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Playoff Discussion - Denver Preview! · Bring The Thunder Podcast

0:00
What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode
0:04
of the Bring the Thunder podcast.
0:07
We now officially know who our Oklahoma City Thunder will be
0:11
playing in the second round. That is the Denver Nuggets after
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they defeated the Clippers in Game 7.
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So today we're going to go over kind of the overview of the
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series, look at some of the stats, some of the key players,
0:23
stuff like that, some key storylines.
0:25
We're just going to get into it and really look at the series
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coming up as Thunder fans. Obviously, one of the big things
0:30
we're going to look at is Westbrook being on the other
0:32
side, something we're not exactly the most fond of, but
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we'll kind of get into that. So let's go ahead and start with
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the series overview. We'll start with, obviously one
0:41
seed OKC taking on four seed Denver here.
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We're getting ready for that first game.
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What do you guys think? We're we're going to have a
0:50
little we're now have a little seven man rotation on the nugget
0:53
side. They don't have the deepest
0:55
rotation. They got good players up top,
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but it's not the deepest. While the Thunder will probably
1:00
be rotating through 9, maybe 8 guys.
1:05
So the big thing is that all our players are clicking 'cause that
1:08
that depth could that depth could hurt the Nuggets and if
1:13
the series goes to six or seven games, especially since they
1:16
just came off A7 game series winning in four against the five
1:19
seat Clippers. Yeah, and playing pretty heavy
1:23
minutes. The other thing mentioning like
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our depth where we have the eight man, it's really a 10 man
1:29
rotation that we can substitute last two guys or three guys with
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another set of three guys. And that really throws a monkey
1:36
wrench in, you know, game planning for a team like us
1:40
because, oh, it's like, oh, Kenrich hasn't played in three
1:43
games and then boom, you just throw him and he's a Swiss army
1:46
knife. Like how do you even game plan
1:48
for that? Or like throwing in AJ, he's
1:50
probably going to get pretty decent minutes, but maybe Joe
1:54
gets expanded minutes after the first game or something.
1:57
And like those types of adjustments for from a team like
2:01
ours is that's what makes us really even more dangerous.
2:04
They're coming off, you know, a low amount of time to even prep.
2:08
And the coach is a not even just a first year coach.
2:11
He's only coached a handful of games here and previous to this,
2:15
he didn't have any real big coaching history or anything
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like that. He like he wasn't coaching out
2:20
of college. So yeah, I, I don't know, you
2:24
know how they'll do in terms of that.
2:26
Like Jokic will probably be like the player coach for the most of
2:29
the series and leaning on the championship core, which is
2:33
still dangerous. I still feel like this is still
2:35
a dangerous series. Like, we cannot be losing our
2:38
home, home games in this one. The first two games we have to
2:42
lock up and send a message. And then from there we can kind
2:46
of figure out what we want to do.
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It looks like our playoff history we've, you know, LED
2:51
this series in the playoffs, 12 to nine wins, so pretty solid
2:56
for us. But in the regular season, we
2:58
were tied 22. So I mean it.
3:02
Yeah. Yeah.
3:04
Yeah, for sure. There was a there was a post
3:06
game interview after the game where coach David Aleman said he
3:10
started talking about looking ahead at OK C and like you
3:13
mentioned, he hasn't been coached in a long time.
3:15
And he said something along the lines of how many games they
3:17
won. And one of his buddies provided
3:18
him that they got four more than that because they just won in
3:20
the first round. So hearing a coach talk like
3:23
that, that's not a lot of confidence Exactly.
3:26
Talk about how concerning the matchup is.
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And I know like I'm not expecting him to step up to the
3:31
mic and be like, yeah, we're going to wipe him in four.
3:33
Like, I don't expect him to say that, but he he didn't sound
3:37
overly confident. At the same time, we're like,
3:39
you know, we heard Russ Russ was definitely getting hyped up
3:42
saying, OK, see, here we come. Which that's kind of what you
3:44
expect. You know, you, you have passion,
3:46
you have fire Andrea, But I don't know, I, I do think the
3:51
the lack of a coach and that's not against David, you know, but
3:53
The thing is, he's not a head coach.
3:55
He he's he's been put into a pretty tough situation where he
3:59
has to coach his team in the playoffs and he's kind of being
4:02
underlooked as well because they're all just looking to
4:04
Yokich to be the coach. So nothing against.
4:07
Him yeah, it's all well on the flip side, the the Clippers got
4:13
beat in the Game 7 and the words that come out of Tyron Lou's
4:16
mouth in the post game interview is I haven't thought about the
4:19
offseason to be honest. I thought about OK, C that is
4:22
kind of wild to say after a game seven that that's what's on his
4:25
mind is the Thunder and not. Maybe it's maybe job.
4:28
Being on the line and. Maybe we should have been
4:30
focusing on Game 7 a little more instead of the next game.
4:33
You don't just assume you're going to win Game 7 and they got
4:36
white because of it. But so I do think that this
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coaching issue, coaching situation is going to end up
4:42
making a pretty big difference. I mean, I think people, we live
4:45
in an age where I think people underestimate how important a
4:48
coach is to a team. Like people act like a player
4:50
can just go out and run the team by himself.
4:52
That's not true. I will say Jokic is probably one
4:55
of those guys that is the closest to working as a coach.
4:59
Still, though, you need a coach. Like that's just how it is.
5:02
Jokic doesn't control every substitution.
5:04
He doesn't control every single play.
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A coach is important and I I don't I haven't seen anything
5:10
from him that's really blown my mind like blown me away.
5:13
I think they should have handled the series and much more than
5:15
seven. I Clippers are good, don't get
5:17
me wrong, but this Nuggets team like savvy was just saying
5:20
they're good. They're dangerous like this is a
5:22
good team. They should not have gone to 7
5:24
with this Clippers team in my opinion.
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So looking forward, it'll be interesting to see how they
5:29
handled the coaching situation to us with mark.
5:33
You know, we, we like, we've had our issues with Mark, but at the
5:35
end of the day, he's he's probably the best coach in the
5:39
league in our opinion. But you know, he's a top coach
5:41
in the league, so big coaching title.
5:43
Dimmer's kind of similar to OK C and the fact that it's they,
5:47
they have fans that just kind of get, get behind the team's back.
5:51
They have fans that support them.
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So they they, they should have been able to win those home
5:56
games pretty handedly against the Clippers.
5:58
But also I want to say when are when are you going to get
6:01
another play offs where you play back-to-back interim coaches,
6:06
back-to-back or interim coach in the first round and then turn
6:10
around a week later and you're playing another interim coach in
6:13
the next round. That's crazy to think about.
6:15
That is crazy. I wonder if that's like actually
6:17
happened ever before. I mean, that's so like, that's
6:20
just crazy, but I don't. Think it, yeah.
6:22
I don't think it has because this is the first time 2 coaches
6:25
got fired this late into the season.
6:27
I think the last time it happened was like the 1970s or
6:31
something crazy. So it's like been forever so.
6:34
Those two that did happen then being playing back to
6:38
backgrounds is pretty crazy, but I kind of want to get into like
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let's actually look at the match up here comparing ourselves to
6:44
this team. As savor mentioned, we we did go
6:47
500 against them two and two over the season.
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One of those games Russ had like the best game of the season,
6:53
dropping a 30 bomb just out of nowhere, which very mixed
6:56
feelings watching that game. But going forward, like what do
7:00
you guys think are going to be some of the key things in the
7:02
series for us as Oklahoma City Thunderbats?
7:06
Well of. Course, always the big thing
7:08
against them is when Jokic is off the floor, you have to win
7:10
in those minutes. They're one of the worst teams
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offensively when he's off the floor efficiency wise.
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So just winning those minutes will be huge and with our depth
7:19
that shouldn't be a problem and we should definitely capitalize
7:22
on those minutes. Yeah, I think that's, I mean
7:25
that that makes sense to talk about, especially with, you
7:27
know, the whole Jokic when he's off, they're just terrible.
7:31
And that's kind of been proven time going out, but.
7:33
And he just played A7 game series.
7:36
There's no way he can be on the court for 48 minutes and if he
7:39
is, more more credit to him if he is.
7:42
Exactly. He is averaging, I believe it's
7:44
his second most minutes per game in the playoffs so far.
7:47
He's at around 4041. So that is that is pretty crazy
7:51
that he's playing that much, especially with, you know, we,
7:54
we've seen you can when you're watching the Douglas play, you
7:58
can see by the fourth quarter he is dogging like he is tired.
8:02
He's not moving. And that's something that we
8:04
need to attack. I mean, a lot of people said,
8:07
and this is true of the Nuggets, when you play the Nuggets,
8:10
you're you can't stop Yokich. Focus on everybody else.
8:13
On one hand, I get that, like, yeah, it is important to focus
8:16
on, you know, Yokich is going to do his thing.
8:18
But at the same time, there's ways to slow him down.
8:20
We saw in the regular season the Lakers held him pretty well when
8:23
they played him. Yokich is not unstoppable.
8:26
You know, it's the same way like as a Thunder fan, I can unbiased
8:31
and say that Shay's not unstoppable either.
8:33
I mean, we just saw the first round that wasn't that was not
8:35
the best games we've seen from him in a while.
8:37
They they played pretty well in terms of focusing hard on him.
8:41
But you know, in that case, everybody else was just given
8:44
free looks at them. But.
8:46
I think the Nuggets, yeah, I think the Nuggets know what's
8:49
coming. I think they know we're going to
8:50
push the pet pace and test Yokich's stamina because I, I
8:54
don't know the exact quote, but Murray said after the game he
8:56
expects a high pace series or something similar to that.
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So I think, I think they know what's coming.
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That's that's exactly what they need to be ready for.
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Because that's kind of what I was going to say is with Jokic,
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I mean, we just got to keep the intensity up, keep the speed up,
9:09
get the fast breaks going. You know, we're one of the best
9:12
teams to turn the ball, getting turnovers.
9:14
Like keep that momentum, keep that movement, like push the
9:17
pace constantly. Because if there's one thing
9:19
that automatically hinders the argument for Jokic as an MVP,
9:23
it's the fact that he doesn't play defense.
9:24
He's not a good defender. He's slow.
9:26
He doesn't have a good reaction time.
9:27
Like, we should be able to go at him.
9:30
And we've seen in the past, Chet's done very well against
9:33
him several times when they've matched up with each other.
9:36
I mean, we don't know exactly what the lineup might look like.
9:38
We might see more heart against him, you know, putting that size
9:40
against each other. But either way, like I think it
9:43
would be interesting to see how on offense we kind of attack
9:49
him. Like what players do we send at
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him, you know? So it's going to come down to
9:53
obviously, I mean, Jokic is a big part of it, but also how we
9:56
go at him instead of just assuming he's going to get a
9:58
triple double every game. Like you cannot play a game like
10:01
that. Like I just don't.
10:02
I think that's kind of what the Clippers did.
10:03
I think the Clippers played a lot of well, he's going to do
10:05
really good. So let's start everybody else.
10:07
It's like that's just asking him to to change the game and win it
10:11
for him. So it'll be interesting, in my
10:13
opinion, to see what we throw at Jokic.
10:16
Yeah, I was going to mention Chet as well.
10:18
I think he's our X Factor. The more I look at it like we
10:21
know we're going to what we're going to get from J Dub in this
10:24
type of series, there's not really that much perimeter
10:26
defense from their end, but the front front court battle is
10:29
where we win or lose this series.
10:32
And having Chet as like a top end shot blocker, we're going to
10:35
need that in this series. Like obviously we saw what he
10:38
did in the first series. He led, I believe all centers in
10:41
blocks to start off the playoffs and he needs to carry that over.
10:45
And his offensive production has changed to where he can take
10:49
things off the dribble and that needs to continue in this series
10:52
as well. I just, I'm just curious with
10:54
the MPJ and Aaron Gordon matchup against him, if that will be a
10:59
hindrance for him or if he's going to be able to step up to
11:02
the plate. Because if he's able to step up
11:04
to the plate the way he was against the other DPOY
11:07
candidate, then we can definitely, definitely win this
11:11
series with a lot more ease. But if he's a little bit more
11:15
hindered, then we're going to need other people to step up.
11:17
And that's what we've seen in previous series with the
11:19
Thunder, especially in a second round series last year where,
11:23
you know, we were just one or two guys short of going over the
11:27
hump. And that cannot be the case this
11:29
time around. And I'm expecting him to have
11:33
some big games. If you if you want to talk X
11:36
factors, mine's Dort because Denver has that 1-2 punch
11:39
offensively with Yokich and Murray.
11:41
Jamal Murray is known to be a playoff riser, so for Dort to
11:44
just completely take him out of the series so we really only
11:47
have to focus on Yokich would be huge.
11:50
For us defensively to not have to worry about Murray because
11:54
we've seen what he can do 40 point games in the playoffs.
11:57
He's he can score on high efficiency.
11:59
I'm pretty sure you had a big game against us this year, so.
12:02
Yeah, for sure, I'll. Be a problem.
12:05
Shay is not my X Factor, but I would we need to see the more
12:09
like, I don't know. It's not that he didn't have a
12:11
good series because, you know, he was still averaging like 28
12:14
points on the series. But as Thunder fans, we all know
12:17
he was not playing the way that he's he has been all season.
12:20
And it's a you can take, you know, you can't expect a player
12:23
to play perfect every single game ever.
12:24
And up until that game, that first game won, he pretty much
12:28
had played perfect in almost every single game.
12:31
So I, I do think I'd like to see at least that little confidence
12:35
come back. It's nothing.
12:36
He doesn't have confidence. He's talked about how he's just
12:37
going to keep shooting. He's not afraid.
12:39
You know, some shots just don't fall.
12:40
I, I just want to start seeing those.
12:42
You know, we kind of talked about earlier, I think it was a
12:45
few episodes ago, we talked about like, man, Shay could end
12:47
up averaging like 35 in this play offs.
12:49
And it's like, that's still true.
12:51
But after that first round, it's kind of like, OK, is he going to
12:54
come out trying to fire quickly and hitting his, you know,
12:57
getting back into the groove? Or is he going to take it a
12:59
little more slow? Like he started that first
13:01
series because in the first series, that game one it from
13:04
the game, from the second the game started, it just kind of
13:07
felt like he was slower. He was not looking to get his
13:10
shot off. He was looking to let everybody
13:13
play. And I was like, OK, I like what
13:15
he's thinking. But like, that's not how we
13:17
that's not how we just got the one seed.
13:19
Like we got the one seed because he's a he attacks, he's
13:22
aggressive, you know, he gets to his spots.
13:24
And as the series went on, it looked like he started getting
13:26
there more. So it'll be interesting to see
13:28
if he kind of goes back to that, you know, patient, docile, kind
13:32
of laid back style and letting everybody else get their shots
13:35
in or if he's just going to come out firing.
13:37
And that's what I'm looking. For is he's got reason being
13:42
he's not my this is X Factor is just I can't see this as a
13:45
series where he slacks off. He can't slack off in this
13:48
series. There's too much on the line
13:49
with the MVP debate and trying to prove himself as the Most
13:53
Valuable Player in this league. I mean, I think our 6868 win
13:58
season speaks for itself. But to dominate the nugget,
14:02
especially, especially if we won in five games or 4 game.
14:06
I don't think we sweep the Nuggets.
14:07
They're too good of a team. I think they pull one off at
14:09
home, but to win in five games and just absolutely make a
14:12
statement would be so big for like from a respect level, to
14:16
get respect from across the league.
14:19
I think that would be huge for him.
14:21
So I think they'll be a lot of motivation in the series for
14:24
him. What I'm looking for from Shay
14:27
is his first quarter, like he needs to come out in the first
14:31
quarter and establish himself with at least 10 plus points in
14:34
each first quarter of this whole series.
14:37
Like if he's not doing that and we start off to slow starts
14:40
against this team, they're already a rugged team where that
14:44
we just saw what they did to the Clippers, where there was games
14:47
where we were like, how do the Nuggets pull this one off?
14:51
So we don't want that to be the case with us where it's like
14:55
they started off early. We just never can get back into
14:57
the game. And by the time Shay got rocking
15:00
and rolling, it was a little too late or we had to rely too much
15:04
in the clutch. Because if we're talking about
15:06
clutch experience just being very objective here, they have
15:09
the upper hand. They just they just truly do
15:11
have the upper hand. So we can't put ourselves in
15:14
that many scenarios this time around.
15:17
I mean, even with the Grizzlies, the last two games that we won
15:20
were pretty close games where we didn't want to be in that type
15:25
of position and a team that can close the way they this team can
15:29
and the way Yokich can. I mean, he's just a different
15:32
level closer man. I've not seen a guy of this much
15:36
talent maybe since like, I guess LeBron James brings, you know,
15:40
memory to like the level of dominance he's at over the past
15:43
couple couple years. So he's been dominating on all
15:47
sides. And we just can't, can't start
15:50
out slow with Shay. Yeah, I guess when starters on
15:53
the floor, I I'm thinking I, I guess it would have to be
15:56
Christian Brown guarding him. I have a lot of respect for
15:58
Christian Brown. I've watched him since his days
16:00
at Kansas, but I just can't see him guarding Shay one-on-one.
16:04
So I I would have to expect a lot of double S to be Shay's way
16:08
with the starters are on the floor 'cause if it's just Brown
16:11
guarding him, I don't think Brown can hold him, especially
16:14
if the series goes long. That's a that's a lot of tough
16:17
defense to be playing. Yeah, for sure.
16:19
And talking about kind of talking about the Nugget side a
16:22
little bit, Bronze taken quite the step up offensively.
16:25
I mean, that series, he was he was a big factor.
16:28
He was really big for them. So I do think we need to keep an
16:31
eye on that especially. I mean, you know, we're we're
16:33
one of the best defensive teams in recent history.
16:36
So it's like on one hand, I'm not terribly concerned, but this
16:39
isn't this isn't like the Grizzlies where we don't have to
16:41
worry about certain players and we can just kind of wave them
16:43
off and oh man, OK, they had a couple shots, whatever.
16:46
No, this they are loaded. They have guys that can score at
16:49
any point. Aaron Gordon has been becoming a
16:51
much better offensive player as well, finding that mid range
16:54
shot and every other game he'll he'll had a couple threes that
16:57
are a lot more like impactful than I think a lot of people
17:00
realize. So this this Nuggets team is
17:02
good like and that's not to diss on the Grizzlies, but I think
17:06
even the Grizzlies fans kind of knew that like this was not
17:09
going to be a good series. Like they had a little bit of
17:11
hope here and there, but after that first game was kind of just
17:13
like whatever roll out of the way.
17:15
But this is this is different. You know, this is that first
17:18
series was kind of just like a, you know, let's get into the
17:21
swing of playoff basketball and now this is the first big test
17:24
like this is. A Now it's time to get serious.
17:26
Yeah, this is a serious matchup and there's a lot of guys and
17:29
this isn't just coming from Thunder fans saying this, but
17:32
Westbrook is a huge X Factor in the series.
17:34
He really is. The intensity that he brings off
17:36
the bench can win them the series or lose them the series.
17:39
I mean, we've we've seen games where he's just like that Game 7
17:43
where him alone changes the game and puts a different type of
17:47
force moving that team forward. Then we've seen games this
17:49
season from him where by himself, he's shot too many
17:52
shots, turned the balls over too many times, push the pace too
17:55
hard and he's been a factor in them losing.
17:57
So it it'll be interesting to see how he affects the series if
18:02
our defense kind of throws him off, if his quick pace kind of
18:06
throws us off like it did that earlier game where that game
18:09
where he had 30 dude, he was getting whatever he wanted
18:11
against us. It was insane.
18:13
I mean, I was, I'm getting flashbacks in there.
18:16
Yeah, they continue that. You know, if, you know, if we're
18:19
not hustling, he's going to be out hustling us.
18:21
So he he just raises the intensity to a whole new level
18:24
on the floor. He makes everyone hustle because
18:26
if you're if you're not hustling, he's going to make you
18:28
pay for it. That's just how.
18:29
That's just how Westbrook plays. Exactly.
18:31
And that's where I'm, I wouldn't say I'm worried, but that's
18:34
where that like everyone talks about the playoff and
18:36
experience. That's where that could kind of
18:38
show is we could have these young guys who maybe aren't
18:41
trying, aren't pushing the pace as hard as someone like
18:44
Westbrook does because he's such an underestimated player.
18:47
Like you don't expect that much effort, that much hustle out of
18:50
a guy like him. And that is the nice thing about
18:53
like NBA players is I feel like way more NBA players respect for
18:57
us than the fans do. So they know what he's capable
19:00
of, but it still catches you off guard.
19:02
Like you can still see in game when players like can't believe
19:05
how quickly he got there or how much he's diving on the floor.
19:08
So if we're not pushing the pace and we don't have every single
19:11
player from the front of the bench to the back fighting and
19:15
diving and and going after lose balls, Russ alone will win that
19:20
category for that by himself, and he gets his teammates to do
19:23
that too. He's won.
19:24
He's won that category against the Clippers by himself, and he
19:28
outperformed their bench in numerous games throughout that
19:32
seven game series. And that's kind of the scary
19:34
part where, you know, if the starters win, let's say one or
19:38
two games, and then Russ wins one or two games for them,
19:41
that's four games right there, right?
19:42
Like he can ultimately change a series in that way.
19:44
Like he doesn't need to win all four games for them.
19:47
But if he can shift one or two games, which he's completely
19:50
able to do and just get 20 points and out hustle us and our
19:54
bench has a stinker, like bro, you know, that's a loss lost
19:59
right there. So.
20:00
And every once in a while we've also seen he'll just pull out a
20:03
game where he hits his threes. And those are the ones where
20:05
suddenly you're realizing really quickly it's it's half time and
20:09
Russ has 15. How did we let that happen?
20:11
And he's got 3 threes and all of a sudden, like it's a lot more
20:14
serious. And that's when his confidence
20:16
goes up when Russ is hitting his shots.
20:18
It's concerning so. He's defending way harder.
20:21
And yeah, The thing is like, usually in the first or second
20:24
quarter, let's say he scores like that, 15 points in the
20:28
second-half, he may not score again, but he's on tilt.
20:30
And that's changed the game for them where he's getting assists
20:34
or hockey assists a lot of the times.
20:36
And he's, you know, getting those metrics that don't stand
20:40
out on the stat sheet. And that's essentially what like
20:43
what he did against the Clippers.
20:44
And he's going to be looking to repeat and do that with us.
20:47
And we're going to have to match whoever his matchup is off the
20:50
bench. Russo, most likely.
20:53
I think that'll be a fun, that'd be a fun match up with them
20:56
going back and forth because they're both pretty intense and
20:59
they're both kind of the hustle guys for both both of our
21:01
rosters. Well, I also want to say that I
21:04
think that series was a huge confidence booster for him.
21:07
I think it was redeeming because he said after the game he was
21:10
yelling they chose the wrong guy because the Clippers traded
21:14
Westbrook to the Jazz for Chris Dunn.
21:16
The Jazz dropped Westbrook and then that's how that he ended up
21:20
on the Nuggets. So I think that series was super
21:22
personal for him to prove a point to the Clippers.
21:26
He should have chose me. If I was, if I was on the
21:28
Clippers right now, you guys would be winning playoff series.
21:31
But Nope, now you're going to Cancun.
21:35
I guess we'll go. We'll go with Cancun.
21:39
It'll it'll be crazy. Russ's it.
21:42
It sounds like we're just being Thunder fans and hyping up for
21:45
us. But it's not like the guy
21:47
changes the game. It's crazy.
21:49
And, and he'll want to put on a show in his, yeah, hometown,
21:53
somewhat of his hometown. For sure, I have seen some OKC
21:58
fans saying like which side should I be rooting for?
22:01
And I'm like, OK, Oh. My gosh.
22:03
Let's let's let's be real here for a second.
22:05
Hey, come on. Kevin.
22:07
Kevin. That Russ has a good series, but
22:10
at the end of the day, if you're not cheering for OKC, you're not
22:12
a Thunder fan, you're a Russ fan.
22:14
Like you can be both, but at the end of the day, like come on.
22:18
Yeah. And I, I do, I do want to
22:20
address like that doesn't mean, at least on my case, like I love
22:23
Russ. All of us do.
22:25
We're not going to be bringing him down.
22:26
We'll be cheering for him to have a fun series.
22:29
But at the end of the day, we want to get through this in five
22:32
or six games. You get a little bit more rest
22:34
heading into a Western Conference, you know, series
22:37
that's even going to be tougher than this one.
22:39
So yeah. This franchise has this
22:43
franchise has never won a ring in Denver as so the way the way
22:47
I put it is Westbrook can get get his ovation, but the ovation
22:51
needs to be louder for our guys. Yeah, which I think it will be.
22:56
I mean, we've kind of been seeing the atmosphere that we we
22:59
knew as, as OKC fans, that we knew Loud City would bring that
23:02
atmosphere. But I've been seeing a lot of
23:04
like, other pages posting like talking about how good our
23:07
atmosphere is as if we didn't already know this was going to
23:09
happen. So it's like, it's nice to see
23:12
the league's actually realizing that like our fans are
23:15
dedicated, they wear all the shirts they all get.
23:17
Like we're like one of the few teams Indiana was doing it too.
23:20
But we've been really getting into it.
23:22
And I mean, we knew we would, but I think Russell get his
23:26
flowers. But at the end of the day, the
23:28
OK C fans want OK C to win. Like that's that sounds like a
23:32
stupid statement, like obvious, but it for unfortunately, it's
23:35
not obvious for some fans. A lot of people are really
23:38
debating and it's like, all right, guys.
23:41
Something pretty, something pretty cool they're introducing
23:43
for this game as they're doing black jerseys, black court and
23:47
black shirts, which will be the first time that OK C has done
23:50
that. Hopefully not occurs.
23:52
Hopefully to hopefully the black we hopefully won, hopefully,
23:57
hopefully one and O in blackout games.
24:00
I think we've performed pretty well not maybe in a you know,
24:04
since it's the first time in a blackout series but or game, but
24:08
in that city edition jerseys we always perform pretty well on
24:11
those from at least a regular season perspective.
24:14
And the other thing that I wanted to bring up mentioning
24:16
Shay. Yeah, those are.
24:18
Actually our jersey wise, we have the our worst winning
24:21
percentage in those jerseys. Still a good percentage though.
24:25
Yeah, it's. Still it's.
24:28
Yeah. Oh well, yeah, but I was going
24:30
to mention Shay is releasing his new colorway in the Shay ones,
24:36
so I'm super excited about that. I'm I, I guess it's going to be
24:40
a blackout theme. If I had, if I had to predict
24:42
anything, but I'm I'm excited, all black.
24:45
Color way. Yeah, I'm, I'm super excited to
24:48
see, you know what he has. And I think he needed a new shoe
24:52
change because he he did not perform well in that Gray color
24:56
way. People were saying those shoes
24:58
were cursed. Yeah, they were.
25:00
Yeah, for real. So he does play differently in
25:05
specific colors and shoes, like it's conspiracy theory,
25:09
whatever. But it it is something about
25:12
Shay where if you guys remember maybe a year, year ago, I think
25:17
the red shoes that he pulled out, the All Star ones, he like
25:21
performed so horribly that they badgered him on Twitter.
25:23
I think to the point where it even got to him where he changed
25:26
the shoes out. So I'm sure he heard about the
25:31
Gray colorway a little bit. Not that it.
25:33
Not that he thinks. About it.
25:34
That's a that's a real thing with like superstitions.
25:37
Players will literally stop wearing a shoe just because they
25:40
perform bad and it's a real thing.
25:43
I mean, at the end of the day, it's just basketball's such a
25:45
mental game that like, if you get it in your head that it is a
25:49
superstition with the shoes, it literally will help change the
25:51
shoes because then your mind's like, all right, it's out of the
25:55
way, you know, And it's so dumb. But like, it's, it's legit like
25:58
that. Literally it's, and it's not
26:00
that it's like a curse. It's just such a mental game.
26:02
Like it's so crazy. But I also want to talk about
26:07
like, obviously the big storyline of the series is the
26:10
battle of the MVPS. You know, it's Jokic going
26:12
against Shay in terms of how each player would impact the
26:15
series. I think it's going to be
26:17
interesting to see because they're going to impact in very
26:19
different ways. Jokic is like, I mean, he's the
26:22
he's the captain, he's the heart, he's the he's the one.
26:25
Well, not Russ is the heart of that team, but he's he's the you
26:28
know, he's the driving force. He's the one that runs
26:30
everything. He's going to be affecting every
26:33
asset of the game. Meanwhile, we're like we're
26:35
talking about we need Shay to be that dominant scorer, the two
26:38
way aggressive defender on the other end.
26:41
I think it's going to be interesting to see who overall
26:45
impacts the series more. I don't think that means, I
26:47
mean, obviously we know the MVP has nothing to do with this, but
26:51
it's also, you know, it's the narrative, it's going to get
26:55
pushed for sure. So in terms of the MVP argument
26:58
or maybe not even the argument about MVP, just kind of impact,
27:01
what do you guys think it's going to look like for each each
27:03
player for their team? Well, well, this is going to be
27:05
a 2 sided test for Shay because he's going to have to bring it
27:08
offensively obviously if we want to win this series.
27:11
But the way the starters fall, he's probably going to be
27:13
guarding Brown. I would assume it's it's not
27:17
guarding Murray. So he's probably going to be
27:19
guarding Brown because I would assume dub guards MPJMPJ
27:23
probably chat on Aaron Gordon. So defense isn't something he
27:26
can slack off in this slack off of in this series because
27:29
Brown's not a bad player. That's someone you got to
27:31
respect defensively. So it'll be a good defensive
27:34
test for him. For sure.
27:37
Sappy relay. The thing that I wanted to point
27:40
out, I mean, I guess outside of just how they'll play in the
27:47
series, I want to just point out the game schedule.
27:49
So game so games one through 4. We're not going to get the MVP
27:54
announced because it's already kind of been leaked this this
27:59
next week. You know, they're going to have
28:01
a couple other awards like executive of the year and things
28:04
like that. So the earliest that we'll hear
28:07
about the MVP release is Game 5. So that'll be like maybe May
28:11
13th or 14th or something like that depending on how much rest
28:15
they get. So kind of excited for that.
28:19
As far as like Shay and this type of MVMVP battle, I think a
28:22
minimum point per game is 30, but that's a minimum from his
28:26
expectation. I think if he's closer to 32,
28:29
I'd be more happy about that. Like he should have closer to
28:32
how he played against The Mavericks, and that's probably
28:34
what he's going to do in this series as an expectation.
28:37
And then from Yokich's end, he kind of had a subpar series when
28:41
it comes to his typical stat lines.
28:44
On his standards. Yeah, from his standards, like
28:47
he was still doing like crazy stuff.
28:49
But from an efficiency standpoint, I think Jokic will
28:53
be a little bit more efficient against us.
28:54
We have Hardenstein, but I think he's going to put Hardenstein in
28:58
a lot of tough situations where he'll be in a lot of foul
29:01
trouble. And I think since we have like a
29:03
eight man rotation, I think Jay will be Jay will will be the guy
29:07
that will be getting a little bit extra minutes in the
29:09
rotation due to that. So just to fend off against that
29:13
foul trouble. The one adjustment that I want
29:15
to see in this series, and I don't know if we'll I honestly
29:19
see it, is Chet Holman switching over to Jokic and then having
29:23
Heartenstein on Gordon because Gordon's stepping out to shoot
29:27
threes. But I don't know how much I
29:29
trust that. Like I'd rather leave him out
29:31
there and have our best defensive player on Jokic.
29:34
I know we won't see that much because we want to, you know,
29:38
protect Chet in the way. So that's why we're running this
29:41
two man lineup. But hopefully as the series goes
29:44
on, that's an adjustment that happens.
29:47
There there's pros and cons to both 'cause you also don't want
29:50
Chad to get in foul trouble, 'cause that's a player you want
29:53
deep into the game in the fourth, third and fourth
29:55
quarters. So yeah.
29:57
Check it it's. A lot of fouls typically too so.
30:01
Yes he does for sure. Well, I mean, I think if there's
30:05
one thing we know for sure, this should be a good series at
30:08
least. I mean, at the very minimum it's
30:10
going to be entertaining. 2 very good teams two of the best
30:13
players in the league to deep defensive teams.
30:16
This should be a really fun series.
30:17
So yeah I mean if you guys have any of your own thoughts on the
30:21
series, please let us know in the comments will be posted on
30:23
you know normal stuff YouTube social media, everything like
30:26
that. So make sure you guys let us
30:27
know what you think in the comments below and predictions,
30:33
yes. We never in 600.
30:39
And six. All right, I'm gonna go.
30:41
I'm gonna go. Thunder in five.
30:45
Wow, wow. I'm I'm still sticking with my
30:49
pick of Thunder and six in this one.
30:52
Just the way the series is going to go.
30:54
Like I think we can close them out on their home floor because
30:57
we're that good. But if we don't, then obviously
31:01
we have Game 7 to fall back on. I just don't think we'll need
31:04
that. We've seen Shay close it out on
31:06
their floor. So yeah, yeah, I think 6 is 6 is
31:11
good. For sure, for sure.
31:13
All right, well, as always, we do hope you guys enjoyed the
31:16
episode and we will catch you guys next time.
31:20
Peace out. Thunder up.