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Shai Goes OFF to Take Game 4 - Playoff Discussion · Bring The Thunder Podcast

0:02
Welcome to bring the Thunder podcast.
0:05
We are live here with Joe and Jack Thunder coverage Thunder
0:09
talks that we are here and we just witnessed a master class.
0:13
But before we get into that, we just won 1:11 to 1:04 in a most
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crucial moment must win game. To be honest, we could not go
0:23
down three one in this Indiana was leading 21 in the series.
0:27
We battled back late, Shea Heroics really saved us.
0:32
We got Landon even joining us tonight.
0:33
Let's go, man. We got the full crew almost.
0:37
This was a big game. I'm going to go through some of
0:39
these stat lines before we start kicking off some takes here.
0:41
J Dub up with 27 points, seven boards.
0:45
Chat with 14 huge points, 15 rebounds, amazing for us.
0:49
Heart and sign 2 points -7 in this one, we'll talk about that.
0:53
Lou Dort, 6 points big on the defensive end.
0:56
Hey, Gilge, it's Alexander. When we needed him most, just
1:00
like Batman, 35 points, made all his free throws, but 10 for 10
1:05
on that shot, 50% from the field.
1:08
He did it all, man. He carried us at the end there.
1:10
We'll talk about that, of course.
1:12
Alex Caruso. What do you call Alex?
1:14
Alex Caruso, Joe. Yeah, man.
1:18
He's the dad of the group and he's, yeah, Crucio showed up for
1:23
us, man. Championship level player, 20
1:26
points. He shows up every time.
1:28
Every time I feel like the Thunder don't have enough, He
1:32
becomes two players as one player, man, he's been amazing
1:35
for us. Wiggins one point, Aston 2.
1:40
Joe only had 0. Kenridge had four in this one.
1:43
Let's talk about the Pacers real quick.
1:45
Siakam with 20 I think. You.
1:47
I think you might have forgot about one person.
1:49
Who did I forget about? Shay.
1:53
Yeah, I said Shay. Shay with 35.
1:55
Oh, I thought I didn't hear it. My bad.
1:57
My bad, it may have cut out Shay with a big 35 and going over to
2:02
the Pacers. Naismith with eight, Siakam with
2:06
20. Monster under 12, Neymar 10.
2:09
Tyrese Halliburton had 18 points, 7 assists, but we
2:12
limited him on the rebounds. He only had two rebounds, which
2:15
is huge for us. OB topping big 17 points again,
2:18
but he was not that good on the defensive end.
2:20
TJ McConnell eight points limited his steals this time
2:24
around, math and only eight points.
2:26
All right, let's go ahead and talk about some analysis.
2:29
I'll let Joe kick it off because I know he's got a, you know,
2:32
maybe hop off after a little bit, so go ahead.
2:34
Yeah, yeah, flu game real quick, but just got to give it up for
2:39
Caruso and J Dub and Chet really.
2:42
And then obviously Shay closing the game, but Caruso kept us
2:45
afloat the 1st 2 1/2 quarters and then J Dub in that end of
2:51
the third, kind of like beginning of the 4th.
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Super aggressive, super confident, even though a shot
2:57
still isn't falling from 311 free throws tonight and he made
3:01
all 11 is outstanding. And then with Caruso, I mean he
3:05
shot 7 free throws tonight, made five of them.
3:08
Those are two guys that need to get to the line for us and, and
3:12
they did tonight. It's not easy shooting on the
3:14
road. So the easiest way to score is
3:16
layups and free throws and I think they did a very good job
3:18
at that. And then just on the defensive
3:21
side of the ball, I mean, forcing Halliburton into 5
3:24
turnovers, Lou was a menace, Caruso was a menace.
3:28
They had 15 turnovers overall. And we're kind of blessed to win
3:33
this game. We've clutched up in clutch
3:35
time, which was the first time this series and something that
3:39
Indiana's not used to much at all.
3:41
I mean, we won the fourth quarter by 14 points, entered it
3:45
losing by 7, and then won at 31 to 17.
3:49
So we kind of pulled the Indiana in Indiana.
3:51
We had no right winning this game, yet we still won it.
3:54
We did our job the same way Indiana did theirs.
3:56
And now we're going back to OK C tied to 2 and it's a whole new
3:59
series. I agree, man.
4:06
This was whole new series. The series just flipped back to
4:10
us. I feel like now we have
4:11
momentum. That's what we're talking about
4:13
in our preview before this. And how are you guys feeling
4:17
about the energy right now, Jack Landon, what's the energy doing
4:20
like now? We're winning game five, I have
4:22
no doubt like. Why do you say that?
4:26
'Cause we're not shooting that bad from three again.
4:28
There's no way I wonder if a team shot that bad from three
4:32
and won a finals game before outside of like the 1980s.
4:37
Yeah, 3 threes. 3 threes tonight.
4:39
Only for the boys. We shot 17% from the three-point
4:42
line. Everything was even in this one.
4:45
The only thing that wasn't was the fact that we won this game
4:49
in the clutch. But when I'm looking at the
4:51
stats equal on the rebounds, the only place they beat us is on
4:56
the assist battle. They had doubled the amount of
4:58
assists as OKC as a team. I've been mentioning this, it's
5:01
going to be really hard to win games when the other team is
5:03
play making more than your own team.
5:06
And we kind of adjusted with that with having J Dub being a
5:09
primary ball handler early on. Shay become an off ball guard
5:13
where he doesn't have to work as hard, you know, pushing the ball
5:16
up the court as much. And then on top of that, Crusoe
5:19
huge on the ball handling in the fourth quarter especially.
5:22
We need someone else other than J Dub.
5:23
He was getting a little bit tired as well.
5:25
That's the part about the Pacers.
5:26
They're just going to, you know, keep full court pressing you
5:29
until your primary guy gets tired.
5:31
And I think we've found a solution that can work for us
5:34
that's sustainable for the next two out of three games at home
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that we can definitely win. Maybe even, you know, in Indiana
5:42
again, considering the way we went tonight.
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Yeah, I was. I was so shocked how much
5:49
Halliburton faded in the clutch. I mean, I expected maybe him to
5:53
miss some shots, but I expected him to hit a few too.
5:56
But he kind of just hit a fade. I mean, Chad was switched up.
6:01
Chad was switched on to him a lot on defense, but Chad was
6:03
holding his own even on a rolled ankle.
6:06
Super ankle twice, rolled ankle twice in the same game and he
6:10
banged his shin right before that.
6:13
OK, C is now 6 and O coming off loss in these playoffs and they
6:17
are the number one team all time were 18 and two off a loss this
6:21
whole season. The best team after a loss ever.
6:26
And before I go, 'cause I'm I'm going to have to go, but I just
6:29
want to give a huge shout out to you guys and huge shout out to
6:33
Chet. Like Landon said, switching on
6:38
the Halliburton, doing his best, rolling his ankle twice, saying,
6:43
Nah, I'm going to just get up and keep playing because you
6:45
know, that shit hurts. It's going to hurt.
6:46
It's going to be sore the rest of this series.
6:49
And another shout out to Shay for his leadership staying
6:52
composed. Didn't have his game tonight and
6:54
then all of a sudden he did. And we had three threes as a
6:57
team tonight. One of them was Shay in the
6:59
clutch in the fourth quarter to bring the game to one point.
7:01
So that's just my spiel, but I'll see you guys later.
7:04
Thunder up, Hopefully I'm back to full health and then whenever
7:08
the next game is in a couple days.
7:10
But enjoy everybody, have a good night.
7:13
Yeah, get well, Joe. Thanks, Joe.
7:15
We'll we'll be back here Monday post game live.
7:18
Of course, man. This is this is a hard fought
7:23
victory. Go ahead, Jack.
7:25
Well, for me, we didn't play our game until the final 5 minutes
7:30
of of the fourth quarter. Obviously we were just, I mean,
7:35
whatever one from however many from three, which is ISO every
7:39
time down the floor, just falling for exactly what the
7:42
Pacers wanted, wanted us to do. And then in the final 5 minutes,
7:45
I think Shet sparked the run. Or.
7:47
Sparked the momentum and we just took over from there and we're
7:51
playing like, OK, see, you know, the team that we all love, the
7:55
team we watch. And we weren't, we weren't there
7:58
for the 1st 3/4 of the whole game.
8:02
And it was so good to see. But Alex Cruz really held it
8:04
down until that, until that happened.
8:07
But. Yeah, I don't know how I feel
8:11
going into the next game because we didn't play our best.
8:14
Well, no, we we played like shit this game, but we still won.
8:19
But then it's it's about if we can play how we know we can
8:22
play, then it's over. But it's incredible that we've
8:27
won this game. I think ESPN was, I think ESPN
8:32
was even shocked at the minutes Kendrick Kinrich Williams was
8:35
getting in the fourth quarter because they were like valuable
8:37
minutes here for Kinrich Williams.
8:39
But he wasn't doing anything too flashy, like too crazy, just
8:43
like the typical Kinrich Williams stuff.
8:45
But he was like kind of the perfect connector piece, just
8:47
keeping the ball moving, bringing the pressure on
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defense. So I I don't mind what he did.
8:52
I think that was actually a good decision by Mark Bagnall to play
8:55
in. Yeah, I actually like the
8:58
addition of Kenner T I noticed that, you know, some of the
9:02
younger guys weren't stepping up in this game.
9:04
That's the main thing I noticed was in a crucial clutch moment
9:09
when we need guys to pretty much be calm and steady, you got to
9:14
put the calm and steady guys in the game.
9:16
And that's kind of the lineup that he went with with Kenridge,
9:19
Crusoe, Lou Dort. These are all guys that have
9:22
been in the play offs, Shay and obviously Jadem and Chet last
9:26
season. So it's like they they kind of
9:28
have been here done that. So I I feel like that was the
9:32
right move from Mark to go with the kind of guys that can live
9:37
up for the moment. And I thought that was a well
9:40
needed change for this. But overall Mark did a great,
9:42
great job. He inserted some zone in this
9:44
one. He tried, he tried a lot of
9:45
different, you know, experimentation type of looks to
9:48
see what would work for the next game.
9:50
I think the biggest change he made was Jada ball handling
9:53
early in the first half. That really just freed up Shay
9:57
for the second-half. You didn't see him as tired as
9:59
he was or as exhausted, and we need to keep that up.
10:02
Different ball handlers need to take the responsibility.
10:05
I think the next step for us is figuring out our assists.
10:08
But assists don't come until we make some shots as well.
10:11
So it's kind of hand in hand. If we can hit a couple more
10:15
shots, we can get a couple more assists and, you know, get that
10:18
battle a little bit closer. And also the past two games.
10:21
This Indiana defense is for real, man, they're turning us
10:24
over. Last game we had quite amount, I
10:27
believe maybe 18 turnovers. This game we're at 13 turnovers.
10:31
Kind of ridiculous how this team is usually a non turnover team.
10:37
And I guess that's another reason where Shay's off of the
10:40
primary ball handling. So I can understand, you know, J
10:43
dub getting a couple, but as they kind of, you know, lean in
10:46
with J Dub, he'll get better at, you know, protecting the rock.
10:49
And I think I think we figured something out here tonight, So
10:52
I'm happy about it. At least we came away with
10:54
something, you know, won a close game that honestly could have
10:57
gone either way. And maybe even some Thunder fans
11:01
feel like we didn't even deserve to win, but we won it in the
11:03
clutch. And that's how Indiana probably
11:06
feels about last game, like they were more clutch than us in the
11:09
moment that really mattered. So.
11:12
Oh, those passes were scaring me at the end.
11:15
Dude, we were making some careless passes.
11:17
I was like, they're going to take some of those and take them
11:19
to the rim and score. I was getting scared that they
11:21
were going to close out the game strong and make it a close game
11:24
with like 10 seconds left. But that that was through the
11:28
whole game inbound, it was terrible.
11:31
So many turnovers off inbounds so.
11:33
I think we need to figure out like we need to designate
11:38
whoever the best passer is on the court to realize like that
11:41
person has to go. You can let the ball bounce a
11:44
couple times. You can take your time, get to
11:46
the referee and then put your best inbounder in most
11:49
situations that you can. I think, you know, not having a
11:53
secondary ball handler in most cases, not like someone like
11:57
that's a primary point guard, just like Shay is in this game
12:01
for us, we didn't really play anyone else that their primary
12:04
position is point guard other than maybe Cason, Wallace and
12:08
Crusoe if they're inbound inbounding and but they've been
12:11
horrible on inbounds. So maybe you know, having some
12:14
more size like I, I don't mind when Hartenstein's out there if
12:17
he can hit inbound 'cause he's a great passer.
12:20
I don't mind honestly, if checking do the inbounds 'cause
12:22
he's a little bit taller. You can see over the defense.
12:24
The problem is when you have Cason or even Caruso and they
12:27
put OB Topping on the line to stop the inbounds.
12:30
It's hard to see. Yeah, it's hard to see over like
12:33
what the defense is, you know, what type of full court press
12:37
they're in 'cause you can. There's a lot of different types
12:40
of full court press that you can be in.
12:41
So they switched it up a lot. And you know, honestly, hats off
12:45
to this Indiana team. I predicted this for us to go,
12:48
you know, for us to win in six. Obviously now I'm predicting us
12:51
to win in seven. With the way this series has
12:54
gone up until this point, it's been a back and forth affair.
12:56
Man, hats off to these guys. These this is Indiana basketball
12:59
and this is Thunder basketball. Small, small markets.
13:02
This is the best and most beautiful type of basketball
13:05
that we could honestly hope for as fans.
13:08
Yeah, I I definitely underestimated how good a guy
13:10
like OB Topping and Aaron Naismith, Matheran, I really
13:16
underestimated how much those guys would step up to the plate
13:18
in the finals. Especially Matheran last game,
13:23
man, that was crazy. Like his one-on-one scoring.
13:26
I didn't know. I didn't know he was that good
13:28
one you. Didn't know about Matheran.
13:30
I I knew he's a great one-on-one score.
13:32
He's been that in the regular season.
13:33
He's always spark plugged. Yeah, I knew he had the ability,
13:36
but I didn't think he would be able to do it against the A
13:38
defense like the Thunders. That's top tier.
13:41
I knew you'd have one good game, but I think the thing that's
13:46
biting us in the butt right now is that big shot that
13:48
Halliburton hit in game one where we should have won that
13:51
game and that's coming back to haunt us a little bit, but now
13:55
that we got this all tied up. Man, would it be nice to be up
13:58
three one right now. Yeah, man, honestly with the way
14:02
the this game went, I feel like it's all evened up.
14:05
All the quarters are even. We can't say Thunder have won
14:07
more quarters or you know, they've won more quarters.
14:10
I feel like it's all evened up overall.
14:13
They they really controlled the most of this game.
14:15
We controlled most of Game 1 and I feel like that's the evening
14:19
part. And then we blew them out in
14:20
Game 2 and then they out clutched this last game.
14:23
So it's it's, it's right there. It's tit for tat pretty much
14:27
man. Feels like the whole thing.
14:29
Is being within 10 points, like either we're trailing or we're
14:32
up 10. Never really see their big lead.
14:36
And as long as the Pacers are playing, you know, 10 points is
14:39
not much. I'm going.
14:41
I feel like the I feel like the 111 to close out the Serie
14:45
really works to our benefit because I have to come to
14:47
Oklahoma City, back to Indiana and then turn around.
14:50
If it was to go to a Game 7 and come right back to Oklahoma
14:54
City, that's tough. It is tough, but I think the one
14:57
benefit that they get is one of these games were kind of back
15:01
and forth in the style they want is us to get more tired.
15:03
That's why we took two practices off before this game.
15:07
Shay was way more rested. The team overall felt less flat
15:10
than the last game. We felt.
15:12
I felt like as soon as the game started, I was like, I don't
15:14
know if I don't think we're going to win this because the
15:16
way that we came out and started off and that's usually a
15:19
telltale sign of, you know, maybe fatigue or something like
15:22
that. And all the guys seemed tired by
15:23
the end of it. They were all up to their knees.
15:25
This game. We didn't take any, you know,
15:29
practice time ahead of this. We just fully rested up, got as
15:32
much sleep as possible it felt like and they were ready to rock
15:36
this time around. So tough game man.
15:39
Do you guys want me to pull up some stats and look at?
15:42
Skype, yeah. All right, I've been I've been
15:46
doing this on the other lives, but we can pull this up real
15:53
quick. I was looking at this, so this
15:55
is what I was talking about, where pretty much an even game
15:57
overall they shot a little bit better than us.
15:59
That kept them in the game for the most part.
16:01
Everything was even except for the assist battle.
16:03
And that's been the case for three out of four games in this
16:06
series. And the one game where we won
16:08
the assist battle is the one game where we won by wide
16:13
margin. It's not about just making your
16:14
shots. It's not just playing in
16:16
isolation and even in this game we won in isolation.
16:19
I really don't feel comfortable with that type of basketball so
16:22
I hope they fixed that when they go home.
16:24
Totally agree. Let's look at this real quick.
16:27
What do you guys think about this down here?
16:30
Points in the paint? Second chance opportunities fast
16:33
break. Points Pretty shocked about the
16:34
second chance opportunities, but then again when you miss that
16:37
many threes it's pretty easy to get a second chance.
16:42
They had 14 less points in the paint than us, but I think 36
16:45
points in the paint is actually more points in the paint than
16:48
they've been scoring usual usually.
16:51
Yeah, it's a little bit more, but 50 points in the paint,
16:54
we've been winning the paint battle.
16:55
I feel like that's where we need to continue to be aggressive,
16:58
continue. J Dub.
16:59
I feel like he has made that change since the Denver series
17:02
after everyone got on him for his bad game.
17:05
And since then he's been living in the paint.
17:07
Man, we need that from him. Shay and Chet, they can't
17:11
settle. The 50 paint points is really
17:13
what's keeping us in it. On top of that second chance
17:16
points. I thought like, like I said, we
17:17
didn't come out flat in this one.
17:19
We got King Capers also joining us here.
17:22
Welcome in, bro. Hold on.
17:23
No hold. On Let Me Have the Floor,
17:25
fellas. Hold on bro, we're we're in the
17:28
middle of this. Come on man.
17:32
Middle of analysis man go. Ahead, bro.
17:37
There we go. I know what you're going to say.
17:39
Don't worry about it. Second chance points 23.
17:43
Fast break was even. Big fourth quarter right here by
17:49
yeah, I believe he scored 15. Say it again.
17:54
Oh, is that just leaders in each category?
17:56
Yeah, leaders in each category, leading players, so only one
18:01
block from everyone. And then Tyrese LED an assist.
18:05
J Dub was the only other guy with three assists, which is
18:07
ridiculous. Aaron Nesmith had 9 rebounds.
18:12
That was their best rebounder. Miles Turner did not show up on
18:15
the boards. Chet beat him out on the boards
18:17
this time around, and Pascal was their best other scorer with
18:20
only 20 points. When we hold them under 20
18:23
overall, we can, you know, win games that way.
18:25
And honestly, the big factor was honestly, honestly Shay Man
18:30
Shake just clutched up at the end.
18:32
He hit a big three, hit the big free throws.
18:36
We didn't even really have the largest lead in this game.
18:38
They did and we were the team that came back against them.
18:41
So I thought that was. No, that 10 point lead was the
18:45
That 10 point lead was the biggest in the whole series.
18:48
Yep, exactly just. Crazy A10, a 10 point lead,
18:51
being the biggest lead in the whole playoff series, whole
18:54
final series. Well, just in the.
18:56
Yeah, just for them. Yeah.
19:00
All right, so we got the stats out of the way.
19:03
I'm going to give King Capers the Florida say what he wants to
19:08
say. Let's see what he got.
19:09
He. Was talking all that trash,
19:11
fellas. Y'all wasn't in here, man, he
19:13
said. We're going to lose the series,
19:14
we're going to lose the game. We're not beating them in.
19:16
The end, I said if we no, no, no, no.
19:17
I hold on a second. They like this Ted beer.
19:20
We play like this. J&J dub stepped up and, and
19:25
outside of that when they haunted Shay for the Switch and
19:28
Halliburton laid him up After that we clamped them.
19:33
We, we, we look like how they had us looking in the last game.
19:36
That's what we should be doing. That's what we should be doing.
19:39
And, and all of their jump shots were barely grazing the rim,
19:44
barely grazing the rim. And outside of that BS loose
19:48
ball foul, they called on lure, whatever they called, they was
19:51
missing the free throws. They couldn't do nothing.
19:54
You're right, man. So, so, so here's my question
19:57
now what? What's your outlook now?
20:02
We're winning in seven instead of 60.
20:04
We're not beating them in Indiana.
20:06
There's no way. No way.
20:09
There's definitely a way. There's 100% away.
20:13
I think this no, the way the what I'm the reason I'm saying
20:17
that is after this game, the way they played is it's been even
20:22
overall on all the quarters. You didn't you weren't here
20:24
earlier when I was saying that I wasn't here earlier.
20:26
It's pretty much evened out like in the series, like we've been
20:29
up for a lot of the quarters and it it feels like it's a very
20:33
even series, like it's it's there's not much dividing these
20:37
teams. It's just whoever wants it more
20:39
and we wanted it more tonight. We came out clutch and that's
20:41
great. And that's what we should be
20:43
doing. We should be having the ball in
20:44
Shay's hand in in all the big moments because if anyone's
20:48
shooting free throws outside of him, no, he needs to have the
20:51
ball. He needs to make the big plays,
20:53
the big threes, the big defensive, you know, advantages
20:57
that we have with him. He's a solid defender.
21:00
Tyrese Halliburton isn't we can hunt Tyrese.
21:02
I feel like you weren't in here earlier either, but having J dub
21:06
off ball like as the primary ball handler, resting Shay off
21:09
the ball, I feel like that was huge for us.
21:12
I'm saying there's we found things out, but we need to
21:16
continue to expand on them. We need to double down on the
21:19
things that we found out in this game.
21:21
And then also at some point, to be honest, guys, Cason Wiggins,
21:28
maybe not Wiggins, he showed up for the one game, but all these
21:31
guys need to show up, man. We can.
21:33
We can pull up the. I got my, I got my, I got my
21:37
$1,000,000 Question for you. SAP here.
21:39
Yeah, give me one second. Let me pull up the box score
21:42
real quick for us for the Thunder to make the point.
21:46
The reason I'm saying like the four players that we needed to
21:50
step up is Shay Caruso, Chet J Dub, right?
21:53
They they showed up. If they continue to show up,
21:55
yeah, we can win games. But honestly, even last game we
21:59
had three of them show up out of the four and we lost.
22:02
So they all have to I'm saying we have to play at our peak
22:06
between them 4 to win to win games in Indiana bro.
22:10
And then on top of that, none of the bench are showing up on the
22:13
road. Two wins on the.
22:15
Road you expect it? Wow, not can I expect that, But
22:18
go ahead, Landon. I didn't realize we had that
22:20
many players. I didn't realize we had that
22:22
many players with four fouls. Yeah, there was a lot of foul.
22:26
They they, there was a lot of foul in the night.
22:29
Well, but I wanted to ask, I was going to ask that here, if we
22:32
lose game five in Oklahoma City, do you think we turn around and
22:35
win game six in Indiana? Well, that's a good question.
22:40
I'm not going to doubt this Thunder team, man, That's a
22:43
great question. I'm not after, after what I I
22:45
wanted to see us win in the clutch at least one time and
22:48
have some sort of blueprint. We hadn't had a blueprint
22:51
against this Indiana team. Once you figure them out, same
22:54
thing against us. They had a blueprint of, you
22:57
know, tire us out, give it to Hallie when Shay's tired, triple
23:01
team Shay. And that didn't work because
23:04
this time around we rested Shay. We figured that out.
23:07
Now it's for them to counter and figure out OK, like how can we
23:09
slow him down even more or they really can't stop us from
23:13
resting him. So it's like as long as we keep
23:15
it close and he's rested by the five minute mark in the fourth
23:18
quarter, I have US winning. Literally if he's not exhausted
23:22
by that time, we win all the games in the clutch.
23:26
Even in the regular season. That's why we won 68 games,
23:29
because they played all the clutch minutes in the clutch
23:32
games. And that's why leads got bigger
23:35
in the third quarters because he'd show up and, you know, be
23:38
ready to go. And he was ready to go tonight.
23:40
So that's the blueprint for us. Have a mothball?
23:45
Game five they would be idiotic if they don't just pack the
23:47
pain. After seeing how bad we shot
23:49
from three in this game, they're going to pack the pain until we
23:51
prove we can make a three. I wouldn't be surprised if they
23:54
start playing zone, I haven't seen much.
23:56
Zone, and I was going to say that they should have been
24:00
playing zone from the jump. That's our weakness.
24:05
And Land is right. If we can't shoot, stop them
24:09
from getting to the basket. Yeah, he's right.
24:13
What were you going to say, Jack?
24:15
Well, just on that, if they play zone at home, I have full
24:18
confidence in our role players. They make big shots in front of
24:21
the home crowd. We know they they might
24:23
disappear on the road or like we're talking about with this
24:25
box score. But at home, Lou Dort in his
24:28
own, he's 3-4 threes, Yeah, so they can play his own.
24:33
I'm confident our shooting is going to bounce back.
24:37
But then I did have a point on you were talking about how
24:40
Wiggins, Casey and all these guys need to step up.
24:44
Look at this. Wait how many did Lou shoot?
24:46
Is that 100%? I see from three?
24:49
No, he only shot 1. He did.
24:51
I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind him to shoot
24:53
more in the next game actually, but if you can.
24:56
See, the only guys that really made three pointers right here
24:59
is 1 from Ludor early on in the first quarter.
25:01
I believe Shea had that big three and then Caruso had that
25:05
big three, I believe in the third quarter and that was it.
25:08
No one else really even made a three.
25:10
It can only go up from here, Thunder fans.
25:13
It can only go up from here. Our shooting percentage can't
25:15
get worse, so. And and something you guys
25:18
didn't, well, two things you guys didn't mention, OK, see,
25:23
heading into this game was O and seven on the road against the
25:26
spread. They finally covered this spread
25:29
by one point. And we on Monday night we open
25:32
up as 10 point favors at home. So there's that.
25:36
Take that how you want to. 10 points. 10 point favors at home.
25:41
Jack, you were going to say something and we cut.
25:44
Off with Wiggins, obviously we know here that 18 point game,
25:49
which was incredible and I mean I'm a huge fan of Wiggins, so
25:53
I'll make this point and I'll stand by it.
25:55
But the next game he gets 1010 minutes and only gets two shots
25:59
up and then this game he gets 8 minutes all in the the first
26:02
half, he gets three shots up. We can't really be expecting
26:07
these guys to be producing if we're not giving them the
26:10
chance. Like you can't go from 18 points
26:13
to just 10 minutes on two shots. Like I think Mark just doesn't
26:17
have the faith in them that that I did.
26:24
I agree with your point. I want to back that up by saying
26:26
last game I believe, I don't know if it was, I don't think it
26:29
was this game. Last game Joe came in for his
26:32
quality minutes, hit two big threes, never saw the court
26:36
again. He doesn't ride with his guys
26:39
enough to even know whether they're going to be good enough.
26:42
The one thing I said while I was on TikTok live was the thing I
26:46
was frustrated about was you had all season to experiment to know
26:50
who who you're going to play in the NBA Finals, all playoffs.
26:53
You experimented and you don't know who you're going to go to
26:59
like that. This this is the moment where
27:01
it's like, OK, now I'm going to throw Kenrich in here.
27:03
It's like, no, man, you need to just believe in the group of
27:07
guys that you want to believe in.
27:09
I'd rather do that and you would instill belief in them.
27:12
Then sub in JJ will for two minutes and then sub him out.
27:17
Sub in Isaiah Joe for 4 minutes, sub them out.
27:20
It gives them no confidence. Next game, next time they show
27:23
up, they're not going to they're not going to be confident.
27:26
It's it's true man. I don't like that about him.
27:32
Yeah, I mean, but it's been relevant the whole season where
27:36
he does this and it's been frustrating, but it's just
27:39
expected at this point. But it wouldn't be a post game
27:44
review without me asking this question.
27:48
Who do you guys want to see in the starting lineup next game?
27:51
Hartenstein. Go no, go back to the starting
27:54
lineup that you had with Caisson Wallace in it.
27:58
That's what I like with Wallace. Put him in and make a damn jump
28:01
shot. No.
28:03
You don't think that's? What I've seen, he's not back to
28:05
the hearts. Not off the bench.
28:07
I mean, he's not. Coming up, he's not going to
28:09
start. But like you said, with the
28:11
assist, if Hartstein ain't getting the assist that he needs
28:13
to, you can keep him off the bench and run Keson.
28:15
Keson hit a shot. Let me let me explain.
28:19
Or I say no, hold on. Or Isaiah Joe.
28:21
He's definitely. Not getting.
28:22
There. I know.
28:23
I know. He's not.
28:23
No, I. Know career let me let me
28:26
explain why we need Caruso off the bench.
28:29
Let me explain why Hartenstein needs to start.
28:32
I figured it out. The reason he needs to start for
28:36
whatever reason in Mark's head is he thinks the double big line
28:41
up together won't work in this and this is the one series where
28:45
I think having two bigs over one considering that we can get
28:48
miles Turner in foul trouble amongst getting rebounds and
28:53
both of those guys can do double screens with each other tests
28:56
more effective with Hartenstein on the roster.
28:58
He's staggering them currently. If Hartenstein starts, he needs
29:01
to ride with them together a little bit more.
29:05
And we've seen Hartenstein play decent enough defense in the
29:08
fourth quarter where I'm like, OK, we can work with that next
29:11
game, we can work with that. If he's going to play that level
29:14
of defense and be able to switch out to their guys.
29:16
That's what you know, Mark's afraid of is Hartenstein's out
29:19
there, you know, Garden 3 point shooters.
29:22
But honestly, we in the NBA Finals, in the playoffs and in
29:25
the NBA in general, you have to give up something to get
29:28
something. And currently we need ball
29:31
security play making an extra play maker and the guy we can
29:35
have that on the floor with outside of Shea and J Dub is
29:38
Hartenstein. So I think he needs to start.
29:41
And honestly, from what I'm seeing from Cason, it's weak.
29:45
It's soft back-to-back to back-to-back games.
29:48
I'm tired of it, man. If you're a a primary ball
29:51
handler and you can't get a cyst, you're not going to hit
29:53
your threes and you can barely play defense on TJ McConnell.
29:56
See the bench. See the bench.
29:59
Seriously. Prediction.
30:01
It's the second year player. No, but that's what I'm saying
30:05
that. No bro, bro.
30:07
Bro I'm a Thunder fan but I'm saying this is the NBA Finals.
30:10
We need to win and we need to play the guys that want it the
30:13
most. I guarantee you he steps up in
30:15
these next two to three games bro.
30:17
I hope so. Trust big trust, bro.
30:19
He has not stepped up the past. Three games in Indiana, man, he
30:22
has not. Even at home.
30:24
I don't disagree he hasn't. I'm not, I'm not lying.
30:27
I'm not saying trade him. I love him.
30:29
I love the guy, man. He's great.
30:31
He's a defensive ace, Green these guys.
30:34
It's not even 8. We just think he's capable of
30:36
more. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:38
I think he should be playing way like my expectation of Cason
30:41
from summer League when we drafted him to, He's always
30:45
overachieved on all our expectations.
30:48
Right now he's really underachieving, man.
30:49
That's the only point I'm making.
30:51
Like, I expect way more play, making more ball security from
30:55
him, better defense on some of the, you know, bench players
30:58
that they have coming on the court.
31:00
Like I just need a little bit more from him, man.
31:03
Just if we get a little bit more from Cayson, a little bit more
31:07
from, you know, any of the bench guys that come in, we should be
31:11
blowing these guys out, right? If our four primary players,
31:15
especially our core J Dub, Chet and Shay, continue to show up
31:19
and I believe they will. But we can still lose to a team
31:22
like Indiana because they're so deep.
31:24
We never know where their scoring's going to come from
31:26
next game. Aaron Nesmith could go for 20
31:28
points. We don't know that.
31:30
But we should have that expectation out of Cayson and
31:33
Wiggins and other guys to match them so that we can win the
31:37
games right? Like even if it's close, I'll
31:39
take a close game where our bench is scoring right with
31:42
them. But when we're getting outscored
31:44
by 30 like last game and we're, you know, putting up the
31:47
performance, we just put up the stats earlier.
31:50
If we're doing that, we got to we got to rely on who who we who
31:53
we got stepping up. And that's Dort, Shay, Caruso, J
31:57
Dub, Hartenstein, Chet and funnily enough, Kenny Hustle.
32:03
He's calm. He's calm in the clutch, he's
32:05
calm in general. He's experienced.
32:07
He's a guy. Like he didn't look frazzled in
32:09
the moment when Casein came in, he didn't seem like he wanted to
32:13
see that man. Like I said, he's not going to
32:15
do anything too flashy, but he's also not going to make mistakes,
32:18
so. Yeah, we need guys that are not
32:20
making mistakes. Yeah, Kenny wants to win.
32:22
We need guys that want to win, want to be on the court and want
32:27
to seize the moment. That's what it came down to.
32:29
We wanted to seize the moment, the guys.
32:30
Like they all, they all want to win.
32:32
That just doesn't mean they're going to.
32:33
I know, man, basketball plays. I know, but you need guys that
32:37
understand the moment. That's what I'm trying to get
32:39
at, understanding the moment. Like I think two or three
32:43
seasons down the line, even next season, like now that we're
32:46
getting the experience for the guys in the NBA Finals, I don't
32:50
believe that like case it on any other line up is a starting
32:53
level guard. That's how that's how much I
32:56
believe in him. People would probably call me
32:58
crazy for even saying that. So I believe in the guy.
33:00
But when we're in this situation, it feels like we're
33:04
lacking certain types of personnel.
33:06
So you have to go to the go to guys in the clutch and we did
33:09
that. And I feel like Mark has it
33:11
figured out. So I have AI was winning in
33:12
seven. We can even win in six.
33:15
Of course, let's see how the next game goes and see if
33:18
there's any adjustments by the. Pacers, there's no way you're
33:21
you're backtracking now stand on business there's.
33:26
I I think it's going 7, but that's cuz me I respect the
33:30
Indiana Pacers more than you guys.
33:34
I. Just I think we just.
33:35
Had to. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait,
33:36
wait. You didn't respect the Indiana
33:38
Pacers? You said there was trash.
33:42
I did cause 'cause we won 68 games, we should we're the we're
33:47
we're the biggest favorite since the O 4 Pistons, bro.
33:52
Come on, bro. Like they're that doesn't defeat
33:55
the analysis that I said like, yeah, like we we should be
33:57
winning. Everyone had US winning.
33:59
We've been blowing games, bro. We blew a game last game in the
34:02
clutch. We blew game one.
34:03
That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm saying.
34:05
You said they was trash. I'm giving them respect.
34:09
They've shown me more. They showed, they showed out in
34:13
last game. They beat us in the clutch.
34:14
They they showed out tonight too.
34:17
Tonight was tonight was eye opening for me.
34:20
Like watching the Pacers and how they played and how they
34:23
controlled. I, I respected them from the
34:27
jump. Hey, did you have US winning in
34:29
five 'cause I had US winning in six?
34:31
Exactly. So who respects who more?
34:33
I didn't say it was trash though.
34:35
It's a difference. You said it was trash, I would
34:37
never say. That I'm saying trash relative
34:39
to us, bro, Relative to us, we're the greatest team in
34:42
basketball right now. We have the MVP, we have two All
34:45
Stars, we have two all NBA players.
34:47
That's the relativity. They don't have any of that.
34:49
They have a they have a mid tier star in Tyrese Halliburton and
34:53
they have no one else and they have a past champion in Pascal.
34:57
The analysis still stands bro. Technically, we should be
35:00
heading in that. Technically, we should be
35:02
heading into Game 5 ready for a gentleman's sweep if it wasn't
35:04
for that one shot in Game one. Man, I was this close to being
35:09
right. If we win tomorrow, Monday, I
35:13
was that close. But we just we.
35:15
Were all that close bro. We all thought differently but
35:18
this Pacers team wonder. We're getting outclassed on the
35:23
coaching side in terms of in game adjustments, game to game
35:26
adjustments overall. Like I know it's Mark's first
35:30
final series, so he'll get better over time.
35:32
But for the moment, same as Kayson, we're getting out of
35:36
class on that front and we're figuring it out though.
35:38
Mark's figuring some stuff out. I, I like it, man.
35:42
I have hope. I have hope.
35:43
We'll still win in seven, though.
35:48
Yeah, we just have to take a game by game though.
35:50
We can't be like, oh, we could have won game one or are we
35:54
going to win Game 6/7? Yeah.
35:57
Yeah, next game. It's just one game.
35:58
It's too close. It's too close.
36:00
Yeah man, but watching these games is so hard as a Thunder
36:07
fan. It is.
36:08
It's tough. Until the final buzzer goes.
36:11
Yeah, we can't count these Pacers out.
36:12
Let's start from the top of the comments real quick, unless you
36:15
guys have any other key points or anything you want to mention
36:17
before we get into the comments. No, I would like to get into
36:20
them. All right, let's go ahead one
36:22
second. Oh good.
36:25
I just want to say the statement this all, Miles Turner is not
36:28
made for the big stage. The lights are way too bright
36:29
for that guy. You just see it in the way he
36:31
walks, the way he moves. He doesn't want it.
36:35
Yeah, I'm surprised they kept him out there for as long.
36:37
As soon as he entered the bench, they played a lot better.
36:42
I think that should be their adjustment in the clutch.
36:45
I forgot to say no, no Thomas Bryan in this game, Carlisle
36:48
finally learned his lesson. No, no Thomas Bryan in the
36:52
clutch last game either. So yeah, that guy cannot see the
36:56
floor, but let's go ahead and get to the comments.
36:59
Let's get it man. Hotspot Casino a regular here,
37:03
so did some research fellows. No player wearing #0 has never
37:08
won an NBA Finals or ever won. That would be Halliburton.
37:12
That'd be like Halliburton, Lillard, Westbrook, Gilbert,
37:17
Arenas. Nice.
37:20
That's a great start. I appreciate that Immaculate
37:23
recovery at the end there. Yeah, man, honestly, we needed
37:27
everything we got from our four guys that we can really rely on,
37:32
and we got to ride them till the wheels fall off for the next,
37:37
you know, two to three games that we got.
37:39
So I'm excited. Man is is Jayson Tatum not a
37:43
number. Zero.
37:49
Good point that. Nice broke broke the stop there,
37:53
Steve said. Maybe it was.
37:54
Maybe it was before the. No, there's no way.
37:57
Hey, Steve's my hand hurts, my head hurts.
38:01
Trust me, bro. I I feel like I'm in the game
38:04
right now. Best fourth quarter we've all
38:07
played. Let's go, man.
38:09
That was that was the best. And it's right up there with the
38:13
Denver series. We, we closed out a lot of games
38:15
in that one too. Never say crucial like that ever
38:18
again. That was about me.
38:19
I got shade on that. My bad.
38:23
I'll try to read ahead a little bit great game from Jack.
38:26
These check came up big down the stretch, huge on the defensive
38:29
end. He was huge I mean playing
38:32
through Knick knack injuries, I mean just the amount of rebounds
38:37
outclassing Miles Turner. That's what we need from him,
38:40
game to game and we. Can do that up in those last
38:43
five minutes. Yeah, great defense, moving his
38:45
feet. That's where he has to be in.
38:48
Dude, I cannot believe he wasn't in the lineup in the game one.
38:52
I cannot believe it, man. Anyway.
38:56
Anyways, not going to lie, yeah. Especially at the end of the
39:00
game. Oh my.
39:01
God, man, I was going to. Very, very end.
39:05
Yeah, I was going to actually mention this when we were
39:06
talking about the inbound passing, but I knew someone in
39:09
the comments would mention Getty's inbound passing, so
39:12
thank you for that. Dub was hitting from the line.
39:16
Yeah, we need Dub and Shay. Those are the two guys I want
39:19
going to the free throw line or Caruso.
39:21
No one else should be shooting clutch free throws from a like
39:25
if we're doing inbounds, those are the only three guys I want
39:28
touching the ball in those moments.
39:29
We we did a good job getting getting it to Shay when they
39:32
were fouling us. Yeah, I thought that was the key
39:36
reason we really won this and we didn't really win the last game
39:39
'cause we didn't get Shay the ball enough in the fourth
39:41
quarter. We made that adjustment this
39:43
time around. I expect Wiggins to get hot in
39:46
game five. Yeah, At home, I trust guys like
39:49
Wiggin and Cason and Dort. It's just on the road.
39:52
It's hard to trust these guys, man, and that's OK.
39:55
That's OK. Someone will show up off the
39:58
bench though. Yeah, I'd love to see some Jay
40:01
Will just to switch it up and get some offense flowing.
40:03
Man, we need some offensive engines in the game, and I feel
40:07
like Jay Will is another guy that can do that.
40:09
OKC Arena is about to be electric.
40:11
Game 2 was loud. Louder than game one Game 5 is
40:16
going to be the loudest the Thunder Arena is ever going to
40:19
be since the start of, you know, the I guess OKC being here man,
40:26
it can't get any louder. Yeah, literally love that
40:31
hotspots casino. Dagnault needs to play Jay.
40:34
Well, I was just saying that. Didn't see that comment.
40:36
That's what I'm saying man. I.
40:37
Don't know about need but. We got indie sports fan that was
40:42
in here earlier. It's a game five.
40:44
We go, let's get it boys. This has been an epic series.
40:47
Neither team had much separation.
40:49
That's what I'm saying. There's not much separating both
40:52
of these teams. It's literally who wants this
40:55
NBA Finals that it's not coming down to XS and OS Screw the
40:59
analytics, screw the advanced stats.
41:02
We can analyze based on that, but realistically, when you're
41:05
in the game, those things go out the window.
41:08
You got to get it, got to get to every off ball, got to make your
41:12
shots, got to play defense. And that's what we did.
41:14
We locked in and that's what the Pacers did.
41:18
So this is a tit for tat series. Also, I appreciate, you know,
41:22
indie fans, 90% of them are, have been amazing compared to
41:26
some other series earlier down the line.
41:28
So really hats off to you guys. Yeah, we were.
41:32
We appreciate. Yeah, we appreciate ball
41:34
knowers. You guys know your team really
41:36
well. I had a huge fan of the Indiana
41:39
Pacers in my TikTok live earlier and he was amazing.
41:43
Amazing analysis, Bradley, Welch or Ryrich said.
41:47
SGA 14th 30 point game in the playoffs and his third of 34 or
41:52
more points in the finals. Come on man, put some respect on
41:56
the MVP. One of the greatest scorers to
41:59
ever grace the basketball court. No, no way, man.
42:03
This man just got 35 points in the clutch.
42:06
Love that from him. I believe Orange said.
42:08
Chase stepped up. You couldn't afford to go down
42:11
three one. That's our MVP.
42:13
That's our guy right there, man. He really stepped up for us.
42:16
Now he's talking about the spread.
42:17
Yeah. Yeah, 10 points is
42:19
disrespectful. I agree.
42:20
There's no way that the spread can be that much indie sports
42:25
fan back in here. Regardless of how the series
42:27
turned out. I'm glad it came down to us two
42:29
teams. I love the way that you guys are
42:31
built in, OK C and what y'all are set up for the future?
42:34
I feel like, man, we can talk about it, but I feel like we can
42:39
see the Pacers and Thunder and more Finals games, more
42:42
opportunities. So OK, I got you guys.
42:48
So I think those are pretty good comments here.
42:54
Let's see if there's any others that we want to go to.
43:01
I think those are pretty good, man.
43:03
It's been great. I appreciate all the comments
43:05
from all the regulars in here. This was fun.
43:08
This was fun, this was fun game. I feel like the most I feel like
43:13
the the people that are benefiting most is everyone
43:15
sitting at home. Beautiful series, beautiful
43:18
basketball. We don't have to regard the
43:20
referees or ESP NS analysis of the game.
43:24
Just from a basketball, pure basketball standpoint, this is
43:27
the best hoops in my opinion since back in the day when
43:31
LeBron and Stephen. They tried to tell us it's going
43:34
to be the least entertaining finals of the 2000s.
43:36
This. Is very entertaining bro.
43:39
We knew though you were casuals are real ones.
43:42
Not that that was some bullshit. Just like Oh my team didn't make
43:45
the finals. Finals is boring now.
43:47
Yeah, specifically Lakers fans and probably Boston Celtics fans
43:52
after they got knocked out, whatever.
43:54
So, and obviously ESPN cares about their numbers.
43:57
So you know, they hope the Knicks would make it this far or
43:59
whatever, but we're having a beautiful series between two
44:02
small market teams. Appreciate all the comments from
44:04
you guys. Make sure you guys go ahead and
44:06
hit that like button, hit that subscribe.
44:08
If you guys are watching right now, we're live after every post
44:11
game on Bring the Thunder podcast.
44:12
We're also on Instagram. If you guys ever want to come up
44:15
here, chat with us for after the game.
44:17
We'd love to have some of you guys just DM us on Instagram.
44:20
You guys have any closing statements or questions?
44:23
I know Capers always had some good ones.
44:25
We don't want to look. Let's stop looking too far into
44:27
the series. Let's take a game by game like
44:30
Jack said, Let's stick to that man.
44:31
We don't want, we don't need to worry about what would happen in
44:34
the offseason. Right now we're in the NBA
44:35
Finals. Let's enjoy it.
44:37
Let's look, let's look at a little bit of what do you guys
44:41
think about game one, game five? Are we, are we winning that at
44:43
home? The spread will be covered.
44:46
The 10 point spread is right. We're about to blow them out.
44:49
I think they blew their chance in my opinion.
44:52
I think they blew their chance at winning the NBA Finals.
44:56
I'm serious. I don't know.
44:57
I know you said don't look too far ahead.
44:59
I don't see them getting another game bro.
45:01
I I think they had to go up 3 to 1 all.
45:07
Right, that's your opinion. That's just me.
45:09
That's fine, Jack, What do you think, man?
45:12
Game #5. I think everyone should wait
45:16
until we drop our game preview and watch it then.
45:19
That's that's that'll be great. We'll give give a lot of
45:23
analysis and have some time to think about this game and re
45:26
watch the game and everything like that.
45:28
Landon Any. Any idea for Game 5 Thunder win?
45:33
But I need more time to think about it score wise.
45:35
I don't really know what type what, what brand of Thunder
45:38
basketball we're going to get. Yeah, I think that's the
45:43
toughest part. I think we figured a lot, a lot
45:47
of things out that I mentioned early.
45:49
It's just whether we can duplicate them, extend them
45:51
further. I I feel like we figured a lot
45:56
out, man. We figured out that we can
45:57
Rashay more, we can play off ball with him, have other
46:01
primary ball handlers, and we just need a little bit more
46:05
offense from somewhere. And we got a game planet towards
46:10
that. And obviously we can talk about
46:12
that in the preview where that other offense is going to come
46:15
from. Because to be honest, guys,
46:17
yeah, we're the top rated defense in the past since the 96
46:20
Bulls or whatever. But honestly, that does not
46:22
matter against this Pacers team right now.
46:24
They're scoring pretty much practically at will against us
46:28
quarter by quarter. And when it comes down to that,
46:31
you need to have offense to match them.
46:34
So I'm expecting that type of adjustment when I'm looking at
46:38
Game 5, whether we win or lose, I think that's what it's going
46:40
to come down to is those key role players for us.
46:44
Just a extra 10 points. Even in this game, we win pretty
46:48
convincingly, especially at home.
46:50
If we can get 15 points from like a Aaron Wiggins by himself
46:53
or Jay Wil comes in and hits, you know, 3 threes, you know,
46:58
those are the types of swings that I'm talking about that can
47:00
just swing this series the way we need it to.
47:04
All right guys, we're going to go ahead and end it off here.
47:08
We appreciate you guys. We'll be back live on Monday.
47:12
Thank you so much. Peace out.