of just
dribble penetration and then cutting along the baseline. There were
some real opportunities there that they canalized on. I thought
this was Shay's best game in terms of his overall
shot making in rhythm the game. You know, they lost
control of it through a couple of key stretches, but
(19:10):
overall they played well when when Shaye was on the floor,
and I thought that this was the game where he
was most efficient and surgical offensively. Again, thirty two points
on just sixteen shots. Jay Doug again, this was something
that I called out before the postseason, and it's just
the reality of young basketball players. Like Jadeb's a really
good player and I'm a big believer in him. I
(19:30):
think he has the potential to be like a Jalen
Brown mixed with a little bit of Jimmy Butler within
the next you know, five to ten years of his career.
But like he's young and doesn't have a ton of
experience on the stage, and he's really struggled to be
consistently impactful in this setting. Again, three for sixteen in
a long line of some brutal shooting performances in this series.
(19:52):
They're going to need him to be better in Game seven.
And then I just wanted to shout out case on Wallace.
I don't know what he's going to be in the
long run. I feel like there's some real potential there
because of his athleticism, just his ability to get up
in traffic, both in transition and underneath the basket, almost
finishing like a big man as a guard around the rim,
his ball pressure bothered. He bothers Jamal Murray more than
(20:14):
Lou Door does. He's doing some real damage to him
attacking the basketball Keyson's a great player, and I'm just
really excited to see what he becomes in the long run. Now,
as far as Game seven goes, this is gonna be
a super interesting game.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
On the road.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Right for Denver, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be substantially favored.
Right they are the young team though, And I was
really I was looking back at just the previous examples
in recent NBA history, in like the last decade or so,
if teams have won Game seven on the road, and
every single time there's a consistent theme, it's the star,
(20:52):
the superstar, apex superstar. Every time it's been a top
tier guy. The only example you'll find kind of one
that's not really is the Trey Young Game seven against
Philly back in twenty twenty one, if you remember correctly.
But even then, I have to go back and watch
that game to remember exactly what happened. But I remember
Trey making a bunch of big plays late in that game,
(21:13):
like right in the final minutes as they pulled away
from Philly. But if you look at the other examples
of recent games where a team won a road Game seven,
you go back to like twenty eighteen, and it's Lebron
James and Boston won game one at home, they won
Game two at home, they won Game five at home,
and then suddenly in game seven when all of the
(21:35):
pressure was on all of their young players. Now, mind you,
they were younger players than Oklahoma City even in terms
of Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum at that point in time,
but Lebron just kind of alpha dogged them and was like,
far and away the best player in the game, far
and away the most comfortable player in the game, made
all the big plays late, and they ended up winning.
Fast forward to twenty twenty three, Steph Curry Game seven
(21:57):
on the road in Sacramento. Steph drops a piece on
those dudes, and they just have no idea what to do.
They just immediately crumble in their confidence and drop a
Game seven at home. Go to twenty twenty two, Luka
Doncic on the road in Phoenix, just right out the
gates in the first quarter. Just alpha dogs those dudes.
They all get super nervous and they end up falling apart.
(22:21):
And specifically with the Celtics in twenty eighteen, but especially
the Suns in twenty twenty two, those were highly ranked
teams in the regular season, they were teams that won
a ton of games. They were teams that were viewed
as favorites in the series like this this was, you know,
this series will follow a somewhat similar trend, except for
(22:43):
Shay is also an APEX star in my opinion, and
this is a more talented, better Oklahoma City Thunder team.
But that dynamic is the dynamic that the Thunder have
to avoid. If Yoki rolls up into Oklahoma City in
Game seven and right away just looks like by far
the most confident and comfortable player on the floor, and
(23:04):
he just strangles the pace and the flow, and a
bunch of these young Oklahoma City Thunder players get nervous.
That's where it could get dangerous. And as Denver just
showed in Game five, they can go into Oklahoma City
and control a game for a large portion. They again,
they blew that one in the late fourth quarter, but
they were right there with the chance to win that
(23:24):
with that game, to win that game, So games Haven,
all eyes are on Yo Kitchen Sha. You know, I
expect a lot of inconsistency from the role players in
that game, but like, you know, like as as likely
as Jamal and Jada bar to go off. They're just
as likely to have nightmare games. It's gonna be Yo
Kitchen Shae one of those two dominates that matchup. You're
(23:45):
gonna see that team win that game. And I can't wait.
After what's been a pretty boring tail end the second round,
I feel fortunate that we're gonna get an epic Game
seven on Is it on Saturday or Sunday? I think
it's on Sunday actually, so we get a couple day off. Wow,
that's a big deal. That's a huge deal. So Denver
doesn't play till Sunday. That's a big deal that Denver
(24:06):
is gonna get a little bit of time off before
they have to roll up into that arena. That's advantage
to Denver for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
As well.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
If I had to pick right now, I picked Oklahoma
City in seven before the series. I still feel like
they probably deserve to be about a sixty to forty
favorite in Game seven, So I'm gonna stick with OKAC
and seven at this point. But I would not be
even the slightest bit surprised if Denver rolled up in
there and got the job done. And either way, Minnesota
(24:36):
Denver and Minnesota Minnesota OKC are both excellent Western Conference
Finals matchups, So US as basketball fans, we will be
fine either way. But I can't wait to break that
game down when the time comes. All right, let's bring
Jackson on and let's take a solid ten fifteen minutes
of questions.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
First question, aside from the superstars who are obviously the
driving force for each team, what is an x FI
for each team going into Game seven? It could be
a player, a concept, whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So the obvious one is shooting, right, there's a certain
amount of like whether or not we get a confident
role player night for either team. You know, that could
be Dort, that could be Michael Porter Junior, that could
be Christian Brown, that could be you know, case On
Wallace and Alex Caruso. Like, there's definitely a role player
(25:25):
swing either way. I'm gonna go with Jamal versus Jadubb
as just shot makers. One of the things that I
think we've seen a pretty good example of is like
Jamal has a couple of crafty finishes in this series,
especially in transition, but both teams are doing a good
job of keeping specifically Ja dub and Jamal from getting
(25:46):
all the way to the rim. J Dub's having to
settle for a lot of like tough stuff in the
short to mid range, and so is Jamal, And so
I think there's a certain amount of like shot making
comfortability between those two guys that I think would be
a big swing in the in this game seven. I
also think the whistle could play a role. Is Oklahoma
City allowed to just beat the shit out of Jokic
(26:07):
or are they gonna get a little more ticky tech
Shay's whistled. That could be a big factor. Oklahoma City
in general, just processing against the zone and knocking down shots.
I think that's a big one too. There are a
lot of examples, but you know how it is, Jackson,
Like this point in the series, everyone knows what everyone's doing,
and it's really it's really just about guys, you know,
executing the game plan and knocking down shots.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
For sure, Let's steal a game from Bill Simmons. Guess
the line for game set.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I'm gonna guess, Okay, see minus.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Eight and a half seven? Almost I was thinking that.
I was like, no, I'm gonna be more aggressive.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I was gonna say more like five or six I'm
kind of surprised.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I'm kind of well after okay, see was a minus
four and a half favorite on the road tonight. I
was like, I was like, man, like, they gotta be
up there that like seven or eight range. But yeah,
I think that's the right line because the dynamic at
play is it's either going to be a close game
or okay, see you we'll pull away and kind of
blow them out, you know, ten to fifteen, because you know,
(27:13):
veteran team, once they lose sight of their opportunity to win,
they'll probably you know, let go of the rope a
little bit. I do think it's going to be very
low scoring, though that would be a game that I
would take the under for sure.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
This is a question about sort of something that you mentioned,
which is the Thunder finding success with some of those
middle drives and the baseline cutter specifically against the zone.
Can you sort of break down why that works and
also do you think that that st of sort of
success will result in less zone from Denver in game seven?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
There's a way to run the zone better than they've
been running it in terms of just I mean to
put it very simply, just guys containing the ball better.
But think of it like this. So if you guys
think about this zone in the in the context of
each guy kind of has a job. You have your
top guys, and you have your guys that are in
the corners right, and then you have yokich in the
(28:10):
middle of the floor, and Yo Kitch's responsibility the middleman
responsibility for basically every two three zone. I've seen some
variations like Houston was not using Steven Adams to cover
the middle. They use a top guy to cover the middle.
You'll see a couple of weird variations around the league.
But Yo Kic's responsibility basically is the basket.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And up to the elbows.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
You know, he'll if a guy catches in the middle
of the floor. In many cases, he's the guy who
will come up and then the two baseline guys will
pinch down. But what was happening is all of those
four guys on the outside were doing a poor job
of one containing the ball and two filling in for
Yo Kic when he would step up. So imagine a
scenario where A and guys, when we go to playback later,
(28:52):
we I'll pull up some video clips of this so
you guys can see some specific examples of that. But
so if you give up dribble penetration in the middle,
Yokic has no choice but to step up, because if
he doesn't step up, he's on his heels for an
athlete who's going to elevate right at the front of
the rim. So he needs to step up to stop
the driver before he can get into basically the zone
(29:14):
where he can take off and make a play. And
then at that point, the two bottom guys have to
pinch in to rotate to the basket, and they were
missing that rotation constantly, and so when that guy would
just cut along the baseline, when Yokich would step up,
it'd be just an easy drop off pass and there'd
be an easy, you know, dunk or a layup right
underneath the basket. But theoretically, if you're in the zone,
(29:34):
that dribble penetration is something you should be able to contain.
The whole point of the zone is to force them
to swing the ball around the perimeter and take threes. So,
like your job, like a three to two zone or
you know these other variations, a three to two in particular,
you're trying to take away threes and there's opportunities around
the basket, but in a two three zone, the entire
premise of the zone is these guys are young and
(29:55):
they don't know how to make shots under pressure and
kind of a funky zone situation. So your job there
is essentially to contain the ball and force them to
take threes off of swing passes instead of paint touches.
And they just didn't do a good job. But again
we'll get into more examples of that when we get
over to playback later so you guys can see some video.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Next question, with MPJ hurt and missing most of his shots,
do you think it's better for Russ, Peyton, Watson or
even Strawther to eat up those minutes and sort of
to focus the question a little bit. That's obviously depending
on the flow of the game who's playing better. But
in a vacuum, if you had to pick someone else
to be the fifth closer along with their four main guys,
who would you go with?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
First of all, just so that you guys know, because
I pulled up the numbers, Oklahoma City twenty three possessions
of zone offense a one hundred and nine offensive rating
that's very good. Sixty three possessions of half court manned
Man a seventy eight offensive rating, So obviously I don't
(30:57):
think we'll see zero zone in game seven. But I
wouldn't be surprised if Denver ended up running more Man
just because of the fact that Oklahoma City had so
much success against it. Now to the question, we had
a similar kind of like topic during the meat and
potatoes of the start of this show.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
But uh, I think you got it. This is this
is literally the.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Job for Addalman in game seven. You gotta have a
you gotta be willing to make a change, but willing
to throw a quick hook. This is a zero margin
for air game. You cannot afford to lose this particular game.
So with that being the case, you give Strawther a chance. Well,
he started with Michael Porter Junior, right, and if MPJ
(31:36):
has it going and he's getting rebounds, he's in the
right spots defensively, and he's you know, four for his
first seven from the field. You push his minutes all
the way up. Because he's been in a lot of
big games in his career. He's not going to be
as uncomfortable as a Julian Strawther or something along those lines.
But if Mike, if Michael Porter Junior starts, you know,
one for five and has a couple of sloppy turnovers
(31:56):
and it just looks like he's not in it, and
Russ is out of it. But Julian Strawther is at
the least in the right spots and stepping confidently into shots.
You give him a shot and you ride him out
in that sort of situation. But these are these are
the kinds of games, like you've got to be willing
to try something, but you've got to have a quick
hook for anybody who's out of it. Like if Russ
(32:18):
comes in in a late first quarter shift and starts
shit in the bed, you get him the hell out
of there, and you get him out of there quick, because,
like I mean, this game flipped in that first quarter
from being like a ten point Denver lead to suddenly
it was a neck and neck again again because Russ
just lost control of his decision making for like a
ninety second stretch in the late first quarter, and that
could be the difference between going home and advancing to
(32:40):
the next round. So to answer the question, I don't
think it's about picking a guy right now. All of
those guys are inconsistent. Julian Strothers a kid relative to
NBA talent, like he had a great game tonight, but
he could just as easily go oh for six with
a bunch of mistakes in game seven. Russell Westbrook, same
sort of range of outcomes. Michael Porter, same sort of
(33:01):
range of outcomes. I think Peyton Watson's a much higher
floor but a lower ceiling option in the sense that
he's not going to do a ton for you offensively,
but there's a higher floor there, And I think I'll
give you a more concrete answer like this, if the
shit hits the fan and everyone's playing poorly, I'd close
with Watson.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
What do you think, Jackson?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Would you close with Watson if everyone else is struggling?
Speaker 4 (33:21):
I was going to say the same thing. I would
close with Watson sort of. That's for my initial reaction,
but especially if if no one really has it going,
just because his defensive ability is he's kind of a
game changing defensive player. That bad transition block on Jalen
Williams was insane when Okase he was trying to make
sort of regain control of it for a second there
in insane play, and he's also less. You know, he's
(33:42):
less likely to make a big shot, but he's less
likely to make a stupid mistake on that And like Russ,
my is sort of you know, Russ is very talented,
but he's prone to mistakes. Michael Porter junr Is prone
to some bad shots selection at time times, and Julian Strawther,
even compared.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
To Pitton, Watson is a child.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
So I think for the Peyton Watson's floor is definitely
and his defensive capabilities is where I would lean.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
I totally agree with you, especially especially in a Game.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Seven that's likely to be very physical, likely to be
very low scoring, where you probably don't even want Michael
Porter Junior taking a shot with a minute left anyways.
I probably I don't even care if it's bad, if
it's a hard shot, I want Jokich, your Murray taking
the shot anyways. So considering that's the case, it's like,
go with the defense.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I'm glad you brought this up too, because I think
this is important for a mentality thing for Jokich, Like
like it bothered me in Game five that he took
that crazy fade away over Chet at the top of
the key, and I thought he it was a decent
look for Michael Porter Junior at the top of the key,
(34:42):
but I he had a size advantage in the middle
of the floor.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
He could have.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Gone to another turnaround or a hook in the middle
of the floor, and he just sprayed it out instead.
And I'm not trying to be too critical because over
the years, I'd like, I've rooted for a player in
Lebron James who did the exact same thing, trusting Donielle Marshall,
trusting Kyle.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Korver, whoever it was.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
But like, there is a certain amount of like when
you're dealing with these star archetypes, the Jokic Lebron types
there that make the right play guys, and there will
be moments at the end of games where you're like, you.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Got to shoot the ball.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
But then with the Kobe, Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan types,
there will be times where it's like, bro, you got
three dudes on you.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You got to trust your teammates.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
And that's kind of just like the give and take
of those different archetypes of players.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yeah, that's sort of the inherent challenge. Yeah, exactly, a
couple more questions that won't go over to playback. If
oka See loses in Game seven, if okay See now,
that would be a second second round exit. And you know,
and back to my second exit in back to back
years with their only series wins becoming against an injured
Pelicans team and then.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
The Grizzlies this year.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Does that say anything greater about the Thunder and their
flaws or is it just they ranted a two tough
matchups and back to back seasons.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I think it's just the simple fact that every single
player in the rotation other than Alex Alex Crusoe is
twenty six or younger. Like, there is a real youth
and inexperience. It's problem with Oklahoma City, and frankly, we've
never seen a team this young have championship level success
(36:09):
in the NBA. It has literally never happened. Like that's
my thing. Like the way that Oklahoma City was discussed
during the regular season, I viewed them as a legitimate
championship threat ranked him second. But NBA history tells us
that teams like this don't win now. They win like
two or three years from now when they have lost
(36:31):
a bunch of times, and as a result of that
have made these like seemingly minuscule improvements, but in a
way that manifests specifically in the playoff setting. They basically
get better at getting their regular season success to translate
to the postseason because they've just been there so many times.
They're just so comfortable. And I just can't tell you
how many times in my life I've seen playoff series
(36:51):
where the older, more experienced team just looks more comfortable
than the younger, inexperienced team. It is not a harder
fast rule. There are teams that buck that trend. But
the whole thing is like, if Oklahoma City wins Game
seven and then they beat Minnesota and then they beat
whoever comes out of the East, they are breaking a trend.
They are breaking a historical NBA trend, which is that
(37:12):
super young teams don't win at this level. And Frankly Jackson,
like I the reason the series is going seven is
the youth and inexperience of Oklahoma City. They are a
better basketball team than Denver. They have controlled large portions
of this series. But yo, like, I'm watching these dudes,
(37:33):
and I'm watching Jamal, and I'm watching Aaron Gordon, and
I'm watching Jokic. These guys have been in wars over years,
they have seen it all, and so there's just a
level of comfortability that they have in these settings. And
as far as the big picture goes for Oklahoma City,
let's say they lose, there's a certain conversation to have
(37:53):
about like, Okay, well you have all this draft compensation,
what are you gonna do just keep drafting players and
then letting them walk, Like you gotta do something with
these picks. And you know, maybe that ends up being
them trading for a big rangy wing, which is the
kind of player they don't really have. They just don't
have that like six', eight you, Know jada McDaniel's type of.
Player maybe it is a super aggressive star trade sort of.
(38:15):
Thing but ultimately what's going to put them over the
top is their. Experience it's going to Be shay having
more games like tonight in fewer games like he's had
the rest of this playoff. Run it's gonna Be chet
going from a guy that like can completely disappear for
large portions of the game to a guy that leverages
his gifts for the entirety of the forty two to
forty three minutes that he's on the. Floor that's what's
(38:37):
going to put these guys over the. TOP i remember
watching one of my favorite examples of this was the
two thousand and TWELVE Nba finals between The thunder and The,
heat and there was a rebound on a on a
missed free, throw A heat free throw In game, five
That Shane battier came away. With and this was if
(38:57):
you remember That thunder, team they were so athletic And,
shane the old slow, guy beat everyone to the. Ball
and it's because like he just has been in so
many games that he understands that that singular moment was
just as important as every other possession in the, game
(39:18):
and that if you engage and fight for every, inch
you might gain three or four inches over the course
of that. Game that could be the difference between winning and,
losing which could be the difference in the. Series and
you go back to that, series every fucking game was
right down to the final, possessions to like The katie
neerfoul In game, two to Like game three And game
(39:39):
four both came down to clutch. SITUATIONS i even think
back To lebron And Pulp heerce going for a loose
ball in the two thousand and Seven game seven between
The cavs and The, celtics Where lebron had forty five
or whatever And Paul pierce had forty two or. Whatever
Paul pierce's old fat ass Beat lebron to the ball
(39:59):
because he's just an old dude who just understands that
every inch of the game is worth fighting. For and
there are just so many missed opportunities with the, thunder
so many bad shots early in the, clock so many silly,
mistakes just simply because they haven't understood through time and,
experience how valuable every possession is in a basketball.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Game, YEAH i last last year when The celtics wondered
ALL i looked this up BECAUSE i was curious as
A celtics. Fan how many teams in this century have
won with their best player being twenty six or. Younger not.
Many it's Like steph in that their first title, Year Dwayne,
wade and then that's pretty much it Because kobe was
not the best player on those Early lakers, teams right
(40:43):
there's and that's just for the best, player never mind
the rest of the. Roster both of those teams that
had their best player twenty six years old had legitimate
had multiple contributing, Vets Drew, Holliday Al, Horfrid Christaps perzingis
in his last, Round Andrew, Bogan Andre, udala.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
And Sean, Livings Andrew Bart But, john let me.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Say, yeah, right like it's it takes even for your
if your never mind the whole contract of your, team
if your best player is, young you're probably not gonna.
Win and if your best player is, young you're gonna
need more than one rotation impactful that most of the.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Time most of the, TIME i totally.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
Agree let's do one more question and then we'll go
over to, play, uh sort of a more general. Question
what makes a player fun to watch for?
Speaker 1 (41:27):
You you, know this is.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
FASCINATING i saw some people debating this on On, twitter
Between Jason tatum And Anthony. Edwards in this concept of,
aura AND i do think that that plays a big
role with casual. FANS i think THERE i think there's an,
aura like a confidence of, bravado a backing up of
that confidence in.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Bravado with your.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
PLAY i think that there are certain players that fans
see act a certain way and they kind of see through.
It you'll see that sometimes, too in a negative. WAY
i think that basketball players enjoy watching talented basketball players
LIKE i don't think it's a coincidence that everyone every
TIME i talk to a basketball, player like a person
(42:08):
who's played extensively in their, life they Love steph and
they Love. Lebron but then you talk to a casual
fan and they love one guy hate the next, guy
because there's all about, aura it's all about who they're rooting,
For it's all about like these different. THINGS i think
that it kind of just depends on the kind of
person you. Are for, ME i gravitate to like specific basketball,
(42:29):
traits like even with the guys THAT i don't necessarily,
like like Joe El, Embiid i'm impressed by his. Footwork James,
Harden i've literally stolen his footwork on step. BACKTORIES i
use him all the. Time a guy like With embiid specifically,
Too he's got like really strong footwork on like his pivot,
moves on his turnarounds over both. Shoulders there's like a
(42:50):
there's a certain element of like imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery that you'll see with basketball players.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Too Like Shay shae is a player that.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
The moves that he's been working on That i've that
he's been using a lot in the last couple of
years That i've been working on a ton is that
hesitation dribble where you kind of turn sideways and then
you just kind of robe with a jab step and
you just cover ground going back towards your left for
a step back. Three that's like a a like a
really fascinating basketball move THAT i think is really useful
for a dribble drive guard just because he sells the
(43:21):
left handed drive with that move and he'll drive out
of that move a lot of, times but then he'll
just pull back out of it with that step. Back
so for basketball, PLAYERS i think they're attracted to like
specific basketball skills and. TRAITS i think for casual fans
it's a lot of aura that kind of, stuff and
THEN i DO i think there's something to be said
about just like must SEE tv kinds of. Stuff, so for,
(43:41):
instance like you want to know Why steph And lebron
have crazy amounts of, fans because there's nothing like a step.
Heater when you watch A steph, heater it is one
of the most, incredible incredible bits of television you'll ever.
See Older lebron has been a tougher, watch but Younger
lebron was like the most incredible freight train athlete you've ever.
Seen it was like If zion took care of his
(44:02):
body like it. Was it was literally, insane and so
there's a certain like MUSTY tv element to, it uh
to it as. Well all, right, guys that's all we
have for tonight is always do sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting us and supporting the. Show head over to
playback dot tv Slash hoops. Tonight we'll be there in
just a couple of minutes for our after, Show What's?
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Up?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Guys as, ALWAYS i appreciate you for listening to and
Supporting oops. Tonight they would actually be really helpful for
us if you guys would take a second and leave
a rating and a. Review as, ALWAYS i appreciate you
guys supporting, us but if you could take a minute
to do, THAT i really appreciate.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
It the volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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