June 6, 2025 • 35 mins
Tyrese Haliburton does it again. The Pacers steal Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and Trysta is joined by Kenny Caraway from the D-Lo & KC Show to break it all down.
They dive into the second-half adjustments from Indiana that flipped the game, how the Pacers have thrived in these scenearios all postseason, what went wrong for the Thunder down the stretch and what both teams need to do ahead of Game 2.
High-stakes hoops, smart analysis, and full playoff vibes.
Listen to the D-Lo and KC Show Mon-Fri 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM PST
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On this episode of The Heat Check. Game one is
in the books.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Kenny Caroway from thirteen twenty ESPN is here to break
it down, and we are talking about Hall Burton again,
another game winner. Holy shit, Wyatt, drop that motherfucking beat.
That should be Rihanna.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
You you're listening to the Hottest, the Hottest. It'd be
a podcast out here. I said what I said. It's
the heat Check, Hit Check Check.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
It's trist.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Let's cook Game.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
One, Game one of Pacers Thunder in the books.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
What an insane game.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And we are here with one of the ball knowers
of the media space well Kenny CAF Kenny care Away
aka Casey from ESPN thirteen twenties, d LO and Casey,
let's break this shit down.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I am stunned. I'm bewildered. I don't even know what
I just saw true this.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Was I'm not speaking to that perfectly. We're around the
same age. You know who You've watched oop your whole life.
This is one of the greatest NBA Finals games I've
ever seen. It's one of the greatest NBA Finals games
I've ever seen. One of the great moments, you know,
like on the uh, they don't do it no more.
Hopefully ABC brings it back or NBC, But you know
they used to do those moments and you see Bill
(01:22):
Russell and you see magic magic with the skyhook on
Korea that you see all that. We don't see this shot.
We don't see this shot, especially if the Pacers win
the whole thing. We don't see this shot for the
rest of our lives. That was crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
You know what's crazy is that Tyres Halliburton. I saw
this stat right when the game ended. He has five
game tying or game winning shots in the last five
seconds of a game in the postseason geez, which is
tied with Reggie Miller, one of the greatest shot makers
(01:59):
of our generation.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And Lebron has eight. And I think every single one.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Of those was from this postseason, if not maybe one
last postseason, but I can't remember them. So if we
get if we get ten of these from Halliburton in
his career, if we get twelve of these or fifth
because this is really his second postseason, if let's just
(02:29):
say plausibly, we get ten of these twelve, like where
does where does Halliburton go in?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Is it possible plausible.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
That he's the greatest clutch postseason player in NBA history.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, it's definitely is. It definitely is. But now we're
thinking about a more souped up Reggie Miller. Think about
how we think about Reggie Miller and Clutch and you know,
the shots in New York and then pushing off on
Jordan hitting that shot. Now we're thinking about Reggie Miller,
(03:06):
who can do this off the bounce, Reggie Miller, who's
done this in multiple places. Like he's gotten Tyrese has
gotten everybody this playoffs, He's gotten everybody. He's gotten the Bucks,
he's gotten Cleveland, he's gotten the Knicks. Now he's gotten
the Thunder. I don't know if you remember. I'm sure
you saw it after.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
After the Bucks shot, maybe the Cavs shot.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
What was the little highlight reel going around where this
year he was like nine of ten. Yeah, and with
shots in the last thirty seconds or something like that
to go ahead. That was after the Bucks shot. He's
added like four more. This is crazy, This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I feel bad for the Thunder because I'm watching them play.
Shay had multiple steals, have thirty eight points, hit pretty
much everything.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Lou Dort had five threes, You had not.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
A great game from Jalen Williams, not a great game
from Chet, but you had some crucial minutes, impactful minutes
from Hartenstein, and they just it was just they didn't
do anything wrong. They just let it sort of slip
like sand between their fingers. And I don't even think
they knew what was happening.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
No, this is what happens all the time, at least
in this postseason. I bet the Calves didn't know what
was going on. The Knicks didn't know what was going on.
And now the thunder. Next thing, you know, somebody's hitting
a jump shot and you're down or you're tied, Like,
how do we get here? We were just up fourteen?
This was what do they say, the indestructible first, what
(04:48):
immovable object? Whatever it is, whatever they say, right, this
was the thunder spurtability against the never say dying ness
of the pacers, like who who was gonna blink first?
Who was gonna bend tonight? It was a thunder because
they tried a couple of different times to do their patting. It. Oh,
it's a five point lead, All of a sudden it's
(05:09):
twenty two, and you know, in two minutes they tried
in Indiana, wouldn't let it happen. And then at the
end of the day they're down one oh eight ninety
nine I believe it was, with under two minutes to go,
and they win the game.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's crazy, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's it's interesting because you're I don't know if you
think about this, but whenever I see the Pacers down ten,
we're down eight with like five minutes left to go,
three minutes left to go, I'm like, well, this is
like exactly where they should be. This is like the
prime prime pacers striking range, no lead. That range doesn't
(05:50):
feel to me uncomfortable. It feels like, oh, well they're down.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And then and then there were multiple.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Times too, Kenny, where okay they cut it to e
cut to six, and it's like, oh, it's back to
eleven again, or it's back to nine again.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Oh that's game, that's game.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
There's so many times where I had counted them out
and put the nail on the coffin that Jalen Williams
dunk transition dunk.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I was like, Oh, that's that's a wrap right there.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Great, great try Pacers, but this was the one that
you should have gotten or could have gotten.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
But doesn't it feel like to you when you see.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Them down nine or down ten with like three minutes
ish to go, that you're kind of like you kind
of believe more than anyone else, more than any other team.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
No, it's one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
It's like this, they're down nine or something like that,
and they're not going out like this. I already know
this is gonna be a one possession game. It was
obviously not a Knicks fan, but I am a Knicks supporter.
Game five it was Game five of the Guard, and
I think it was like a sixteen point game with
(06:54):
like two minutes to go in the third, and I
think it was the Walker hit a three, and I
was like, Oh, here, here we go, Here we go.
Like that's how you feel with watching the Pacers. These
guys are terrifying. So now you've got a situation. You
mentioned it perfectly. They had a game they were probably
supposed to lose tonight. They stole it. They stole it,
(07:15):
just like they did in the Garden. They stole that game,
and that game won completely changed the East. It changed everything.
It changed everything.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Kenny.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I came on your show on Tuesday and I said,
the thunder should win this series. But if the Pacers
win the one or two of the first two in
Oklahoma City, especially if the Oklahoma City goes down oh two,
I'm not sure how any team, let alone this team
mentally recovers from this. And now remember and I think
(07:50):
Jamians said, Jamie said, I don't think anyone. I don't
think I don't think you can. And now when one
game will away from that scenario.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Oh so, well, here's what I was saying to a
lot of people afterwards, but said it just well, we'll
talk through this. Denver stole Game one, stolen like in
kind of the same fashion Oklahoma City missing free throws,
Chap missing free throw. They had no business losing that game.
They hit a shot damn near at the buzzer, win
(08:20):
the game. Denver comes back and does what a championship
championship team is supposed to do. In Game two, that
was a twenty five point game. I think with eleven
fifteen to go in the first quarter. I think it
was up to twenty five at that point. So that
you gotta be on guard for that. You gotta be
on guard for that in this game too. But here's
(08:42):
the thing. Indiana's better than Denver. I know a lot
of people have been like, oh, they're you know, it's
kind of the same, because that was always my thought
right when they said Indiana has no chance, I was like, well,
if Denver can take them to seven, Indiana can take
them to six or seven. And they're like, no, Denver, Dad, yokijo,
that's different. I said, I don't know, guys, I think
Indiana is better than Denver. I think they are, and
(09:05):
I don't think that. Okay, see just gonna walk into
game too and did do what they did to Denver
in Game two to Indiana. I think Indiana gonna be
ready to try and get both of these games. They're
gonna be ready, and.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I think they figured some things out in the second half.
Right if you're down twelve and you have nineteen no,
it was they were at twenty two turnovers with four
minutes left in the third so they had nineteen turnovers
at halftime. That was crazy, which is ridiculous, and they're
(09:38):
only down twelve.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Then they come back in the third quarter, had.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Three turnovers only in the third quarter, I think only
three points off of those turnovers, and they start to
find their rhythm, the pressure, they start to figure out
how to stop what Dort and Case and Wallace were
trying to do stunting and trapping, and then they figure out, Okay, well,
if we can get past that first line of defenders,
(10:05):
we can actually like we can actually just go dump
right into Miles Turner and no foul us. We can
literally just right on top. It felt to me like
there were some problems that they solved that they didn't
have the answers to in the first half. And I wonder,
in your opinion, whether you think that'll carry over and
(10:26):
those are some things that they've sort of solved against
the Thunders defense.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
It kind of feels like it.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I was on my way to do the postgame show
for the local news out here and no lot trust.
I'm driving in the car and I'm like, all right,
we're gonna talk about Okay, see they got Game one.
The defense was just nasty in that first quarter, even
or sue me, in the first half, even in the
third quarter.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I was like, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Sitting there at TK and I'm saying, I think I
might have to like think about this deep historically, like
is this one of the great defenses I've ever seen
in my forty years of watching basketball. That's how good
they were. Then I get in there and watch the
fourth quarter, and like you said, feels like Indiana figured
out this, figured out that if we do this, we
(11:16):
can do this, if we just get past at this
angle and move the ball this way.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
They started to figure out.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Some things, and I do think it's transferable from the
next game and for the rest of the series. Indiana
as great as Okac's defenses, you know, I'm a offensive guy.
They've got they I'm not gonna say they got too
many weapons where okay, so can't do anything about it.
But I don't see them shutting down Indiana. I just
don't the Pacers. They shoot the ball too well, they're
(11:44):
too relentless, they got too many options. Halliburton and Siautcom
didn't even go crazy today, Like they didn't even play
that well offensively.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You know, either one or both of.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Them nineteen for four for hal.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
You know, either one or both of them got a
thirty point game coming at least once, maybe even twice
in this series. So I think I think Indiana it's
gonna be It's not gonna be easy. Like they're gonna
have to be on their game because, Okay, see just
because of this one quarter, I'm not gonna change offield.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
This is one of the great defensive teams I've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
But Indiana probably has the belief now that, oh, if
we just stick to this game plan and take care
of the basketball, we can score like we have any
other time in the last two years.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Basically like they have that belief.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, And I thought what was interesting too is you
had Miles Turner with fifteen.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
He didn't have a great game.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So the primary guys that you want to go crazy
had awful games. Well Siakman, Okay, game nineteen Halliburton was
atrocious until that last shot. Miles Turner had a great
fourth quarter, but he was on a milk court cart
and I think he had seven points by the third quarter.
(12:58):
Was very pedestrian, not very aggressive, just felt like he
was flailing. They just but then you look at what
they did get big minutes at a Ben Mathern, big
minutes at a Obi Topping, five threes for Obi Topping.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
You know, did you did.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You turned into damn dell Ellis out there? What the
all happened there?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Did you see that Andrew Nemhard, uh step back.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Off the dribble, the one to cut it to three, the.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
One that cut its three, and then you had multiple
situations where okay, now Nemhard, I mean a Nie Smith
gets blocked airballs whatever it is, and then it turns
into the Pascal Siakam put back that the role players
figured out a way to contribute huge in a way
that almost none of the OKC Thunders role players did.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Na It's one of the things that we're seeing from
the Spacers team in these playoffs is it feels like
every everybody is just playing perfect basketball. Anybody they put
out there, from Nei Smith to nim Hart to Shepherd
to Thomas Bryant, it doesn't matter. Like when they get
in there, who was the guy? Come on, TK, you know,
(14:13):
I watch who was Who was the dude that that
I think he got hurt Bradley? Who the hell is that?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I don't I don't even know that. Who was he?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And he out here playing?
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Yeah, you're playing great minutes in the playoffs like it's
they got they got a clicker right now?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Now?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
You know something else that I saw that I was like,
all right, man, all right, they might need to start
printing the T shirts right now, getting the hats Indianapolis.
I don't even know a street down there, but they
always talk about a steakhouse. Get the parade next to
whatever steakhouse is down there. Tyrese Haliburton, like you said,
was not good in this game. You watch a lot
of hoop TK, you watch a lot of Tyreese Haliburton.
(14:53):
I watched him here in Sacramento for a year and
a half and studied his moves. It was like, Okay,
how good is he gonna be? Have you ever seeing
him go right and pull up for a jump shot
going to the right.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
And with the game on the line.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I was done by it. I was done by I
just got off of.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The Metal Arc Dan Levatard's Network podcast Alua, Yeah, yeah,
I was talking to.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Me al Hassen about this and Juju.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Doesn't it doesn't it feel like doesn't it feel a
little reminiscent of Damian Lillard and his and his last
second shot where you're like, yo.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
There's no time left. What are you baby? What are
you doing?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And he's kind of just casually like this six seconds,
just four seconds, and it's like this.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Is a horrible spot. This isn't even your spot. You
got too maybe you've got Casey Wallace and he got
Dort coming up.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And he just puts his foot into the ground right
and raises up in a spot I've never seen him
shoot from in my life.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
No, not for going to the right.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Now.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
I'm sitting there saying the same thing like, well, I
don't know what you're gonna do. The ball's on your
right hand, you're going to your right. We know you
can't shoot that way. How are you gonna get this
shot off? And he just and also I'm a big
no timeout guy. I'm a big no timeout guy. Shout
out to Rick Carloisle. I'm a big no timeout guy.
In that situation, you know who you want to have
the ball, get the ball in their hands, let him
make the decision.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Great job.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
But I saw that, and I saw him like I said,
go to the right and pull up on a dime.
This guy, this guy has He hasn't done that in
the NBA. He hasn't done that in AAU, he hasn't
done that working out with Drew Hanlin. He hasn't done
that on two k and in Game one of the
NBA Finals with the game on the line, he goes
(16:45):
to the right and cash us out. Salute to Tyrese
haliberg Man salute.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I think we are looking at a I don't want
to talk about ty too much, but we are looking
at a sort of revolution in his image before.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Our very eyes.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Because this is the time we talk about what we
want from players, how we evaluate players, and Shay is
the most consistent score I've seen.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
In a long time. Just thirty thirty thirty five casually.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
He has now a streak of two different five game
streaks of thirty or more this postseason. Just this postseason ridiculous.
I think at one bad game, this is insane. But
how we judge Sga is going to be somewhat off
of that shot that he missed against the Pacers, And
(17:41):
now Halle is the exact opposite. I can get thirty
from Halle, I can get six from Halle.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I can give five assists from Halle. I get twenty
assists from Halle.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But when the lights are the brightest and the game
is on the line, and he doesn't have a time
out or where he needs to miss a free throw
on purpose and pretend to cut into the lane, and go.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
All the way backwards and shoot the three to win.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
He is I've never seen anything quite as effective.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It's almost Tom Brady esque.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
It's almost Patrick mahomes esk where you're like, when he
has the ball in his hands with ten seconds left,
I'm more afraid of him than any other moment and
any other time. And then you top it off by saying,
and this is a move he's just never done in
his life.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That never never done.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
You know what it is, Tk's it's Dame like, it's
Steph like. Like we're talking about two of the most
clutch players the game has ever seen. And that's the
feeling that you get with Zarry's Alliburton. Right now, he
has the ball in his hands, and like you said,
it doesn't matter what happened the first forty seven minutes
of the game, it doesn't matter. When he has the
(18:52):
ball in his hands in crunch time, you think number one,
he's always gonna make the right decision and if he
shoots it, it's always going to go in. That's just
how you feel right now. That's it's it's amazing to see,
to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
For you, it's funny. I'm looking at this before I
go to this next question. My note said, wildly entertaining
for a blowout. That was one of my That was
one of of the things that were in my notes,
wildly entertaining for a blowout.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Boy, oh boy.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
And then it was okie topping, Wow, four threes, okie
top and wow five.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Come on, man, this guy turned into damn page of
Stoyakovic out of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I said, what's going on here, Shane?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Not in the fourth quarter until like seven minutes to go.
That was a mistake. That was a very bad mistake.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
And let me tell you before SGA took that final
shot or whatever. I don't mean to be like this.
He's still a young fellow. I don't want to go crazy.
But when Jalen Williams got that ball, when the SGA
had it, then he kicked it over to Jalen Williams,
I said, oh no, that's that's not it like, that's
that is not he had the ball. He hadn't even
made his move. I said, this box out, Indiana, this
(20:06):
one's coming off.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, yeah, this is not yep, you better get the ball,
and they did. For Game two.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Let's just talk about what you saw in terms of
what the Pacers were able to do and execute they
got them to win, or what you just in general
saw that Okac was trying to do out there and
what the Pacers were trying to do the counter because
it did feel a lot like it was on Okayc's terms,
like what did you see that you thought worked for
Indiana and what do you think.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Did not work well for me?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I didn't see much that didn't work. I was a
real in that first half. This is gonna sound crazy.
I didn't think Indiana played terrible. I just thought they
turned the ball over way too much, which is part
of playing terrible.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I get it. And they got beat up on the boards.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
And I looked at that situation much like you did,
probably like how Rick Carlisle did. I was like, man,
this should be going into the half, this should be
a twenty seven point lead, but you know what, only
it's only twelve.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Like we've played probably our worst offensive.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Half of basketball in the last fifty games.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
We're down twelve.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Number one, If we just take care of the basketball,
that'll help out a lot of stuff. But also we
got to get physical on the boards. They did both
of those things, and it allowed them number one to
stick around and then when the time was right, they
were able to strike and make their run. I think
that's just gonna be the bear basics of what they
look at for Game two.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Take care of the basketball. Be strong with the rock.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You're playing an OKC team that is phenomenal defensively. If
you're soft with it, they gonna take it. So be
strong with the rock like you did in that second half.
And if you incorporate that, now we're gonna be able
to get up and down the way we like. To
get some more stops on the low. I saw something.
This is actually like kind of impressive, especially considering it
didn't feel this way. I think I saw this right.
(22:00):
He shot thirty nine percent.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
From the field.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Like Indiana's defense kind of settled in and started to
make things difficult for them, which I think also helped
their offense.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Like being able to get stopped. It's it's tough to
get out and run.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
They do their best, but it's tough to get out
and run when you're taking the ball out of the net.
So starting to get those stops in the second half
and then getting getting that offensive, that offensive engine going,
I think that's something they're gonna look to do from
the tip. They're gonna come out that I can tell
you right now. We ain't gonna have to worry about
them feeling satisfied with one win. They're going to try
(22:32):
to get two wins. That's what they've done all postseason.
First two games. We're trying to get two wins. They
gonna come out ready to go.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And they have gotten two wins in the first two games.
In every single series, they're.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Zero in three in game threes, they're like twelve and
oho in every other game.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Or something like that. It's crazy. I thought twelve and one.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
In terms of the physicality, I don't know if you
remember that Andrew nemhard to the rack where he kind
of like he kind of grappled the ball. They tried
to take it away. It almost looked like it was
a jump ball. He gets through it, kind of bodies
passed and one and the broadcaster said, listen, that's the
type of basketball you have to play against the thunder.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
You can't think about the whistle.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You have to play physical, take the ball to the
rack like it's football. And that's what I think the
Pacers did so well in the second half is they
were not anticipated in getting a goddamn foul call.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
They barely got them at all.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Sometimes they were getting slapped two, three, four times and
then finally getting the foul call. So they need to
play through contact much better than they did in the
first half, and I think they clean that up.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
You're right, turnovers were a big issue.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
But another thing that they just need to do is
they need to they need to just hit open threes.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
They're gonna get a lot of open threes.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
And they are one of the best three point shooting
teams in all of the NBA and even better in
the postseason. And you wonder who's gonna come back down
to Earth, and it feels like Nie Smith hasn't really
come back to earth.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
He had a timely three I will be topping and
come back down to Earth.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So if they do all those three things, I mean,
we could easily be We could easily see a seven
game series.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And I think turnovers probably sure the biggest one. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
I think matther And will play well at some point
in this series as well.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
He didn't had.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Two blocks yeah well yeah, yeah, back up, had that
one block that ended up in a bucket, went straight up,
and that was when they were trying to make their run,
and then he got super physical, went to the rack
and had.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Two free throws.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So he was actually in the short amount of time
he was in the game, he was a net positive,
even more.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
So than I think even a TJ. McConnell.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
You know, I'm gonna give an old ass analogy right
now because I'm turning into an old ass man. So
I apologize to the younger listeners. Go go look on
YouTube and check this out. But I heard this on
my way home, and it actually works. This game was
kind of like Mike Tyson Buster Douglas. Mike Tyson ran through.
(25:03):
Everybody was going up against a Buster Douglas. And what
people with some people forget from that fight is Tyson
knocked Buster Douglas down. I think the round before he
got knocked out, he gave him a nasty uppercut, knocked
him down, and as tough as that fight was, it
was like, oh, okay, this is what we're normally gonna get.
(25:24):
And Buster Douglas got up. He got up, And I
think about that with OKC and what they normally do
in those third quarters and they start running away and
you talk about Jalen Williams's dunk breakaway got him at
the time, I think the biggest lead in the game fourteen,
and it was that was the uppercut, that was the
Tyson uppercut. Like, this is what we do. We about
to run away and Indiana got up. They got up
(25:48):
and they got in positioned to do what they do.
And man, it's gonna be interesting to see how OKAC
responds to this because, like we talked about earlier, Indiana's
not Denver. I don't I don't expect Okay see to
just beat them up from the tip in game two.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Indiana gonna be ready to go, and we're gonna see,
We're gonna see.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
What you talk about them lights with Tyrese Haliburton, it's
them lights with Oka. See right now, Man, you got
a lot of pressure because everybody handed you the championship
going into this series. What's it gonna look like if
you're down five in the third quarter of Game two
looking facing a.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
O two mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
That's a great analogy. It's a great analogy. You're right,
it's it's now the balance of pressure has shifted over.
And you're also right that That's what the Pacers do.
They just continue to fight. They continue, uh, they continue
to just no lead is ever safe with them. Shay
had three steals, Door had four steals.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Real quick.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
What'd you think about, Chef? I thought Shaye was fantastic tonight.
It's it's gonna get lost in the fact that they
lost the game. But I thought he was fantastic. Thirty
eight points, he hit damn near every big shot they
needed to. Damn sucks for him.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I know.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I had Shaye to score forty, Pascal to score twenty,
and Miles Turner to score fifteen. Ten to one, Pascal
Siaka missed that free throw and he had nineteen, and
Shane missed the last game field goal of the game.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
So was this live or was this before the game?
Speaker 1 (27:27):
This is before the game.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So my breakdown was what Yeah, So my breakdown was this,
I don't think they're collapsing on Shae. I think they're
going to allow Shaye to do what he does, just
like they did with Jalen Brunson, just like they did
with Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell averaged thirty three points per
game when he had more than twenty minutes in that series.
Against Indiana in the second round and then Jayalen Brunson
(27:51):
was going crazy as well. So I thought, okay, they'll
let Shade do what he does. And then I thought
Miles Turner would have a bunch of easy fos like
rolling that maybe lou Dor comes with them, and it's like,
let's test Miles Turner and see what he's got, and
I thought he would have something, and boy it was
scary because he had like seven points with the third quarter.
(28:12):
And then I thought Maybeam would be more of a
of a creator.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
He just really wasn't that aggressive.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I'm curious though, why you think Siakam wasn't as effective
and how do you think he ends up bouncing back
because he just seemed a little bit more passive than
we were used to in last series.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Was it a match up thing for you?
Speaker 4 (28:33):
I think it was a matchup situation. I also, I'm
not trying to disrespect Siaka. This guy's tough as they come.
But okay, see physical, okay, see it's real physical. And
then sometimes depending on the lineup that they had in
maybe he had to deal with Chet and that's a different,
you know, different level of size that you got to
deal with. Pascal maybe isn't necessarily comfortable with, so it
(28:54):
was it was a bunch of different things. And then
I think maybe it took him about a half or
so to get used to just to get used to
the setting, the physicality. I know he's been in the
finals before, but uh, you know, it's a fill out
it's a fill out round, It's a fill out game sometimes.
And I thought maybe in that first half, Pascal Siaka
more than anybody, maybe him and Tyreese used that first
(29:16):
half as a as a fill out round to kind
of figure out what they wanted to do with Oka See,
and he picked it up a little bit more in
that second half, and I think that'll continue in this
game too.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
The one thing that I'll say before you know we
wrap is I thought there were multiple instances that Indiana
had opportunities to go up, or to tie, or to
cut these cut the lead like in the next series,
only in the next series they had to capitalize on
(29:48):
every single one. And there was actually wiggle room with
this Indiana with this okay See game, like the Pascal
Siakam loose ball where we thought maybe he was fouled
by case Wallace, the misfree throws, the Aaron Smith airball
that ended up turning into a put back. The Tyrese
(30:09):
Halliburton running into the lane open layup it looked like
but to the kickout for a miss.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
That's five opportunities. The Indian Smith.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
A Nise Smith attacking to lou Dort get the shot block.
He could Yeah, he could have just pulled up. He
could have had the three.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
So that's that's six times.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That just shows you that Indiana has a gear that
I don't know if OKAC has seen yet that they
probably have to have been pretty shook by, because if
you look at the tape, it wasn't like they got lucky,
and it's not like they got every break.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
No, no, Look, nobody in the league plays like the
Indiana Pacers. Nobody, and nobody has the combination of tempo
and depth that they have.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
They got. I'm sure if.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
We we really counted, like you can get to like
eleven twelve guys like oh yeah, I've seen him have
like big moments in play, and you don't know who
it's gonna be on any given night. It's been said
a number of different times, but they are the true
definition of a team with the way they don't rely
on one specific guy every single night. And that's something
where Oka See they've got the depth to do it.
(31:23):
But typically they probably go into these games like, all right,
there's about two or three guys that we need to
look out for. We're gonna put Caruso on them, or
Dort or Sgao start doing it, or Wallas will start
doing some stuff, or Jalen like, it's cool, we got
enough guy. They don't have five guys. They got three guys,
(31:44):
and we'll worry about that. Indianda got five guys at
all times on the floor that they got to worry about.
And I'm not saying okay See doesn't have the personnel
to handle that, but it's probably different than what they've seen.
They didn't have to deal with that against Denver. They
didn't have to deal with that with Rudy Gobert on
the floor. Against Minnesota. They definitely didn't have to deal
with that against Memphis. Uh, this is something they haven't
(32:05):
seen in these playoffs yet.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
No, it really is.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And shout out to Andrew Nemhart for being as tough
and facilitating and taking the pressure off of Tyrese Haliburton.
I think you're gonna see Andrew Nemhart as the primary
ball handler for this series, just to one maybe take
a little bit of like mileage and load and physicality
off of Tyrese, but also allow him to expend some
(32:31):
energy on defense. Because our boy was food right that
they were targeting him, and he could tell they were
putting him in every pick and roll and it was like,
the only game plan is just attack Tyrese.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Mm hmmmm.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
And they that's why we're Carlo is one of the
greatest coaches in the game right now. Because he made that,
he made an in game adjustment. I thought with that,
you know what I mean, getting him hard out there
so he'll be ready for that in game two. And
like you mentioned, Tyrese, well, you know, can serve a
little bit of energy out there, so he can he
can get ready to defend, he can get ready to
(33:03):
step up and be able to deal with whatever. Okay,
So he's bringing on the offensive, and man, I'm.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Excited about that.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I mean, I was already excited about the series going
into it, but after what we saw in game one,
now the stakes are high. Like there's there's drama, there's
tension going into Game two right now, man, So I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
And for the ratings police, I guarantee you this Game
one has stepped up the intrigue.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
We got people that don't even watch basketball watch these Pacers.
How can you not love what they're doing?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
And for two small market teams, this is I think
gonna be one of the greatest finals I've seen in
a decade or so.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I can believe that it's about to be turned up
in Indianapolis. I always make my jokes about Indianapolis. It's like,
why would I ever go there? Why would I ever
go to anything? Why do they always put things in
Indianapolis to combine the Final four? Like why why it's Indianapolis?
Why do I want to go there? But I know
a couple of people out there, and you see a
mic Apps out there, It's gonna be turned up. It's
gonna be turned Indianapolis is not okay. See you know
(34:05):
how I feel about Okay. See it looks a little
un boring, but Indianapolis ain't that. And any app it's
gonna be turned up. I can't wait to see that setting.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Kenny Caraway, thanks for joining on a on a night
after you've done double triple time putting the hour for
local news.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Let's do it again soon.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
My brother anytime TK you know I got you girl.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
All right, I'll talk to you soon. That's all the
time that we have for this episode of the Heat Check.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Come back Tuesday for an all new episode, and check
out the feed for past episodes and occasional mini episodes
which comes at unexpectedly like a bass hit on an
intentional walk pitch sad for our girl, Nie Kennedy.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Also Texas techt is to win for game two.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You know I forget to follow the Heat Check all
playoffs long the means download Subscribe me to your friends,
all of them, even the ones you haven't talked to
in hears.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Follow us on TikTok at at this heat checking on
yours to Crik on Twitter, Instagram.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Madreads met his new social media platform where I post
every day
On this episode of The Heat Check. Game one is
in the books.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Kenny Caroway from thirteen twenty ESPN is here to break
it down, and we are talking about Hall Burton again,
another game winner. Holy shit, Wyatt, drop that motherfucking beat.
That should be Rihanna.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
You you're listening to the Hottest, the Hottest. It'd be
a podcast out here. I said what I said. It's
the heat Check, Hit Check Check.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
It's trist.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Let's cook Game.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
One, Game one of Pacers Thunder in the books.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
What an insane game.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And we are here with one of the ball knowers
of the media space well Kenny CAF Kenny care Away
aka Casey from ESPN thirteen twenties, d LO and Casey,
let's break this shit down.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I am stunned. I'm bewildered. I don't even know what
I just saw true this.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Was I'm not speaking to that perfectly. We're around the
same age. You know who You've watched oop your whole life.
This is one of the greatest NBA Finals games I've
ever seen. It's one of the greatest NBA Finals games
I've ever seen. One of the great moments, you know,
like on the uh, they don't do it no more.
Hopefully ABC brings it back or NBC, But you know
they used to do those moments and you see Bill
(01:22):
Russell and you see magic magic with the skyhook on
Korea that you see all that. We don't see this shot.
We don't see this shot, especially if the Pacers win
the whole thing. We don't see this shot for the
rest of our lives. That was crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
You know what's crazy is that Tyres Halliburton. I saw
this stat right when the game ended. He has five
game tying or game winning shots in the last five
seconds of a game in the postseason geez, which is
tied with Reggie Miller, one of the greatest shot makers
(01:59):
of our generation.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And Lebron has eight. And I think every single one.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Of those was from this postseason, if not maybe one
last postseason, but I can't remember them. So if we
get if we get ten of these from Halliburton in
his career, if we get twelve of these or fifth
because this is really his second postseason, if let's just
(02:29):
say plausibly, we get ten of these twelve, like where
does where does Halliburton go in?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Is it possible plausible.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
That he's the greatest clutch postseason player in NBA history.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, it's definitely is. It definitely is. But now we're
thinking about a more souped up Reggie Miller. Think about
how we think about Reggie Miller and Clutch and you know,
the shots in New York and then pushing off on
Jordan hitting that shot. Now we're thinking about Reggie Miller,
(03:06):
who can do this off the bounce, Reggie Miller, who's
done this in multiple places. Like he's gotten Tyrese has
gotten everybody this playoffs, He's gotten everybody. He's gotten the Bucks,
he's gotten Cleveland, he's gotten the Knicks. Now he's gotten
the Thunder. I don't know if you remember. I'm sure
you saw it after.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
After the Bucks shot, maybe the Cavs shot.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
What was the little highlight reel going around where this
year he was like nine of ten. Yeah, and with
shots in the last thirty seconds or something like that
to go ahead. That was after the Bucks shot. He's
added like four more. This is crazy, This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I feel bad for the Thunder because I'm watching them play.
Shay had multiple steals, have thirty eight points, hit pretty
much everything.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Lou Dort had five threes, You had not.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
A great game from Jalen Williams, not a great game
from Chet, but you had some crucial minutes, impactful minutes
from Hartenstein, and they just it was just they didn't
do anything wrong. They just let it sort of slip
like sand between their fingers. And I don't even think
they knew what was happening.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
No, this is what happens all the time, at least
in this postseason. I bet the Calves didn't know what
was going on. The Knicks didn't know what was going on.
And now the thunder. Next thing, you know, somebody's hitting
a jump shot and you're down or you're tied, Like,
how do we get here? We were just up fourteen?
This was what do they say, the indestructible first, what
(04:48):
immovable object? Whatever it is, whatever they say, right, this
was the thunder spurtability against the never say dying ness
of the pacers, like who who was gonna blink first?
Who was gonna bend tonight? It was a thunder because
they tried a couple of different times to do their patting. It. Oh,
it's a five point lead, All of a sudden it's
(05:09):
twenty two, and you know, in two minutes they tried
in Indiana, wouldn't let it happen. And then at the
end of the day they're down one oh eight ninety
nine I believe it was, with under two minutes to go,
and they win the game.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's crazy, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's it's interesting because you're I don't know if you
think about this, but whenever I see the Pacers down ten,
we're down eight with like five minutes left to go,
three minutes left to go, I'm like, well, this is
like exactly where they should be. This is like the
prime prime pacers striking range, no lead. That range doesn't
(05:50):
feel to me uncomfortable. It feels like, oh, well they're down.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And then and then there were multiple.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Times too, Kenny, where okay they cut it to e
cut to six, and it's like, oh, it's back to
eleven again, or it's back to nine again.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Oh that's game, that's game.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
There's so many times where I had counted them out
and put the nail on the coffin that Jalen Williams
dunk transition dunk.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I was like, Oh, that's that's a wrap right there.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Great, great try Pacers, but this was the one that
you should have gotten or could have gotten.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
But doesn't it feel like to you when you see.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Them down nine or down ten with like three minutes
ish to go, that you're kind of like you kind
of believe more than anyone else, more than any other team.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
No, it's one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
It's like this, they're down nine or something like that,
and they're not going out like this. I already know
this is gonna be a one possession game. It was
obviously not a Knicks fan, but I am a Knicks supporter.
Game five it was Game five of the Guard, and
I think it was like a sixteen point game with
(06:54):
like two minutes to go in the third, and I
think it was the Walker hit a three, and I
was like, Oh, here, here we go, Here we go.
Like that's how you feel with watching the Pacers. These
guys are terrifying. So now you've got a situation. You
mentioned it perfectly. They had a game they were probably
supposed to lose tonight. They stole it. They stole it,
(07:15):
just like they did in the Garden. They stole that game,
and that game won completely changed the East. It changed everything.
It changed everything.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Kenny.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I came on your show on Tuesday and I said,
the thunder should win this series. But if the Pacers
win the one or two of the first two in
Oklahoma City, especially if the Oklahoma City goes down oh two,
I'm not sure how any team, let alone this team
mentally recovers from this. And now remember and I think
(07:50):
Jamians said, Jamie said, I don't think anyone. I don't
think I don't think you can. And now when one
game will away from that scenario.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Oh so, well, here's what I was saying to a
lot of people afterwards, but said it just well, we'll
talk through this. Denver stole Game one, stolen like in
kind of the same fashion Oklahoma City missing free throws,
Chap missing free throw. They had no business losing that game.
They hit a shot damn near at the buzzer, win
(08:20):
the game. Denver comes back and does what a championship
championship team is supposed to do. In Game two, that
was a twenty five point game. I think with eleven
fifteen to go in the first quarter. I think it
was up to twenty five at that point. So that
you gotta be on guard for that. You gotta be
on guard for that in this game too. But here's
(08:42):
the thing. Indiana's better than Denver. I know a lot
of people have been like, oh, they're you know, it's
kind of the same, because that was always my thought
right when they said Indiana has no chance, I was like, well,
if Denver can take them to seven, Indiana can take
them to six or seven. And they're like, no, Denver, Dad, yokijo,
that's different. I said, I don't know, guys, I think
Indiana is better than Denver. I think they are, and
(09:05):
I don't think that. Okay, see just gonna walk into
game too and did do what they did to Denver
in Game two to Indiana. I think Indiana gonna be
ready to try and get both of these games. They're
gonna be ready, and.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I think they figured some things out in the second half.
Right if you're down twelve and you have nineteen no,
it was they were at twenty two turnovers with four
minutes left in the third so they had nineteen turnovers
at halftime. That was crazy, which is ridiculous, and they're
(09:38):
only down twelve.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Then they come back in the third quarter, had.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Three turnovers only in the third quarter, I think only
three points off of those turnovers, and they start to
find their rhythm, the pressure, they start to figure out
how to stop what Dort and Case and Wallace were
trying to do stunting and trapping, and then they figure out, Okay, well,
if we can get past that first line of defenders,
(10:05):
we can actually like we can actually just go dump
right into Miles Turner and no foul us. We can
literally just right on top. It felt to me like
there were some problems that they solved that they didn't
have the answers to in the first half. And I wonder,
in your opinion, whether you think that'll carry over and
(10:26):
those are some things that they've sort of solved against
the Thunders defense.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
It kind of feels like it.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I was on my way to do the postgame show
for the local news out here and no lot trust.
I'm driving in the car and I'm like, all right,
we're gonna talk about Okay, see they got Game one.
The defense was just nasty in that first quarter, even
or sue me, in the first half, even in the
third quarter.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I was like, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Sitting there at TK and I'm saying, I think I
might have to like think about this deep historically, like
is this one of the great defenses I've ever seen
in my forty years of watching basketball. That's how good
they were. Then I get in there and watch the
fourth quarter, and like you said, feels like Indiana figured
out this, figured out that if we do this, we
(11:16):
can do this, if we just get past at this
angle and move the ball this way.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
They started to figure out.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Some things, and I do think it's transferable from the
next game and for the rest of the series. Indiana
as great as Okac's defenses, you know, I'm a offensive guy.
They've got they I'm not gonna say they got too
many weapons where okay, so can't do anything about it.
But I don't see them shutting down Indiana. I just
don't the Pacers. They shoot the ball too well, they're
(11:44):
too relentless, they got too many options. Halliburton and Siautcom
didn't even go crazy today, Like they didn't even play
that well offensively.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You know, either one or both of.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Them nineteen for four for hal.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
You know, either one or both of them got a
thirty point game coming at least once, maybe even twice
in this series. So I think I think Indiana it's
gonna be It's not gonna be easy. Like they're gonna
have to be on their game because, Okay, see just
because of this one quarter, I'm not gonna change offield.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
This is one of the great defensive teams I've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
But Indiana probably has the belief now that, oh, if
we just stick to this game plan and take care
of the basketball, we can score like we have any
other time in the last two years.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Basically like they have that belief.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, And I thought what was interesting too is you
had Miles Turner with fifteen.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
He didn't have a great game.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So the primary guys that you want to go crazy
had awful games. Well Siakman, Okay, game nineteen Halliburton was
atrocious until that last shot. Miles Turner had a great
fourth quarter, but he was on a milk court cart
and I think he had seven points by the third quarter.
(12:58):
Was very pedestrian, not very aggressive, just felt like he
was flailing. They just but then you look at what
they did get big minutes at a Ben Mathern, big
minutes at a Obi Topping, five threes for Obi Topping.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
You know, did you did.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You turned into damn dell Ellis out there? What the
all happened there?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Did you see that Andrew Nemhard, uh step back.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Off the dribble, the one to cut it to three, the.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
One that cut its three, and then you had multiple
situations where okay, now Nemhard, I mean a Nie Smith
gets blocked airballs whatever it is, and then it turns
into the Pascal Siakam put back that the role players
figured out a way to contribute huge in a way
that almost none of the OKC Thunders role players did.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Na It's one of the things that we're seeing from
the Spacers team in these playoffs is it feels like
every everybody is just playing perfect basketball. Anybody they put
out there, from Nei Smith to nim Hart to Shepherd
to Thomas Bryant, it doesn't matter. Like when they get
in there, who was the guy? Come on, TK, you know,
(14:13):
I watch who was Who was the dude that that
I think he got hurt Bradley? Who the hell is that?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I don't I don't even know that. Who was he?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And he out here playing?
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Yeah, you're playing great minutes in the playoffs like it's
they got they got a clicker right now?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Now?
Speaker 4 (14:31):
You know something else that I saw that I was like,
all right, man, all right, they might need to start
printing the T shirts right now, getting the hats Indianapolis.
I don't even know a street down there, but they
always talk about a steakhouse. Get the parade next to
whatever steakhouse is down there. Tyrese Haliburton, like you said,
was not good in this game. You watch a lot
of hoop TK, you watch a lot of Tyreese Haliburton.
(14:53):
I watched him here in Sacramento for a year and
a half and studied his moves. It was like, Okay,
how good is he gonna be? Have you ever seeing
him go right and pull up for a jump shot
going to the right.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
And with the game on the line.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I was done by it. I was done by I
just got off of.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The Metal Arc Dan Levatard's Network podcast Alua, Yeah, yeah,
I was talking to.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Me al Hassen about this and Juju.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Doesn't it doesn't it feel like doesn't it feel a
little reminiscent of Damian Lillard and his and his last
second shot where you're like, yo.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
There's no time left. What are you baby? What are
you doing?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And he's kind of just casually like this six seconds,
just four seconds, and it's like this.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Is a horrible spot. This isn't even your spot. You
got too maybe you've got Casey Wallace and he got
Dort coming up.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And he just puts his foot into the ground right
and raises up in a spot I've never seen him
shoot from in my life.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
No, not for going to the right.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Now.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
I'm sitting there saying the same thing like, well, I
don't know what you're gonna do. The ball's on your
right hand, you're going to your right. We know you
can't shoot that way. How are you gonna get this
shot off? And he just and also I'm a big
no timeout guy. I'm a big no timeout guy. Shout
out to Rick Carloisle. I'm a big no timeout guy.
In that situation, you know who you want to have
the ball, get the ball in their hands, let him
make the decision.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Great job.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
But I saw that, and I saw him like I said,
go to the right and pull up on a dime.
This guy, this guy has He hasn't done that in
the NBA. He hasn't done that in AAU, he hasn't
done that working out with Drew Hanlin. He hasn't done
that on two k and in Game one of the
NBA Finals with the game on the line, he goes
(16:45):
to the right and cash us out. Salute to Tyrese
haliberg Man salute.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I think we are looking at a I don't want
to talk about ty too much, but we are looking
at a sort of revolution in his image before.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Our very eyes.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Because this is the time we talk about what we
want from players, how we evaluate players, and Shay is
the most consistent score I've seen.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
In a long time. Just thirty thirty thirty five casually.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
He has now a streak of two different five game
streaks of thirty or more this postseason. Just this postseason ridiculous.
I think at one bad game, this is insane. But
how we judge Sga is going to be somewhat off
of that shot that he missed against the Pacers, And
(17:41):
now Halle is the exact opposite. I can get thirty
from Halle, I can get six from Halle.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I can give five assists from Halle. I get twenty
assists from Halle.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But when the lights are the brightest and the game
is on the line, and he doesn't have a time
out or where he needs to miss a free throw
on purpose and pretend to cut into the lane, and go.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
All the way backwards and shoot the three to win.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
He is I've never seen anything quite as effective.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It's almost Tom Brady esque.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
It's almost Patrick mahomes esk where you're like, when he
has the ball in his hands with ten seconds left,
I'm more afraid of him than any other moment and
any other time. And then you top it off by saying,
and this is a move he's just never done in
his life.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That never never done.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
You know what it is, Tk's it's Dame like, it's
Steph like. Like we're talking about two of the most
clutch players the game has ever seen. And that's the
feeling that you get with Zarry's Alliburton. Right now, he
has the ball in his hands, and like you said,
it doesn't matter what happened the first forty seven minutes
of the game, it doesn't matter. When he has the
(18:52):
ball in his hands in crunch time, you think number one,
he's always gonna make the right decision and if he
shoots it, it's always going to go in. That's just
how you feel right now. That's it's it's amazing to see,
to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
For you, it's funny. I'm looking at this before I
go to this next question. My note said, wildly entertaining
for a blowout. That was one of my That was
one of of the things that were in my notes,
wildly entertaining for a blowout.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Boy, oh boy.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
And then it was okie topping, Wow, four threes, okie
top and wow five.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Come on, man, this guy turned into damn page of
Stoyakovic out of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I said, what's going on here, Shane?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Not in the fourth quarter until like seven minutes to go.
That was a mistake. That was a very bad mistake.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
And let me tell you before SGA took that final
shot or whatever. I don't mean to be like this.
He's still a young fellow. I don't want to go crazy.
But when Jalen Williams got that ball, when the SGA
had it, then he kicked it over to Jalen Williams,
I said, oh no, that's that's not it like, that's
that is not he had the ball. He hadn't even
made his move. I said, this box out, Indiana, this
(20:06):
one's coming off.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, yeah, this is not yep, you better get the ball,
and they did. For Game two.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Let's just talk about what you saw in terms of
what the Pacers were able to do and execute they
got them to win, or what you just in general
saw that Okac was trying to do out there and
what the Pacers were trying to do the counter because
it did feel a lot like it was on Okayc's terms,
like what did you see that you thought worked for
Indiana and what do you think.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Did not work well for me?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I didn't see much that didn't work. I was a
real in that first half. This is gonna sound crazy.
I didn't think Indiana played terrible. I just thought they
turned the ball over way too much, which is part
of playing terrible.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I get it. And they got beat up on the boards.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
And I looked at that situation much like you did,
probably like how Rick Carlisle did. I was like, man,
this should be going into the half, this should be
a twenty seven point lead, but you know what, only
it's only twelve.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Like we've played probably our worst offensive.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Half of basketball in the last fifty games.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
We're down twelve.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Number one, If we just take care of the basketball,
that'll help out a lot of stuff. But also we
got to get physical on the boards. They did both
of those things, and it allowed them number one to
stick around and then when the time was right, they
were able to strike and make their run. I think
that's just gonna be the bear basics of what they
look at for Game two.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Take care of the basketball. Be strong with the rock.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You're playing an OKC team that is phenomenal defensively. If
you're soft with it, they gonna take it. So be
strong with the rock like you did in that second half.
And if you incorporate that, now we're gonna be able
to get up and down the way we like. To
get some more stops on the low. I saw something.
This is actually like kind of impressive, especially considering it
didn't feel this way. I think I saw this right.
(22:00):
He shot thirty nine percent.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
From the field.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Like Indiana's defense kind of settled in and started to
make things difficult for them, which I think also helped
their offense.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Like being able to get stopped. It's it's tough to
get out and run.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
They do their best, but it's tough to get out
and run when you're taking the ball out of the net.
So starting to get those stops in the second half
and then getting getting that offensive, that offensive engine going,
I think that's something they're gonna look to do from
the tip. They're gonna come out that I can tell
you right now. We ain't gonna have to worry about
them feeling satisfied with one win. They're going to try
(22:32):
to get two wins. That's what they've done all postseason.
First two games. We're trying to get two wins. They
gonna come out ready to go.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And they have gotten two wins in the first two games.
In every single series, they're.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Zero in three in game threes, they're like twelve and
oho in every other game.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Or something like that. It's crazy. I thought twelve and one.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
In terms of the physicality, I don't know if you
remember that Andrew nemhard to the rack where he kind
of like he kind of grappled the ball. They tried
to take it away. It almost looked like it was
a jump ball. He gets through it, kind of bodies
passed and one and the broadcaster said, listen, that's the
type of basketball you have to play against the thunder.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
You can't think about the whistle.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You have to play physical, take the ball to the
rack like it's football. And that's what I think the
Pacers did so well in the second half is they
were not anticipated in getting a goddamn foul call.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
They barely got them at all.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Sometimes they were getting slapped two, three, four times and
then finally getting the foul call. So they need to
play through contact much better than they did in the
first half, and I think they clean that up.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
You're right, turnovers were a big issue.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
But another thing that they just need to do is
they need to they need to just hit open threes.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
They're gonna get a lot of open threes.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
And they are one of the best three point shooting
teams in all of the NBA and even better in
the postseason. And you wonder who's gonna come back down
to Earth, and it feels like Nie Smith hasn't really
come back to earth.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
He had a timely three I will be topping and
come back down to Earth.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So if they do all those three things, I mean,
we could easily be We could easily see a seven
game series.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And I think turnovers probably sure the biggest one. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
I think matther And will play well at some point
in this series as well.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
He didn't had.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Two blocks yeah well yeah, yeah, back up, had that
one block that ended up in a bucket, went straight up,
and that was when they were trying to make their run,
and then he got super physical, went to the rack
and had.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Two free throws.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So he was actually in the short amount of time
he was in the game, he was a net positive,
even more.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
So than I think even a TJ. McConnell.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
You know, I'm gonna give an old ass analogy right
now because I'm turning into an old ass man. So
I apologize to the younger listeners. Go go look on
YouTube and check this out. But I heard this on
my way home, and it actually works. This game was
kind of like Mike Tyson Buster Douglas. Mike Tyson ran through.
(25:03):
Everybody was going up against a Buster Douglas. And what
people with some people forget from that fight is Tyson
knocked Buster Douglas down. I think the round before he
got knocked out, he gave him a nasty uppercut, knocked
him down, and as tough as that fight was, it
was like, oh, okay, this is what we're normally gonna get.
(25:24):
And Buster Douglas got up. He got up, And I
think about that with OKC and what they normally do
in those third quarters and they start running away and
you talk about Jalen Williams's dunk breakaway got him at
the time, I think the biggest lead in the game fourteen,
and it was that was the uppercut, that was the
Tyson uppercut. Like, this is what we do. We about
to run away and Indiana got up. They got up
(25:48):
and they got in positioned to do what they do.
And man, it's gonna be interesting to see how OKAC
responds to this because, like we talked about earlier, Indiana's
not Denver. I don't I don't expect Okay see to
just beat them up from the tip in game two.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Indiana gonna be ready to go, and we're gonna see,
We're gonna see.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
What you talk about them lights with Tyrese Haliburton, it's
them lights with Oka. See right now, Man, you got
a lot of pressure because everybody handed you the championship
going into this series. What's it gonna look like if
you're down five in the third quarter of Game two
looking facing a.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
O two mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
That's a great analogy. It's a great analogy. You're right,
it's it's now the balance of pressure has shifted over.
And you're also right that That's what the Pacers do.
They just continue to fight. They continue, uh, they continue
to just no lead is ever safe with them. Shay
had three steals, Door had four steals.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Real quick.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
What'd you think about, Chef? I thought Shaye was fantastic tonight.
It's it's gonna get lost in the fact that they
lost the game. But I thought he was fantastic. Thirty
eight points, he hit damn near every big shot they
needed to. Damn sucks for him.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I know.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I had Shaye to score forty, Pascal to score twenty,
and Miles Turner to score fifteen. Ten to one, Pascal
Siaka missed that free throw and he had nineteen, and
Shane missed the last game field goal of the game.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
So was this live or was this before the game?
Speaker 1 (27:27):
This is before the game.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So my breakdown was what Yeah, So my breakdown was this,
I don't think they're collapsing on Shae. I think they're
going to allow Shaye to do what he does, just
like they did with Jalen Brunson, just like they did
with Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell averaged thirty three points per
game when he had more than twenty minutes in that series.
Against Indiana in the second round and then Jayalen Brunson
(27:51):
was going crazy as well. So I thought, okay, they'll
let Shade do what he does. And then I thought
Miles Turner would have a bunch of easy fos like
rolling that maybe lou Dor comes with them, and it's like,
let's test Miles Turner and see what he's got, and
I thought he would have something, and boy it was
scary because he had like seven points with the third quarter.
(28:12):
And then I thought Maybeam would be more of a
of a creator.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
He just really wasn't that aggressive.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I'm curious though, why you think Siakam wasn't as effective
and how do you think he ends up bouncing back
because he just seemed a little bit more passive than
we were used to in last series.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Was it a match up thing for you?
Speaker 4 (28:33):
I think it was a matchup situation. I also, I'm
not trying to disrespect Siaka. This guy's tough as they come.
But okay, see physical, okay, see it's real physical. And
then sometimes depending on the lineup that they had in
maybe he had to deal with Chet and that's a different,
you know, different level of size that you got to
deal with. Pascal maybe isn't necessarily comfortable with, so it
(28:54):
was it was a bunch of different things. And then
I think maybe it took him about a half or
so to get used to just to get used to
the setting, the physicality. I know he's been in the
finals before, but uh, you know, it's a fill out
it's a fill out round, It's a fill out game sometimes.
And I thought maybe in that first half, Pascal Siaka
more than anybody, maybe him and Tyreese used that first
(29:16):
half as a as a fill out round to kind
of figure out what they wanted to do with Oka See,
and he picked it up a little bit more in
that second half, and I think that'll continue in this
game too.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
The one thing that I'll say before you know we
wrap is I thought there were multiple instances that Indiana
had opportunities to go up, or to tie, or to
cut these cut the lead like in the next series,
only in the next series they had to capitalize on
(29:48):
every single one. And there was actually wiggle room with
this Indiana with this okay See game, like the Pascal
Siakam loose ball where we thought maybe he was fouled
by case Wallace, the misfree throws, the Aaron Smith airball
that ended up turning into a put back. The Tyrese
(30:09):
Halliburton running into the lane open layup it looked like
but to the kickout for a miss.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
That's five opportunities. The Indian Smith.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
A Nise Smith attacking to lou Dort get the shot block.
He could Yeah, he could have just pulled up. He
could have had the three.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
So that's that's six times.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That just shows you that Indiana has a gear that
I don't know if OKAC has seen yet that they
probably have to have been pretty shook by, because if
you look at the tape, it wasn't like they got lucky,
and it's not like they got every break.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
No, no, Look, nobody in the league plays like the
Indiana Pacers. Nobody, and nobody has the combination of tempo
and depth that they have.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
They got. I'm sure if.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
We we really counted, like you can get to like
eleven twelve guys like oh yeah, I've seen him have
like big moments in play, and you don't know who
it's gonna be on any given night. It's been said
a number of different times, but they are the true
definition of a team with the way they don't rely
on one specific guy every single night. And that's something
where Oka See they've got the depth to do it.
(31:23):
But typically they probably go into these games like, all right,
there's about two or three guys that we need to
look out for. We're gonna put Caruso on them, or
Dort or Sgao start doing it, or Wallas will start
doing some stuff, or Jalen like, it's cool, we got
enough guy. They don't have five guys. They got three guys,
(31:44):
and we'll worry about that. Indianda got five guys at
all times on the floor that they got to worry about.
And I'm not saying okay See doesn't have the personnel
to handle that, but it's probably different than what they've seen.
They didn't have to deal with that against Denver. They
didn't have to deal with that with Rudy Gobert on
the floor. Against Minnesota. They definitely didn't have to deal
with that against Memphis. Uh, this is something they haven't
(32:05):
seen in these playoffs yet.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
No, it really is.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And shout out to Andrew Nemhart for being as tough
and facilitating and taking the pressure off of Tyrese Haliburton.
I think you're gonna see Andrew Nemhart as the primary
ball handler for this series, just to one maybe take
a little bit of like mileage and load and physicality
off of Tyrese, but also allow him to expend some
(32:31):
energy on defense. Because our boy was food right that
they were targeting him, and he could tell they were
putting him in every pick and roll and it was like,
the only game plan is just attack Tyrese.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Mm hmmmm.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
And they that's why we're Carlo is one of the
greatest coaches in the game right now. Because he made that,
he made an in game adjustment. I thought with that,
you know what I mean, getting him hard out there
so he'll be ready for that in game two. And
like you mentioned, Tyrese, well, you know, can serve a
little bit of energy out there, so he can he
can get ready to defend, he can get ready to
(33:03):
step up and be able to deal with whatever. Okay,
So he's bringing on the offensive, and man, I'm.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Excited about that.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I mean, I was already excited about the series going
into it, but after what we saw in game one,
now the stakes are high. Like there's there's drama, there's
tension going into Game two right now, man, So I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
And for the ratings police, I guarantee you this Game
one has stepped up the intrigue.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
We got people that don't even watch basketball watch these Pacers.
How can you not love what they're doing?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
And for two small market teams, this is I think
gonna be one of the greatest finals I've seen in
a decade or so.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I can believe that it's about to be turned up
in Indianapolis. I always make my jokes about Indianapolis. It's like,
why would I ever go there? Why would I ever
go to anything? Why do they always put things in
Indianapolis to combine the Final four? Like why why it's Indianapolis?
Why do I want to go there? But I know
a couple of people out there, and you see a
mic Apps out there, It's gonna be turned up. It's
gonna be turned Indianapolis is not okay. See you know
(34:05):
how I feel about Okay. See it looks a little
un boring, but Indianapolis ain't that. And any app it's
gonna be turned up. I can't wait to see that setting.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Kenny Caraway, thanks for joining on a on a night
after you've done double triple time putting the hour for
local news.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Let's do it again soon.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
My brother anytime TK you know I got you girl.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
All right, I'll talk to you soon. That's all the
time that we have for this episode of the Heat Check.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Come back Tuesday for an all new episode, and check
out the feed for past episodes and occasional mini episodes
which comes at unexpectedly like a bass hit on an
intentional walk pitch sad for our girl, Nie Kennedy.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Also Texas techt is to win for game two.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You know I forget to follow the Heat Check all
playoffs long the means download Subscribe me to your friends,
all of them, even the ones you haven't talked to
in hears.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Follow us on TikTok at at this heat checking on
yours to Crik on Twitter, Instagram.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Madreads met his new social media platform where I post
every day
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