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Pacers Survive Game 6 - Playoff Discussion · Bring The Thunder Podcast

0:01
What's going on y'all? Welcome to the Bring the Thunder
0:03
podcast here live after game six in Indiana where Indiana takes
0:07
it one O 8 to 91. Not a close one at all.
0:12
Quick stat box score J 21. There's about 50% J Dub 16 and
0:21
over 50% Hartenstein 10 points for rebounds.
0:27
And that's all I'm going to talk about us.
0:29
I'll move over to Indiana. Balance scoring, see outcomes 16
0:33
and 13. Nemhardt 17, Naismith 10.
0:36
Halliburton's completely healthy 14 and five.
0:39
McConnell 12 points, 9 rebound, 6 assists.
0:43
OB topping 20.6050% from the field, over 60% from three and
0:49
six rebounds. So dominant performance by
0:53
Indiana tonight. And I'll tell everybody right
0:56
now I'm a let more people start hopping in, but I don't, I don't
1:01
think we, I don't think we, I don't think we win game seven.
1:06
My honest truth, my honest opinion.
1:09
We've been outplayed and every game on the road we got lucky
1:12
that Shay and J Dub went crazy and game four pulled out a
1:17
magical win. And you can't rely on homecourt
1:22
advantage. Game 7 homecourt doesn't matter
1:26
anymore. Doesn't matter in a Game 7.
1:28
It's a one, one game series and I believe that Indiana's
1:32
clicking and peeking at the best of their ability.
1:35
And I think we fall enough quite a bit with the production out of
1:41
Caruso, the bench production. I mean, all game we had like 3
1:46
points until, you know, we pulled our starters.
1:50
Chet's gone missing and I don't. I don't think we win the series.
1:55
I don't. Yeah, I mean, we have the
1:58
biggest game of loud cities whole time, whole existence here
2:05
in Oklahoma coming up. So I expect the fans to show up.
2:09
I expect the starters to show up.
2:12
I think this has been a battle of the benches.
2:16
You know, we can talk about external factors not being
2:20
ready. There's so many other things
2:22
that you can mention as excuses in my opinion.
2:25
But at the end of the day, you know, if you don't get bench
2:28
production, especially in the NBA that we're in now, it's
2:31
really hard to win games. And the losses that we've had,
2:34
we've had a lack of bench production.
2:36
And this game specifically, way too many turnovers, way too
2:40
lackadaisical in the first. Like you have things going
2:43
against you in the first half, in the second quarter, whatever.
2:48
But to have as many turnovers as we ended up with 21 turnovers,
2:54
we had more turnovers than we had fouls.
2:56
I prefer us to have more fouls than turnovers in a game,
3:02
obviously, especially in a game six scenario where the other
3:05
team is really trying to win. They're really aggressive.
3:08
Honestly, they took pages out of the Thunder playbook here.
3:12
They were the aggressor. They were the better defense,
3:14
defensive team. They just started off the game
3:19
and they really wanted this game, man.
3:21
You could tell. You could tell from the way they
3:23
started, they weren't going to go out easily.
3:25
They made that known with I I felt it in game one of the
3:30
series with the way they were aggressive with Shay.
3:32
They kind of really did the same thing here and they kind of
3:36
tested the referees on, hey, are you guys going to call this?
3:38
If you're not, then we're going to continue to hand check Shay
3:40
the whole game. They're going to continue to
3:42
hand check the rest of the team too.
3:44
And you have to be ready for that.
3:45
You know, game six, you're in the NBA Finals.
3:48
You're not going to get every single call.
3:50
And you're also not going to you, you can't expect LAX,
3:54
lackadaisical defense on their part, their seasons on the line.
3:58
They're going to play as rough and rugged and as aggressive as
4:01
possible. I mean, we had more paint
4:03
points, which is shocking in this game.
4:06
The real effort, the real thing about this game, there was
4:09
another game I was mad about. I think it was game three that
4:11
we lost. We got out hustled, out
4:13
competed. I felt like we got out hustled
4:16
in this game, man. You can point towards FYZ stat,
4:20
whatever, but when the other team has way more second chance
4:24
opportunities, they're pushing the fast brakes, they're
4:27
shooting better, they're forcing the turnover battle, they're
4:31
getting the steals, 16 steals. We had 21 turnovers as a team
4:36
and also the key stat that I've always pointed towards when
4:40
everything else is not going good for the Thunder, the one
4:43
place I want to see execution is I don't want to see what what
4:49
Rick Carlisle wants to see is Shay and J Dub in isolation and
4:53
we missed those and or make those last game.
4:55
We made those, we won this game, we missed those early and we
4:59
lost. And what I want to see as an
5:01
adjustment for next game is a more free flowing offensive
5:05
game. That's what wins you this
5:08
series. Every game you guys can check
5:10
the series stats. I've literally predicted this
5:13
every game that we get 20 or more assists, we will generally
5:18
win those games unless we have big games by Shay and J dub,
5:23
which you can't rely on every single time.
5:25
So there has to be other, you know you have you have to have
5:28
that's more of a fall back option, right?
5:30
Like let's say instead of 20 assists, we get maybe close to
5:34
like 17 or 18 and then Shay or J Dub carries us home.
5:38
But every time we get 14 or lesser in terms of assists as a
5:41
team, we really struggle. And the initiator, it's a really
5:45
big problem. We don't have a secondary
5:48
initiator if J Dub's not on the ball a lot.
5:50
And then on top of it, I felt like Shay was on the ball too
5:53
much early. They got him tired in the first
5:55
quarter, and by the second quarter, someone else had to
5:58
handle the ball, which led to a bunch of turnovers.
6:01
I feel like that should have been adjustment made very early
6:04
where we got him off the ball way earlier and preserved him
6:07
for the second-half. I thought that was a huge issue
6:13
for us and it's been an issue this whole series.
6:15
I think going and getting a real playmaker off the bench would be
6:20
really helpful. Just a shot create shot creator,
6:24
playmaker, someone that can just bring the ball up.
6:27
And I've suggested, you know, playing guys like Jay Will
6:31
Hartenstein and AJ Mitchell for the reason, just for the sole
6:37
reason of executing on the offensive end.
6:40
When you when you can't get into your offensive sets, we really
6:44
can't get into our offensive sets.
6:45
Rick, Rick Carlisle has figured out if this team can't play
6:50
their typical sets, they're going to end up losing.
6:53
They're going to end up doing isolation.
6:55
We go straight into isolation. I was telling Joe before we
6:59
started this up, this game reminded me of hero ball from KD
7:03
and Russell Westbrook in 2012. I'm literally getting flashbacks
7:07
to, you know, Andre Roberson, Thabo Cefalucia, just bricking
7:12
everything. We have practically Kendrick
7:15
Perkins out there with Chet Holmgren and all we have is the
7:18
shot making of Russ and KD. That's how it felt with Shay and
7:21
J Dub tonight. Yeah, I get a bit of a different
7:24
outlook on this right now. From what I'm seeing is this
7:28
team is relying on winning at their homecourt.
7:32
That's what they're relying on. And in 2016, we did the same
7:35
exact thing. We wanted no part of Golden
7:37
State, and Golden State, we're up three.
7:39
One, we gave them game five, got smacked in the face in game six,
7:44
and then ultimately lost in game seven.
7:46
We won one game in that series on the road, and that was game
7:48
one. Same here.
7:49
We've only won one game on the road here, and that was Game 4.
7:54
But to me, it seems like to me, it seems like we're relying on
7:59
homecourt too much. And I promise you, in a game
8:01
seven, it's yeah, they're going to be loud.
8:04
But the Pacers will be just as locked in as OK C will be.
8:07
And I said from the beginning of this series, I don't want a game
8:10
seven. You don't want to be in clutch
8:11
situations with this team. And they made a mistake and I
8:14
think it's going to bite them in the ass real good.
8:16
And I don't see us win game seven.
8:19
I don't. I'm not as out of hope as Joe is
8:24
right now. I'm usually the guy that's a
8:27
doomer, but there's specific games that I get upset about and
8:31
there's you guys have known there's specific games that I
8:34
don't get upset about. This is one of the games that I
8:36
I am upset from an effort standpoint, but I understand,
8:42
you know, in a closeout scenario, you're on the other
8:45
teams homecourt. Things didn't go your way early.
8:48
The lead blew out of proportion. You got out of it early and
8:51
that's it. You couldn't breakthrough then.
8:54
We had a lot of opportunities to break the lead, get it closer.
8:58
It just didn't fall that way. It was just not in the cards
9:01
tonight. That's how I really felt.
9:03
There's a lot of opportunities where I was like, hey man, we're
9:06
getting close and then momentum would just shift, shift back to
9:11
them. Nem Hardwood hit a huge three,
9:14
OB Topping would hit a big one, Titan McConnell hit several big
9:18
shots early and it was just they answered almost every single
9:23
time we try to, you know, go on a 7 O run, 8 O run, whatever it
9:28
was, they stopped us early and got the lead early and that's
9:32
one of the best ways to beat this Oklahoma Thunder team.
9:35
You get out early, you punch us in the face and you hope that
9:39
our shot making doesn't end up, you know, providing any fruition
9:45
throughout the rest of the game. And that's a strategy that we
9:48
saw in Minnesota deploy. Punch us in the face early, get
9:51
that lead. We're probably not going to come
9:53
back due to offense, but when the rubber meets the road, this
9:56
team has answered the call. We have rarely lost back-to-back
9:59
games. We're the better team.
10:03
I trust the better talented team and in a clutch scenario as
10:09
there's just a couple things that we have to figure out from,
10:12
you know, who we're going to start.
10:14
I feel like Mark was shaky in this one.
10:16
In the second-half. He took Hartenstein out of the
10:18
line up. I thought that was the wrong
10:19
call. He needs to just, I said this in
10:23
the games that we lost, I believe game three and even when
10:26
we won in game four and five. He needs to stick with a roster,
10:30
stick with a line up 8 man crew that he trusts through and
10:33
through with a certain amount of minutes.
10:35
Obviously it's too late now. We're going into a game seven.
10:38
He still does not have any idea whether he wants to play
10:41
Kenrich, whether he wants to play Isaiah Joe, whether he
10:43
wants to play Wiggins, whether he wants Hartenstein to start,
10:47
whether he wants Kasen to start. How you have a whole season, how
10:51
do you have a whole playoff series that you can't seem to
10:55
pinpoint what you need to be doing in the NBA Finals is
11:00
beyond me at least. So a little bit of blame placed
11:04
on him in this game. I felt like we came out flat
11:07
after ending the second-half properly.
11:11
Like we ended the half as best as we could and then came out
11:15
flat after that because of the change in the starting line up.
11:17
I felt like that was a mistake. And then after that, it was just
11:21
third quarter demolition job. Fourth quarter, the lead was
11:25
blown way too, you know, way too much.
11:28
I believe Shay and J Dub rested most of that forth, if not all
11:32
of it. That's it.
11:35
We head home to OK C for all the marbles, as Shay goes.
11:40
As Alexander Alexander said in the end of that game, this is
11:44
for all the marbles boys. I'd love to hear y'all's
11:46
thoughts in the comments in the live.
11:50
Let me know what you guys think. Do does OK C win in seven on
11:56
their home floor? Man, this is the biggest game
12:00
for Oklahoma City and the Thunder organization.
12:03
And for all these players, it can't get bigger than this Game
12:06
7. There's nothing bigger than a
12:07
game seven in the NBA Finals. If you're a non fan of OK C and
12:14
not a fan of the Pacers, you've got to be loving this series.
12:18
I know everyone else outside of OK C and the Pacers fans are
12:22
loving this because for them there's nothing better than
12:25
watching 2 teams that you have no skin in the game, that you're
12:29
just sitting there and you're watching the game, man.
12:32
It doesn't get better than that in my opinion.
12:34
But even as the NBA fan, I'm I'm going to enjoy.
12:37
It's a game seven, man. As a Thunder fan, I'll still
12:40
enjoy it. Get to watch my Thunder.
12:43
I want to put something into perspective, Joe.
12:45
And the reason I'm so positive is no matter how this series
12:49
ends tomorrow, this will be an honest take.
12:54
I truly feel this way. It's been a wonderful season.
12:58
And on top of the fact that it's been a wonderful, my favorite
13:02
season ever from a Thunder team, by far the most fun and cohesive
13:07
season we've ever had in Thunder history.
13:09
On top of that, we've never made it to a game six.
13:13
We've never made it to a game seven in the NBA Finals.
13:15
So I feel like you have to take your lumps.
13:18
You have to do your thing, you have to get over those lumps and
13:21
humps, whatever. And I feel like we'll do that
13:24
tomorrow. I'm excited Shay shows up when
13:27
we need. Sunday.
13:29
Yeah, yeah, Sunday, of course, we'll we'll we'll see them in OK
13:33
C for the next game on Sunday. I'm excited about that.
13:37
I, I, I'm wishing it was tomorrow, but we've got to wait
13:40
a couple days and. Here's how I look at it.
13:42
Right before the game, I told you guys I thought we were going
13:45
to win. I watched Pascal Siakam do
13:48
whatever the hell he was doing in the hallway before running
13:51
out to the court. I mean, I knew it was over.
13:54
I knew it was over right before that.
13:56
He he was saying what's up to T JS grandfather?
14:00
And I'm looking now. I'm just joking, but I I knew it
14:04
was over once they touched the floor.
14:06
After that, they're doing some crazy shit over there.
14:09
But on our side, it's listen, you can try to look at it in a
14:16
in a good way or positive manner.
14:21
Listen, if you if you lose this series, it's very unlikely that
14:25
you make it back two years in a row.
14:27
We know that it's very unlikely that you even get a chance to
14:33
get back here. And if you lose the series, the
14:36
Finals MVP right now is TJ McConnell.
14:40
So if you're an OK C fan for the rest of your life, you lose this
14:43
series against the Pacers. And it was TJ McConnell won
14:46
Finals MVP against you. I would sell the franchise.
14:51
I would sell the franchise. It's not a good look.
14:54
They can't guard McConnell. Not only can they not guard him.
14:57
He had 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals.
15:02
He's the best player on the floor.
15:06
Between Siakam's doing whatever McConnell OB top and hitting
15:10
every shot he takes, I don't think we could keep up.
15:16
They've already had two close games in OK C1.
15:19
The Pacers won and then last game we pulled away, but we only
15:24
won by 11 and they got it to two points within the fourth
15:27
quarter. What makes you guys think that
15:29
they're not going to do the same thing again?
15:33
They have played well all three games in OK C so far.
15:39
Don't let the double digits, you know, wins swayed your memory.
15:44
They were within two in the fourth quarter last game, Game
15:47
two, it was still close and we didn't blow them out to any, you
15:52
know, respect there. So they're wins at home compared
15:56
to our wins at home, completely different.
15:59
And I think they're better. I think they're they're at all
16:02
on on all as a whole team and a coaching staff.
16:06
I think they got our number and I think they're going to get it
16:08
done. We will definitely find out, but
16:14
Joe, we haven't been watching this many seasons just for it to
16:17
end like this. We have because it always ends
16:20
like this. It has.
16:22
It has. I went on a huge spiel.
16:24
I know I deleted the footage of game three loss and I was
16:29
negative that night, but I am. I'm not going to be negative
16:34
after a loss like that. I have too much faith.
16:37
We've seen this team bounce back.
16:38
Too many times I've doubted these guys myself in a Denver
16:43
series where I was like, Oh my goodness, we're going to Game 7.
16:47
There's no way we outclass a Denver team with an MVP player
16:54
and we did it right. So we've been through the Denver
16:57
series. This team, what they've been
17:00
through all season with the injuries and the lack of
17:03
back-to-back losses and just in general.
17:06
It's all lining up, Sad Beard all lining up.
17:09
We we've lost two games back-to-back this whole season.
17:13
We've been to two game sevens. In the end, it hasn't been to
17:16
one Game 7. Tyrese faked his fucking injury.
17:20
He was fine. He was all over the place on
17:22
defense and on the offensive end.
17:24
He was more than fine. I felt like he was in a cryo
17:27
chamber and came out and. Yeah, he was good.
17:31
Listen, it's, it's, it's all on. It's all on.
17:36
Here. No, I know.
17:37
I know how it feels right now man.
17:38
We want, I'm trying to, we want this perspective for OKC fans.
17:41
We've seen this before in the past.
17:43
You cannot rely on homecourt to win you in NBA Finals.
17:47
You cannot, you cannot win one game on the road and be like,
17:51
all right, it's fine. We're going to win every game at
17:52
home. They they got lucky against
17:55
Denver with the blowout in Game 7.
17:57
Sure, they had a close game. They should have lost if John
18:01
didn't get hurt on the road. They've been terribly on the
18:03
road. Yes, they've been great at home,
18:05
but so was the 2016 team. They were fucking fantastic at
18:08
home. That's why they were so OK with
18:10
letting the Warriors win at home.
18:13
And they they said fuck it, we're going to win game six at
18:17
home no matter what. And it slipped right out of
18:19
their hands and nobody saw it coming.
18:21
The whole crowd was quiet as shit.
18:23
Every OKC fan across the fucking globe was quiet as shit,
18:26
speechless because nobody saw it coming.
18:28
They won by like 38 and 20 something in the first two games
18:32
at home that series. I remember, man, I remember.
18:36
Not let them now the pressure's on, OK C Indiana forced to game
18:41
seven against 68. One team and they're back on the
18:45
road. So if they win, all to them.
18:48
If they lost, they lost to a 68 win team on the road in game
18:51
seven in the NBA Finals. That's all I'm saying.
18:55
Yeah, I understand the pressure's on us.
18:58
And our commenter saying obviously weren't we weren't
19:00
taking two out of three on the road, Why not?
19:04
Why not? Why is it?
19:05
How is that so obvious? Yeah, I don't know if I'd agree
19:10
with that, Parker. This is a really good Indiana
19:15
team. You know, we're not a casual
19:17
podcast. We we watch a ton of games.
19:22
We're not going to sit here and tell you that we thought this
19:26
Indiana team was, you know, horrible or anything.
19:29
We understand they have a lot of depth.
19:31
This is a deeper team than the Denver series.
19:34
That was one of my concerns. And I think me and Joe, our
19:37
biggest concern was Rick Carlisle, man, he's done this to
19:40
LeBron James. He's doing this right now to an
19:43
MVP candidate. Absolutely locked him up
19:45
tonight. He knows how to turn and change
19:50
and get these guys motivated. I don't know what he tells his
19:55
bench role players, but honestly, some of the role
19:58
players play better than some of the starters on Indiana.
20:01
Truthfully, they play with more energy.
20:04
They play better when they come off.
20:06
The Ball and Obi are the two best players on that damn team.
20:09
Obi, Mathrin and TJ, that combination of those three guys
20:13
alone is better than like two of our starters and maybe our whole
20:18
bench, truthfully. Another thing, the games we want
20:22
at home, we've shot extremely well.
20:24
Our bench has come alive. Wiggins played great, Caruso
20:27
play. What if they don't?
20:29
What if they don't? Where do you think we're going
20:31
to find ourselves? Yeah, guys, we were down by 30
20:35
tonight, 30 points. The homecourt doesn't change
20:40
that. It's the same exact team we're
20:41
going to play on Sunday. Wig we can't get shot making out
20:49
of anyone outside of Shay and J Dub.
20:51
That was my concern last game. It was ugly, ugly win.
20:55
Last game at home. I was stressed last game, man,
20:59
people thought like, oh, you know, we won that game handily
21:03
or whatever. I completely disagreed.
21:05
Like yeah, we got a bunch of assists.
21:07
We played well. We won by 11.
21:09
We were up by two in the fourth quarter.
21:11
Yeah, we won by 11, up by two only and Tyrese had like
21:15
practically no. He didn't make a field goal.
21:18
Yeah, he didn't make a single shot, so it's like I understood
21:22
how. Look at the difference in wins.
21:24
Yeah, I understood how he won that game and then we blew the
21:29
first game at our home court. So it's, it's not looking in
21:32
terms of the victories, even at home, 2 out of three so far have
21:38
been, one of them was a loss, one of them was a decent blowout
21:43
and the other one was a 5050 shot that they almost came back
21:48
again. So it's going to be a tough game
21:51
in game seven. I expect it to be super close.
21:55
I really, I if we get blown out again in Game 7 on our
21:59
homecourt, I'd be honestly shocked.
22:00
That'd probably be more shocking.
22:02
Than anything is going to be a blowout.
22:03
I just don't think we're going to win.
22:05
Him, yeah, I'd be more shocked about that.
22:06
If we don't show up with effort, even if we start going down, I
22:09
think we'll put so much effort that we get it closer than it
22:13
was tonight. I think my main issue right now
22:15
is the whole series, Rick Carlisle has trusted random guys
22:21
like Bradley and Shepherd and you know, guys that most casual
22:28
fans don't know about. And he's gotten production and
22:31
he's rested his main stars. Whereas we've taken the Knicks
22:34
approach, shorten our rotation, run J Dub and Shay into the
22:38
ground until they can't hit shots in Game 6 and then rely on
22:42
other guys to hit shots when they're not hitting shots
22:44
either. So it's like if you play the
22:47
Knicks style of basketball, you're going to get Knicks style
22:50
of results. That's my opinion.
22:51
In terms of from like a coaching perspective, you need to
22:54
preserve your two stars against a team that's trying to run you
22:58
down to the ground. There.
23:00
I said this in game one. This is a war of attrition.
23:03
Rick Carlisle understands that and he's going to wear you down
23:06
until he wins the series. He doesn't think about it as I
23:10
need to take it game by game. He's thinking about every single
23:12
game is US running you as much as we can until your stars get
23:18
tired and he they've gotten the Bucks tired.
23:21
They did the same thing to the Cavaliers.
23:25
They did the same thing I watched in 4K television on a 4K
23:29
screen. Monitor them, absolutely run
23:32
Donovan Mitchell to the ground and absolutely obliterate him.
23:36
And Donovan Mitchell, for what anyone wants to say, is an
23:39
amazing player. Cavaliers were one of the best
23:43
first seeded teams and they absolutely blew them out of the
23:46
water. Joe.
23:47
Think about them. Think.
23:49
About that, they absolutely blew those guys out of the water.
23:51
People don't respect this Pacers team.
23:54
And then they went in and took out handily the Knicks who beat
23:58
the Celtics. The Celtics got handily beaten
24:02
by the Knicks and then they handily beat the Knicks.
24:06
So we're not playing with some joke of a team when I'm saying
24:11
as a team, they know what their cohesive parts are.
24:15
They know who they're going to substitute.
24:17
They know exactly when each person is going to be in the
24:18
game. They haven't changed all season
24:22
long what they wanted to do. They've been consistent, almost
24:26
as consistent as the Thunder, second best consistent team in
24:30
the NBA. So I'm, you know, I'm not
24:32
shocked that we're out of game seven.
24:34
I'm really not. I saw this in six.
24:37
I thought we could have blown 1 and we did Cool.
24:40
We're out of game seven. I really expect the better
24:44
players overall in a series to get it done.
24:48
It's really going to the five starters that we have are better
24:51
than their five starters. But I've mentioned this, their
24:54
bench guys are destroying us all series long.
24:57
All series long. That's where we keep getting
25:00
destroyed. OB topping 20 points, TJ
25:02
McConnell 12-9 rebounds, 4 steals, 6 assists.
25:08
Compared to let me let me compare.
25:12
No, no, let me compare the benches on our bench.
25:16
Caruso played 22 minutes, 0 points, only took two shots.
25:20
Wiggins five points in 17 minutes.
25:23
Cason has been non playable because he hasn't hit a shot.
25:28
Outside a blast game. Yeah, he's only made one or two
25:31
shots, like maybe five shots all series, practically unplayable.
25:36
He's only getting 13 minutes and he's one of our best defensive
25:39
players who's been practically a starting level.
25:42
Like he's part, he's been part of the rotation where I'm really
25:45
confused how he goes from being a huge rotation piece to getting
25:49
replaced by a 30 year old in the NBA Finals.
25:52
That's absolutely confusing to me.
25:54
On top of it, I don't understand how Kenridge Williams can get 18
25:57
minutes in a floor spacing run and get gun type of game,
26:03
especially when they're hunting him against TJ McConnell.
26:06
He only scores 3 points. Isaiah Joe, The other guys don't
26:11
really matter because they don't really get actual significant
26:13
minutes. But those four guys, one of
26:16
them, Wiggins, he doesn't trust Case and he no longer trust
26:21
Kenridge gets outplayed. And the only guy we do trust is
26:24
Caruso. And any game Caruso does well,
26:27
we win if he scores 20. And I said this, Joe, you guys
26:31
laughed at me. We can't rely on Caruso to keep
26:35
bailing us out with 20 point games because he is not that
26:38
level of an offensive player. He is not.
26:41
I'm not blind. I I've watched Crusoe his whole
26:43
freaking career, from the start of his Lakers career up till
26:46
this point. I've watched tons of Crusoe
26:49
minutes. He has never been that
26:52
consistent. All he is is he's in the motion.
26:55
He gets a couple dunks. He get he used to get dunks.
26:58
Now he gets a couple layups. He can't really finish layups
27:00
anymore. All I expect out of him is
27:03
shooting maybe 2 threes in a game and playing solid defense.
27:09
Where's the offense? Where's the offense coming from?
27:12
From our bench for Game 7. Listen, it's what everyone seems
27:17
to think is at home. Wiggins is magically going to be
27:21
continuing his play. Wallace will make his shots.
27:24
Dort's going to make his shots. Let me tell you what a Game 7 is
27:27
at home, right? It's not the same.
27:30
It comes down to one game. 148 minute game.
27:33
Anything can happen. It it starts with the coaching,
27:37
it starts with shooting and it starts with defense.
27:42
Now tell me what we're better at out of all three of those.
27:45
You could say defense, but the way this series has been looks
27:50
pretty evenly matched on defense.
27:53
I'll give the notch to Carlisle. He's experienced.
27:55
He won a championship, he's been to two.
28:01
You got to give it to Carlisle. And then shooting.
28:04
Are we just going to expect Indiana's shooting to disappear?
28:07
I watch OB top and shoot the lights out in game one.
28:10
Are we expecting McConnell's mid range to stop?
28:12
I watched him put up 18 points in game Game 4, not game Game 5.
28:19
I'm just being realistic. Yes, I'm rooting for the same
28:22
team as everybody else, I promise you.
28:25
But I'm being realistic. Yeah, yeah.
28:27
That's the thing about the podcast is like we're as we're
28:32
as die hard as fans can get. We have a literal 24/7 podcast
28:38
on the Oklahoma City Thunder. So if you guys think like we
28:41
don't believe in this team or we don't root for this team, I I
28:44
just think that's an unrealistic expectation.
28:48
You can say we're down on the guys, cool, but truthfully, we
28:53
are going to analyze the game from who's going to win versus
28:56
who's going to lose perspective. So we're going to point out real
28:59
things that we're seeing. We're not going to have less
29:02
objective takes just because we're Thunder fans.
29:05
That's just you're just never going to see that.
29:07
Should have never let this team take you to seven.
29:09
That's all I'm going to say. I said it before the series.
29:13
You should have never let them take you to seven.
29:15
And now TJ McConnell is going to be the Finals MVP.
29:18
Watch. That's highly possible.
29:21
Highly possible. I still believe in the team.
29:24
Dort went one for five. He hasn't really done that all
29:28
series long. He's shot pretty well.
29:30
This was a road game for him. Oprah 3 from Chet, only nine
29:33
shots and he barely made them. I feel like shot Chet's getting
29:38
way too much shot volume. I think he needs to focus on the
29:43
intangibles. That's one adjustment I'd love
29:45
for him to make more personally. He hasn't really been hitting
29:49
shots close to the basket. He needs to stop taking them
29:53
like he just hasn't been effective against.
29:55
At at the end of the day, I mean, dude, you're not beating
30:00
that. You're not beating that in the
30:02
game. 7 clearly didn't beat him tonight.
30:06
Yeah, man. Sorry fellas, sorry I'm not even
30:13
crashing out too. That's the craziest thing.
30:15
I'm I'm pretty calm over here. I'm just spitting my my truth
30:18
over here and Nah. I'm not scared bro.
30:21
I'm I already told you what I think, not scared of anything.
30:25
Yeah, it's it's hard to be scared when we've seen this
30:27
movie before, right? Like Steph Curry, Dame Lillard,
30:35
Donovan Mitchell, LeBron James, we've been through.
30:42
Another thing I said as OK C, Thanks everyone on this podcast
30:47
who's listening. First off, we appreciate all of
30:49
you. Shout out to all you guys.
30:51
But if you're no KC fan, I know you want to say, yeah, we're
30:54
going to win on game seven at home.
30:56
We don't lose at home. Let's just think all together
30:58
here for one second. Don't you think if I I said it,
31:05
don't you think if OKC was going to win the title, it was going
31:08
to be on the road? It would have been it's an OK C
31:12
it's OK CS luck, bro. It's our luck.
31:14
We were not going to win this series at home.
31:16
Now, Shay did say he wanted to win conference finals at home in
31:22
front of the fans. I don't know if he has some sort
31:25
of master plan. I'm hoping he does now.
31:30
You're a Celtics fan. You're all good, bro.
31:32
You got your chip. You could talk all you want.
31:33
You're still the champion right now.
31:36
I appreciate you being in here, by the way.
31:38
But listen, it's a lot of pressure on the young guys to
31:44
win a Game 7 for all the marbles for the championship at home in
31:47
front of your fans. And I'll be damned if I I'm
31:51
expecting it. But when that crowd is silenced,
31:56
ah man, I might be silent for months.
32:00
You, you shouldn't have let this get to 7.
32:05
You shouldn't have blew the first game you could have won in
32:08
five. That was my prediction.
32:13
It's definitely a tough position that we're in.
32:16
I'm not going to lose hope because I've doubted in terms of
32:21
last year, in terms of the record.
32:23
I wasn't doubting this season's record at all.
32:25
I thought we were going to be at exactly where we are.
32:28
I think I predicted around 65 wins.
32:31
I maybe predicted like 50 wins last season, maybe 55 or
32:35
something like that, or 4045 possibly, and we overshot that.
32:39
This season. We overshot my win total in the
32:42
playoffs. We went further than I even
32:44
expected to be in the NBA Finals.
32:47
Obviously I would have been really happy for us to even be
32:50
in this position, but for a this young of a team to be in the NBA
32:54
Finals, I'm extremely happy. I'm extremely happy that we even
32:58
got it to a game six and seven. As a Thunder fan, truthfully
33:02
from the expectations that I have from as a Thunder fan, 6
33:08
game six and seven, I'm look at me, I'm smiling ear to ear.
33:11
We get to have a game seven at home in Paycom.
33:14
I mean, like, like, can I get one more thing off my chest?
33:18
I said it during our live after game five.
33:22
I said it. Jalen Williams dropped 40 points
33:26
and SJ had 31. Tyrese Halliburton didn't make a
33:29
single field goal and we won the game by 11.
33:31
It was a two point game in the fourth quarter.
33:34
Let me say that again. Jalen Williams had 40 points, 40
33:39
points. SJ had 31.
33:42
Tyrese Halliburton didn't make one field goal and we won the
33:45
game by 11 and it was a two point game in the fourth
33:47
quarter. We have somebody live outside.
33:50
I think he's at outside of pay calm.
33:52
I can't tell. Hey, Chris, what's going on,
33:54
man? Oh.
33:56
Man frickin J dub I told you I was as soon as that game.
34:00
J dub props Look at what? He did.
34:02
He played good. No, he didn't.
34:06
No, he didn't. He shot 6 of 13 in 27 minutes.
34:09
He played good. There ain't no no, I'm just
34:11
playing. What's up y'all?
34:12
What's going on, bro? Oh yeah, I'm just telling
34:15
everybody how I thought you were.
34:16
I thought you were about to be ranting about check this game
34:18
bro. Oh yeah, it's coming.
34:21
It's coming. I'm just my Uber is literally
34:23
about to be here. Then I go live.
34:25
No worries, we appreciate you doing though I just.
34:28
Came on to just say bro, no matter of fact before I get in
34:31
the Uber, one question before I go, Oh yeah OK before I get in
34:39
the Uber right? What's your guys concerned level
34:44
for Sunday? We're not winning.
34:47
Oh my. God, I'm not concerned, Capers,
34:50
I'm not concerned. Why?
34:52
I'm not concerned. I can't be concerned, man.
34:56
We haven't lost back to backs. We've never had a Game 7.
35:02
Calm right now, by the way, everybody.
35:04
Yeah, we haven't won a game. We haven't been to a game seven
35:08
in the NBA Finals. So I'm just happy about that.
35:11
And just in general, I I really trust Shay.
35:15
I just trust Shay, man. I've trusted Shay all season.
35:20
I trust the whole, I trust the whole team all season long.
35:25
So I don't know. They haven't really lost too
35:28
many back-to-back games. We haven't lost three in a row.
35:31
We've done historical things. Obviously none of that matters
35:34
if you lose a game seven, one game scenario.
35:37
I don't know man. There's just something about it,
35:42
Joe. There's just something.
35:44
About this team Yakim doing a ritual before the game.
35:47
There's something about Drake putting.
35:48
Yeah, that was crazy. There's something about Drake
35:50
putting 800,000 fucking dollars on OK C tonight.
35:55
There's some about Halliburton's calf being completely fine,
35:59
right? Here's the thing, fellas.
36:02
Now remember the other night I told you we we probably work
36:05
going to win this game and it was going to be tough whether
36:08
Halliburton's hurt or not blah blah blah, win on that
36:10
soliloquy. This is my only concern for
36:13
Sunday. Not it doesn't even matter the
36:15
way we lost you. Open yourself up for if you have
36:20
another bad night. Everything that you just worked
36:23
for is over bro. No, I said.
36:25
Now I'm. Not concerned like I don't have
36:26
any. I don't have any butterflies in
36:28
my stomach or no concern level at all because I picked this to
36:31
lose and then win at 7:00. But what do we suit before they
36:36
pulled everybody? What 2 of 20 from 3?
36:39
No. So what if they come back to
36:42
come back over here and do that again and the Pacers make enough
36:45
shots? Capers, that's exactly what I
36:48
said, man. I said listen, you didn't want
36:50
to get into a game 7:00 You got it comes down to three things,
36:55
coaching, shooting and defense. And if we're not shooting the
36:58
ball as as well as Indiana or keeping pace, at least with
37:03
Indiana, we know Carlisle's going to have something ready.
37:06
He's going to have his team ready and the defenses looked
37:09
even on both sides, right? So you gave them what they
37:13
wanted and you better fucking stop on them early because if
37:17
not, you're not going to win the game.
37:20
Totally agree man, that's all I have to say though.
37:22
That's it. I just wanted to figure out our
37:25
comfortability or concern level. Mine's out of 10.
37:28
Savier looks fine. What are you?
37:30
What are you doing in OKC tonight?
37:31
You going home or you going to go out?
37:34
I'm going home bro. I'm about to eat and play Xbox
37:38
and then and then I'll be back out tomorrow night supposed to
37:41
be celebrating. I got I bought a finals patch, a
37:44
finals jersey patch. Or $20. $20.00 for my cat jersey
37:49
$20 They, they, they put it on for me.
37:52
I was, I was. Oh my God, I was so.
37:54
High. It was what, 12:00 to 2:14 to
37:57
4:00? And then boom, everything
38:00
changed. We were up 1:50.
38:02
And then something like that, yeah.
38:04
And then that was it. Yeah, after that. 10/2 all that.
38:09
Mirror's fault though, because all that mirror do J dub this, J
38:12
dub dad J dub this. J Dub played fine.
38:15
J Dub was electric in the first quarter.
38:17
Yeah, in the first quarter. I mean, J dub NJ, they did their
38:22
job. They've done their job this
38:24
whole series, this whole player. The thing I'm pointing towards
38:30
is the fact that they have TJ McConnell, Matheran and OB top
38:33
and all going off for between around 40 points between each
38:39
other. Man, Like if when that when that
38:42
happens, Capers, another thing that happens tonight, we only
38:45
got 14 assists. We didn't get to the 20 all
38:47
right. Here we go.
38:50
You want to know why? Because they didn't make sense.
38:52
I didn't make sure. Capers, I got a question for
38:54
you. How was the energy in Paycom
38:56
throughout the game? Was everybody concerned at it at
38:58
the end? Feeling good?
39:00
So what happened was we started off, like I said, we tended to,
39:04
everybody was electric, even me, usually I don't get electric
39:08
that early. I was, I was, I was pretty
39:10
hyped, OK, They start going on their run.
39:14
Everybody was quiet and then they went on their run again and
39:18
again and again. And it reminded me of when I
39:20
went to the Cowboys, Packers game in 2023.
39:25
Every it was a, it was they just took the life out of the
39:29
stadium. It took the life out of the
39:31
stadium. Everybody was quiet and then
39:33
everybody left. Now the people that stayed to
39:35
the end, what I noticed and I was on the phone talking to my
39:38
friend. I was actually mad.
39:40
Nobody seems concerned at all. Thanks bro.
39:46
They're setting us up. They're they're setting us up
39:48
and they are going to fucking find out on Sunday, man.
39:52
We're going to find out. Yeah, nobody, guys.
39:55
Nobody sounded worried. Nobody was panicking.
39:58
Nobody. It almost seemed like they
40:00
didn't even care and I don't like that.
40:03
Paper Does that not remind you of 2016 when we were fine losing
40:06
on the road and we thought, oh, we're good at home, we're good
40:09
at home? That was probably y'all.
40:11
I wasn't fine losing on the road, bro.
40:14
I wasn't fun. Remember when we was up 3 to 1
40:16
and it went to game five, that game five in Golden State?
40:18
I wanted to win that game so bad.
40:21
Me too, I wanted to win that game.
40:23
Too bad too bro. It was, I hated it.
40:27
Shout out the hotspot. I love you bro, but I don't
40:30
care. Words are just words bro.
40:31
It's about the product on the court and I'm not there.
40:33
You go, there you go. You got to make jump shots.
40:36
OK, OK, so let's Fast forward. Let's I got another interesting
40:39
question. What can we do to address our
40:43
shooting? Shoot the ball.
40:47
No, No. In offseason.
40:48
In offseason. We're not now, we can't address
40:52
that. We're going to address that
40:54
after Game 7. But as far as right now in terms
40:57
of right now in terms of the shooting, the things that we can
41:00
do is we we just gotta trust our guys, man, Trust the guys that
41:06
that are going to get us here, that have gotten us here this
41:09
far. I would really love to see more
41:10
case in minutes, more Wiggins minutes, Shay and J Dub.
41:16
I don't care if we're down 40, down 30 or up 40.
41:20
They got to play 45 minutes, 48 minutes like.
41:24
They got to play 48, they got to play 48.
41:26
It's game seven at the end of the year.
41:28
There ain't no next game you got to play fucking 48.
41:31
Yeah, I expect, I expect Tyrese Halliburton for the first time
41:36
ever all season plus playoffs to finally play 48 minutes.
41:41
He has actually not had a 40 or more minute game, which is
41:45
actually scary as a thought in itself.
41:48
So I expect Jada Shay to get the 40 plus minutes.
41:55
I expect Chet, I'm hoping he gets 40 plus minutes and Wiggins
42:01
gets a lot of minutes in this. Like we need 7 guys out there at
42:05
all times and just playing them and ride them until we lose or
42:09
win man 'cause I don't trust the bench and I don't think Mark
42:12
does either. And it's game seven, win or go
42:16
home and that's it, man, we're already at home so.
42:20
You seem concerned bro. I'm not concerned bro, I'm not.
42:24
Tell by your voice you seem a little concerned man.
42:27
I'm not, I'm not. I wouldn't say concerned is the
42:31
right word for me, 'cause concerned was 2016 right after
42:39
the big shot. Bang, bang.
42:41
Concern was in 2012 when we started blowing game after game.
42:50
This is not how this series has gone in that way where I feel
42:53
that way. Like those series, yeah, I was
42:55
concerned. We had the lesser team, the
42:57
lesser players, the lesser depth in this series.
43:01
I'm like, yeah, we've shown the depth, we've shown the team.
43:05
We have the MVP, so it's hard to be concerned in those.
43:10
Like when I put that all together, it's like hard to be
43:13
concerned. OK.
43:17
OK. We'll see.
43:19
Yeah, I mean, win or lose, it's game seven.
43:24
It's the NBA Finals. You can't be concerned really,
43:28
to be honest. Like this is it.
43:30
This is the season on the line. Win or go home.
43:33
And regardless of what happens, I was telling Joe this and I was
43:39
telling the chat this. As a true Thunder fan, this is
43:42
my favorite Thunder season regardless.
43:44
Best memories, best friends that I've made along the way, best
43:50
team I've ever got to witness and.
43:52
They're going to lose the finals.
43:53
MVPTJ McConnell baby, let's go. No, he takes the same shot every
43:58
time and it goes in. I mean, he's a great, He's a
44:01
heck of a player. He's a winning.
44:03
Player. He's a winning player.
44:08
But yeah, I mean, I'm listen, I'm all set for now.
44:12
We can do our we can do our preview tomorrow for Game 7.
44:19
But everybody watching, we really appreciate y'all been
44:23
here. A lot of you guys have been here
44:24
since we started and couldn't be happier in doing what we're
44:29
doing. But listen, it's one game for
44:32
the rest of our lives on Sunday boys, it's one game.
44:36
Will they step up? I don't think so, but we will
44:38
see. I hope so.
44:40
Don't get it wrong, I fucking hope so, but we will see.
44:44
If you are enjoying the contact, subscribe to the YouTube
44:48
channel. Like I say, it's free.
44:50
Today we're we're 8 subscribers from 500.
44:53
That'd be a huge milestone for us.
44:55
So if eight people in the chat can subscribe, that actually
44:58
really helped us a lot. Then we can move towards that
45:01
1K. Also, if you guys get us the 8
45:04
subscribers, we can implement memberships and have member
45:08
exclusive lives and we can start doing that for y'all.
45:13
And I think that'll actually be more entertaining for you
45:16
because we'll be live kind of more at your request on a more
45:19
of a schedule. We'd love to.
45:21
We'd prefer to do that anyways, just instead of you only get one
45:25
live right now from us, which is recapping the games.
45:27
We'd love to do live panels discussing past teams, asking
45:32
questions or answering questions.
45:35
Debates. Yeah, debates.
45:37
Essentially a debate style show where you can talk exclusive
45:41
Thunder content. So we'd love to bring that to
45:43
you guys. But anyway, capers, you still
45:47
there? I'm.
45:48
Right here. Bro, Capers is Capers is about
45:53
to pull up Pascal tonight. We're we're going to get it
45:55
done. We'll get it done.
45:57
Capers. I'll just see anyway.
46:00
Bro hotspots. So remember guys, no NBA player
46:03
wearing the #0 has won an NBA championship.
46:06
We already disproved that. Is indie sports fan trying to
46:11
pull something too? I'm going to say thank you to
46:13
that comment, but you've been being way too nice.
46:15
All right, good karma. I don't get it out of here.
46:20
Thanks. Appreciate it.
46:22
He's been awesome all the whole time since he's joined.
46:26
Appreciate you man all. Right, everybody listen.
46:28
Brutal 1 tonight. Let's go win game #7 Joe's not
46:34
hyped, I'm hyped, I don't care. Thunder up baby.
46:38
Let's go Thunder winning 7. That's it, man.
46:41
Shouldn't let them to a Game 7. I I'm gonna have to end the
46:45
screen. No, no, no, no, no.
46:46
You don't let them under up, baby.
46:48
We'll see if you're up, baby. Let go.