The Ringer NBA Show - Knicks Choke Away Game 1. Plus, Has SGA’s Foul-Drawing Reached Harden Territory? | Group Chat

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Justin, Rob, and Wos immediately give their thoughts on an instant-classic Game 1 which saw the Pacers make another incredible comeback to take a 1-0 series lead over the Knicks. Then, they discuss the Thunder-Wolves series. They discuss the foul-drawing going on, and if there are any concerns for Minnesota after Game 1. Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre Producers: Isaiah Blakely and Ben Cruz Social: Keith Fujimoto The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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gambling problem call 1 800 gambler or visit rg dash help dot com hello and welcome for group chat i am justin verrier and joining me indiana's rob mahoney new york's big waz we just watched one of the most insane fucking playoff games i think i've seen in the very long time. I feel like we need to have a cigarette, Rob, before we start this podcast. Seriously, what the fuck? I mean, even by PACER standards, that one was completely ridiculous. Absolutely insane.

Too many ridiculous moments to even name. In regulation, the Pacers are a good balance team, and then crunch time comes, and Aaron Neesmith is Steph, and Tyrese Halliburton is Reggie Miller, and Andrew Nemhart is Dwayne Wade, and Obie

Topin is fucking Shaq. Like, these guys just turn into absolute killers, for some reason. Final three-ish minutes of regulation and then whatever else they got to play. Yeah, it really is the Pacer's craziness married with the Knicks' own craziness, which happens to unfortunately be a lot of collapse and just like losing things down the stretch. That's what happened tonight because it seemed like the Knicks had it in regulation. Then they let it slip away. Then Halliburton thought he ended it, but he didn't really, but he definitely got that celebration off. But fortunately, they pull it off in the end there. Just, I guess,

Yes, Rob, just what a fucking like gutsy-ass performance from the Pace. It's a team that like didn't slow down when it seemed like the Knicks ran out of gas. Yeah, a gutsy performance in a gutsy playoff run. Like I think we just need to call it how it is, which is we are seeing in real time the greatest comeback run of any playoff team that has ever been in the postseason at all, period. Whoa, greatest. This is three consecutive rounds of basically unprecedented comebacks against different opponents. I don't know what else to call it other than that. This is the greatest comeback team we've ever seen.

Yeah, tonight was just nuts. And, you know, I did start thinking about Cleveland and the Bucks as things were kind of winding down. But at every second, I'm like, all right, this is kind of embarrassing that if you're the Knicks and you kind of cruise through the entire fourth quarter, most of which without your MVP candidate, best player. And, you know, to let it get this close, get this tight,

all right, you're going to have, Tibbs is going to have something to coach about, you know, in the two days in between the next game. And I really didn't think they would lose this game until the last free throw was missed in regulation. And Indy gets the ball down to. And I'm like, oh, like, they lost. Yeah. They lost this freaking game. Yeah. So Tim Reynolds of the AP had this stat, 23 points from the Pacers in the final 314 of regulation.

that's the most in playoff history dating back to 1997, which is where the play-by-play era begins. So to Rob's point, yes, definitely his story. Rob, what do you think it is about the Pacers? Is it just that like they were born in the darkness because they play a more frenetic style and so they're used to things getting all silly like they did? Or is it something else going on?

I do think there is something to that sort of organized chaos, right? Like they play such a free-flowing movement-oriented offense. It's not like you have to be in a specific spot to hit your shots or be on a specific move to hit your shots. They also just have guys who go after everything. And you saw that bite them for a minute when all of a sudden they couldn't stop fouling three-point shooters when Jalen Brunson was out of the game in the fourth quarter

and it looked like they were basically going to hand the Knicks the win as a result. But that same instinct, that same drive is what lets them go after rebounds, pull up loose balls, force jump balls, come up with these huge effort plays that you need in addition to Aaron Neesmith having a 20-point fourth quarter out of thin air. Like just willing to. team back into this game. And so the combination of high level streak shot making plus elite effort, plus I will say

relative to earlier in the game, screwing their heads on straight, which was not the case in the first half, certainly, like actually played clean, good basketball. That's how this stuff happens. But look, if there was a real formula, everyone would be doing it. I think the answer is just they're the Pacers, and this is apparently how they live. So they scored 23 points in the last three minutes and 15 seconds. whatever the hell it was. That means the Knicks scored 12 in that span.

You extrapolate that over a quarter. That's a fantastic, offensive quarter by that pace, by the Knicks pace. And they still end up sending this game into overtime and ultimately winning it. I think the Neesmith thing, like, look, the Knicks missed a bunch of big free throws, OG missed one, Brunton missed one,

Towns missed one. These are your best guys who you expect to be there and hit clutch free throws. That's cool. But Aaron Neesmith went eight of nine from three. Like, I text you guys. I was like, Steph Curry could not have been expected to make these threes, dude.

Let alone Aaron fucking Neesmith. This is insane what this guy did. Yes, the Knicks had some foibles. I thought when they should have been running a clock, they did some Russell Westbrook type. All is try to score even though we're up, even though the clock is our first. friend at this point. Those were some mistakes along with the

Miss Fritos, but like they didn't have these awful turnovers that turn into dunks and all of this stuff. It was just the Pacers were just making insane shot. Yes. After insane shot. And the last shot they took in regulation which Halliburton freaking backs all the way up moon shot. The electric slide. Yeah. Straight of electric slide. Absolutely. the ball damn near hit the ceiling of MSG

to where I'm like, when it went that far up, I'm like, oh, okay, the game is actually over. This is crazy. What a heart attack game. Then I see this thing dropping and I'm like, oh, my God. Just crazy. I had that thought as the ball was bouncing off the rim after the backup to what Tyree's thought was the three point line.

I'm like, I can already hear the talking head bits tomorrow about how this is what's wrong with today's game. He couldn't just go for the two to tie it. He had to back it up for three. And then what do you know he made it anyway? I didn't think he took the two to tie. Took the two to the tie. He did.

I don't even think it was conscious so much as that he's so used to back peddling to three. He's found himself in the paint. He's like, I've never been here before. What am I going to do? First of all, great paint game by Tyree Salafurn. Some great inches around the basket. He did it all. He was unfortunately good all around.

Was the choking thing fair or fall? Can we get a read on that? I'm going to say because they won, I think it's good. It's going to live on. It would have been bad. It's more than fair. I think if they would have lost, this would have ended up almost like a swaggy pee. Take the three turn around and put your arms out.

And it like bricks out. But they ended up winning. Reggie Miller's sitting right there, court side, calling the game. Like, you know, Spike Lee's and, like, come on. Like, I get it. And Halliburton just is kind of a showman, not even kind of. He just straight up this. He understands the moment.

He understands how to create chatter and eyeballs around what it is that he's doing. He's a wrestling heel. Yes. And he sees the moment, man. Spending too much time with McAfee and going to WWE events, it's really trickling over. In fact, he told Ellie LaForest in the walk-off interview, like, I had that in the back of my mind. People were asking me to do it.

I probably shouldn't have brought it out so soon, but maybe I have to do it again. I have to give him credit. I found that very endearing. Like, he is self-aware enough that he could like. laugh at himself in those moments and that kind of took some of the piss out of it. And they won, which is probably the biggest thing of that. It's a huge part of it. I can't remember the last time we had a heel in the NBA who was also this good.

You know, it's one thing to be like a Dylan Brooks type, but to be a superstar level player who's making these kinds of plays and playing the heel. Like that's where the reggie comp comes up, right? Like that's where it's Trey. It's Trey Young. And he surpassed him. I was about to say. Halliburton is better currently than Trey has ever been at any of the

point in his career. And Tray Young's really good. He's been an all-star. He's been a really talented and like capable player, very productive player. He doesn't have this. He doesn't have this kind of, not just performance in him, but like overall team play in him as far as what Halliburton has done on this run. Yeah. They just, man, they just don't panic. And, you know, another thing of buddy of mine who over there with the Knicks, he was like, I hate to say it, but the Knicks have been due to lose this kind of game.

Yeah. They've been coming out on top of the. skirmish, fourth quarter, craziness, comeback. They've been on the other side of this so many times in this postseason, at least three times against Boston. I think that was the first game against Detroit

where Detroit was up like 13, 14 to something in the fourth, went cold and ended up losing it. They were due for one of these, man. But this is just what the playoffs is supposed to be. Let's talk about that. Because the first, moment we got was him in the mic'd up segment where he's like, we got to dominate the Brunson list minutes like he was auditioning for the hoop collective or something.

He's very, very plugged in this pod. Let's be real. Come on. He's very plugged into the podcast discourse lingo. I will say that. And unfortunately, it seemed like they were going to lose those pretty badly because in that fourth quarter, uh, Knicks go off on a 14-0 run after Brunson gets his fifth foul, 17,6 overall. And you think, oh, this is exactly what you want.

off for the next, not only overcoming those minutes, but OG looked great. It was finally those other guys. You got bride chipping in. You had campaign shipping in, but we're getting a lot of OG bridges stuff going on. Finally, those guys give you what you need supplementary to break through. Fortunately, the damn fucking went the other way and then everything broke free. I have to wonder, Rob, if some of the mistakes down the stretch were fatigue, because even though they did go eight men in this game, which is longer of a rotation than Tibbs probably likes to, probably the longest we'll see in this series going forward. But also, felt like the pressure on Brunson started to mount on him where not only was

knee Smith just getting into his shorts, but then they would send a second guy and he almost like was in disarray before he was making mistakes later in OT. Yeah, I thought Brunson was just out of control down the stretch, which is not something we're used to sing from him. This is a player who plays with a ton of poise, who has such good good like balance to his game does not make those sorts of mistakes. And he was bailed out from several near turnovers in addition to some actual turnovers in addition to just like trying to draw a foul for so long he would drain half or the entire shot clock and New York wouldn't get a good shot out of any kind of possession.

So strange to see after he looked so comfortable in regulation. Like up until those final three minutes or so, he had everything going for him. It was so easy to get inside. He was playing every defender like a fiddle. no one, Niesmith included, could do anything to disrupt his rhythm or his shot. And Niesmith did figure it out. I honestly don't even know what changed. Like obviously he's pressuring him, but he's been pressuring him throughout this game.

Something tilted in that matchup a little bit in Nismith's favor. And maybe it's as simple as during these late game situations, the refs are a little bit less inclined to bail him out with some of those calls. But ultimately, I am flummoxed by how badly Brunson played. and how badly he set them up for those critical moments because you know when he did make those desperation passes across the court, whether it was to towns or to OG or to bridges in particular, those guys didn't not look particularly ready for that moment.

Yeah, I mean, I think the mentality kind of changes, like, there was between attacking a guy in the second quarter and attacking a guy in a tight-ass fourth quarter possession, right, where you feel like you must get points out of this possession. rather than, all right, we're going to do whatever comes to us. Like, I think it's just a different proposition. And in Brunson's mind, he's like, I'm going to draw a foul here. That's my most efficient way to get to, or what I feel like is the most efficient way,

especially the way this guy's guarded me. I'm not convinced that Brunson, like, melted down or got tired. I think he was just trying to draw fouls, man. Like, trying to be like, look, man, like, get into the free throw line, winning it there. instead of taking what ultimately are tough shots. Even when Princeton is going, he's taking very tough shots. Like, I don't know. I didn't watch that thinking like, oh, he's ruined.

I'm like, oh, he's really trying to sell this foul job right here. And, you know, he got a couple of them, but there was a couple of times where he didn't. I don't know, man. It's hard for it. Like, I know it. Like, we're supposed to say the Knicks choked here. But, like, a guy made eight out of nine threes who's not a freaking three-point

assassin. Like that has to matter. He made like four threes in the last three minutes. He misses one of those. Just one. And they lose this game. Yeah. I think Brunson wore down to a certain extent as I think the Knicks might have to worry

about going forward here because those minutes are just going to compound over time. This is actually the worst case scenario going into a game too to lose this game because I think the paces are just going to push the pace even more in game two and wear them down even more. But on top of that, it just seemed like, like in the face of pressure, he kind of didn't know where to go. I wonder if it was something with like his legs too, because it seemed like Towns was hobbling. He is always hobbling on and off. OG seemed like he is hobbling. I don't know what it is, but it just like something was off there and it felt like whenever they would send two to him. Also couldn't see over in a way that like the

baser's offense wasn't going to. I think it was also predictability too. Like you kind of know what the Knicks are going to run, especially in high levered situations to the point where like after they were doubling Brunson Rob in that fourth quarter. They started doubling towns just because they knew where he was going next. And so it really kind of underlines the difference of these two teams where it's like, Knicks have a very set order of operation. Things are just flowing for the Pacers, right? Yeah, I think it's that difference more than anything.

And choke might feel a little bit strong, although by the margin and the time that was left in the game, I could understand why anyone would read it that way. But this was a kind of implosion by the Knicks and an amazing comeback by the Pacers. and both things can be sort of true, and in this case, undeniably true. Like, it takes both sides. It takes Aaron East Smith having an incendiary night, and it takes a lot of Knicks mistakes to get there.

And those mistakes, again, we're not used to seeing from the Knicks in this run. These are the cardiac Knicks, and they might have finally died on the table. Like, you know, you can only give out so many times before ultimately it's just a bridge too far. So here's the thing about today, too. The Knicks, I thought towns looked as comfortable

as he looked the entire both season. I thought whenever somebody who wasn't knee-Smith was guarding Brunson, the Pacers looked fucking toast. Yes. Okay. Like, they looked, the Knicks offense looked as comfortable as just relaxed and worry-free as it's looked the entire postseason throughout this entire game. You know, the last three minutes notwithstanding.

That being said, if the Celtic series should teach us anything, it's like, yeah, that's cool. But you just lost the game that you should. should have won. Okay? And this is how a series that's this freaking close ultimately slips through your fingers, dude, like, you should have won this game. And like, you know, we said after the first two boss games, like, well, they looked better than the Knicks the first two games, even though they lost. The Knicks look better than the Pacers, even though they lost. But guess what? That shit don't matter. Now they have a game in hand. And boy, there is a lot of pressure on the New York

Knicks going into game two, bro. Like, they cannot lose this game. So it's just how that quick a series can turn. Both teams, despite all the chaos, finished shooting 51% from the floor. Like, the first half in particular was just wild. It seemed like they may have missed a combined two shots. Didn't the Paces make their first 10 shots or something insane like that?

They didn't miss for like almost six straight minutes. It was unbelievable. Straight up, did not miss a shot. So if it was the Knicks running eyes, of gas that would lead credence to that just because it is going to be a shootout i think from here i guess the one takeaway you have to like for the nix was that mitchell robinson was such an impact for them i honestly thought he should have played more to the point where when they were doing the coming out of the first half interview even the pacer seemed to be relaying to alia la force

that like yes that's what we are most afraid of just because he was dominating the boards i get it because he missed his first two free throws you're always worrying about hacka obviously obviously the Knicks struggle from the free throw line overall. And then like offensively, what are you really getting from him? Especially as you're working in campaign, some some Deuce McBride minutes. Overall, though, I thought 21 minutes, I would have loved to see him play a little bit more. Maybe. I'll say in the second half, I thought the Pacers did a much better job neutralizing Mitchell Robbins.

And it really did a much better job, too, with their own rebounding. The Knicks advantages in the first half, I thought, came from matching Indiana's pace and playing very well up-tempo. in transition, getting a lot of easy stuff for themselves, and then slowing down the Pacers to a degree with Robinson, with McHale Bridges, with Kat, hitting the offensive glass. They were getting so many second chances that they were able to slow the Pacers down a little bit. Then the second half comes around.

Pacers are hitting their own offensive glass, right? They're now countering the Knicks transition game. By the end of it, Indiana wins the second chance points battle in this game, which New York is just not going to win one of these games, so long as that is the case. I know this is a razor-type margin, but that's something they not only need to win, but need to dominate in order to kind of exercise their will

on the style of play in the series. Can I counter quickly there? If you go double big, that means you have to play Thomas Bryant, and he sucks. This is always a good tell for, like, the balance of a series. It's like, which team is being forced to play someone they don't want to play? And the Pacers do not want to play Thomas Bryant,

but they feel like they have to. Are we sure they don't want to play campaign? They shouldn't. they should not the campaign series you know good lord for a stretch of four minutes or whatever that was he

was definitely thinking he was jail and and the pacers fed into that basically allowing him to do so but I will say like deuce McBride seems more playable I would have loved it if it was more like the offense was going more through bridges or OG

earlier on and that's where we go back to the bridges his criticism, unfortunately. Overall, I thought he played a really good game. He played probably every single minute. I don't remember him ever checking out. But in those moments when Brunson is in foul trouble or he is sitting, there's a time earlier in the game where they sat both Brunson and towns together, things were still funneling through Deuce. And it's just like, why can't Bridges do this? I know he hasn't been successful doing this, but like you gave all these picks away in part because that was the working logic. I would love to see him play more of an

on ball role and actually excel at it. the series. It's just not really who he is. Even like when McHale Bridges plays quote unquote on ball, it's usually on the second side, attacking a closeout, like going into the next action in the chain. And so I can understand it from that perspective. I think a lot of it honestly comes down to the fact that he's not a very natural passer. Like he doesn't have the read of the floor. And so if you're going to be the primary initiator of the offense, like you kind of need that stuff. But ultimately, this is what is so frustrating about this game for the Knicks. They played as we have alluded to, the vast majority of an excellent game.

Like, Jalen Brunson played 90% of an excellent game. McHale Bridges, I thought, had a really great first half and a pretty good second half. I was fully ready to come in here and talk about, like, to sing O.G. and it always praises for those Brunsonless minutes. When Brunson went down, went out with the foul trouble, he scores five quick points, bumps the lead up to seven. They get a cushion. I think immediately after that, Deuce McBride gets filed on the three.

And it's like, wow, like, Jesus. Instead of this turning into a. Indy Avalanche. It's like, wait, they're extending the lead. They're putting the game away while Brunson's on the bench. Like, OG was a big part of that. Crazy. And I think we saw the full cat experience, you know, like he had some defensive struggles in

this game clearly and I think we'll all series. But you'll take those when he's putting up 35 and 10 and he's hitting threes for the first time in two rounds. Like that's a huge deal. And it's going to be a huge deal within this matchup, but you got to win this game. Like, you can't let this happen. Again, I think Indie is going to continue to play a more comprehensive. conventional pick and roll, which is why Kat is finally able to shoot.

They're not just automatically switching the pick and roll on him. And, you know, whatever, he's spacing out to 27 feet, but, like, he's a guy who can make that shot. I don't know. I think that Nix should feel like, all right, we have things that we can go to. We should feel positive about. I think their defense could stand to, like, tighten the fuck up. Like, you know, even Van Gundy mentioned on the broadcast. A few of those switches on knee-smith were soft as hell.

It was like, oh, yeah, I guess I'm going to go get him. We know they're trying to shoot threes. Like, yo, make these guys break you down off the dribble like Halliburton did on the last plate every single time down the floor for these threes, right? I think their defense will definitely be better. But, you know, it's hard to believe that their offense will be. Yeah, and that's why I keep circling back to the fatigue fast. because I think that is in the Knicks.

I think they have the right roster in order to play with force defensively. And that's why you go in roster OG and Bridges in order to like send those assignments their way. It doesn't really feel like it's in the DNA of the Pacers, but they have so much else to go with offensively. Where it seems like I often think that a series is about problem solving. And it seems like the Pacers have so many more levers to turn, like not playing Bryant first and foremost, would be my first one.

but it just seems like they're on the fly decision-making and ability to pivot is much better than what the Knicks have because they play in such a precise direct way. And Tibbs, if anything, has shown that like his answer in a lot of these situations is to double down on that. I would be surprised if we get as much campaign in next time. I'd be surprised if Deuce McBride plays more than 15 minutes. He will probably just shorten the rotation, just hope that you can get more of those guys. But look at what we saw last postseason against those pacers. They just ran out of bodies.

That was because of injuries. I wanted this time, even if those guys are on their feet, they might be dying on their feet because they look like hobbled. And if not just like a little bit less of themselves as the game goes along. There's definitely some of that at play. I think the other thing too with Brunson to give him a little bit of credit as far as the late game execution piece of this goes. Once he hit his fifth foul and he had already at that point gotten one charge throwing the shoulder into Aaron Bismith, then he's a little hesitant.

to create the space that he needs to create. And that's how he got his points all game was creating space with his body, like with those bumps. That's kind of taken away from him because he doesn't want to foul himself out of the game. And now he's kind of stuck on the perimeter a little bit. The guy dropped 40 points. I don't think the Pacers should be happy about how they played against this guy. They should not.

They should absolutely not. Brunson is fine overall offensively. Oh, for sure. I just think the Knicks should believe they can guard the Pacers better than this. And I thought they were kind of decently doing it. What you do want to do with the Pacers is force these guys to be great individuals. Like Halliburton, again, he's becoming a guy who attacks the paint, but that's what you want to challenge him to do.

Make him finish over length in the paint, right? Like, force this guy to be shooting nothing but running backwards, you know, fade away three-pointers. Like, that's what you want. You want Nemhard to be like, all right, you're going to be Kobe in the freaking mid-post and the mid-range? Go ahead. and them hard, like, that's what you want the paces to do.

I thought that Nix didn't say for the last five minutes. Yeah. I thought they did a good job of forcing the pacer's to play differently than they would ordinary like, ordinarily like to. And then, you know, a guy gets insane. And like, come on, man, like somebody's, he made like a 28 foot. He made a Steph Curry tree off the dribble. It's what happened.

What do you want? They lost. And like, I don't want to get too panicky about the Nix. Oh, no, no. I guess I'm of both minds. I'm just like, man, the Boston series has left me wounded in the sense that, like, all right, like, the better team is going to pull this out. Even when they lose games that they should win. Now I'm just like, bro, you, you trick off a game.

Well, that's why I would. Like Joe Madd. This is where I would push back. It's like, I would say going into the series. I don't see a lot of definitive proof that the Knicks are the better team. I think this isn't anything goes, anything can happen kind of series from the start.

I think this is a good tone setter for that. Maybe a little more chaotic in the end than we would have expected, but there were huge swings in this game. There were huge runs. It was tight, basically until that Brunson-less stretch where the Knicks pulled away. And then it looked like they finally had it in their hands

and it obviously swung hard back in the other direction. But I think this is going to be a pretty chaotic series. I think this is going to be a pretty even series. And I think the Pacers have earned the benefit of the doubt to say that it's kind of a toss-up as far as if they are better than the Knicks or not. These are both really good, really capable teams. No, I'm not saying that coming in, I thought the Knicks were just so much, but I'm just saying in this game, they looked like they were better. I would agree with that. And they lost.

I would say it was particularly poetic that Obie Toppen was the one to hammer the game home for the Pacers. Not only because he missed the dunk earlier on, but also because they basically gave him to the Pacers for. free in order to make the moves. I think it was in order to get Hart and DeVincenzo in that offseason. I would also say it's a little bit poetic that it was not only him who was a factor late in this game, but also it was knee Smith because honestly, if I've been impressed by anything that the Pacers have done in building this contender, basically from the middle, is just getting guys into their system who have upside and basically building them up into the marquee players that they've essentially become and

back to back Eastern Conference finals. I guess Halliburton would fit that as well, although they did trade at their time, probably their best player in order to get him. It just feels like they've done such a good job, just bringing good players into their system and then letting them get better. Reminds me a little bit of when the Clippers traded Chris Paul for just a bunch of guys, and all of a sudden they were a playoff team because those guys were just like they brought more out of them. I assume Rob, a lot of that's Halliburton, just being able to galvanize some of this,

but like, Neesmith looks like a player. It looks like a player any team would want in these sorts of situations. I mean, some of its talent identification, too. It's good scouting. It's good pro scouting by the Pacers in terms of seeing Aaron Neesmith as a Celtic and saying, we don't think that's representative of who this guy is. And I remember one of the things with them was they had the background that Nie Smith had played at Vanderbilt, a very motion-heavy style that he was really,

really well-suited to, something that was a little bit more parallel to the way that they play. And they thought, if we bring him in here and get him a tune to like our circumstances and our principles, we think he can really think. thrive in that. And he has. I just think it's, it's unbelievable to see a win like this. It is not, even though he hit the, you know, the game tying shot, buzzer beating shot, the Tyrese Halliburton game. It is Tyrese coming up with Crunchtime plays. It's Nemhart. It's knee-smith. It's Rick Carlisle with a crucial challenge to turn over possession at the end of that game. I thought that was a bullshit call, by the way. With the one off of Brunson?

He's punching the guy in the stump. No, not the one off of Brunson. Oh, you're talking about the Seacum. The Seacom. That's a foul. That's a foul. He's punching the guy in his stomach, grabbing his jersey, then grabs his arm afterwards. Like, that's just a foul straight up, but whatever. Also, let's say two crucial challenges, one of which Waas disagrees with. And in Obie Toppins case, I'm going to go ahead and say it. I don't know this to be true, but I believe it to be true.

What has to be the first double clutch crunch time dunk in NBA playoff history. We love- He got fouled. No call. And what should have been a foul. You definitely got followed. Yeah. I mean, dating back to the OSU. Depot Subonis trade for Paul George, I would have to say that the Pacer's on our run of getting

young veterans and then building their core basically from that better than any other team in the league. It's a free story idea for any enterprising young reporter out there. I guarantee they have done better from the middle than anybody in recent history. And that's accredited. Nobody else is building like this. Do you Justin have Pelican shell shock from saying the phrase young veterans? I feel like you're just like seeing Ryan Anderson and Eric Gore. Gordon and Drew Holiday Tyree Gevin's. Oh my God.

What's funny is I quite literally after saying the phrase young veterans thought about the Belkins. You simply have to. It doesn't always work, but it did in this case. And I think it bears mentioning again, well,

one, Rick Carlisle, he's the man, doesn't get enough credit for being an absolutely great coach. He's proven it for 20 freaking years now. Like, this guy is an excellent coach, excellent playoff coach.

Um, dope at what he does. And we got to give it up to Indy's front office who the hipsters in our profession never want to give it up to. Um, I guess because they didn't get a bunch of draft picks and lottery picks and all pick protections and blah, blah, blah. But they're in the Eastern Conference finals two years in a row. Um, I never hear the hipsters slurping their style of team building ever. Um, so I think I'm giving them free ideas.

No. So plenty of slurping to be. out there. That the Pacer's front office deserves credit for not being some Charlotte tank job year after year, you know, some wizards, well, I guess the Wizards like half tank, they tanked by accident, whatever. But like all of these teams in the doldrums crying about getting jumped in the lottery, like, oh, then what did we do with our system and blah, blah, blah.

Just look at the paces, man. They ain't need none of that lottery luck and all that dumb shit. Just smart GMing. bringing good-ass players in, bringing hard-nosed guys in and building them up, you know, developing guys. I love it. I mean, we don't have to assign it anymore.

Waz just broke that. I feel like I just blacked out and Waz went on a 20-to-O run. I don't know what happened. I guess the Knicks also kind of did a similar thing where do they even have a drafted player on their team. It's a higher level of that idea. Yeah.

Even Brunson, they signed for his max at the time in order to lure him over from Dallas. So different ballpark in terms of money and resources and whatnot. All right. So next game, anything you're looking at, Rob, in terms of adjustments for either team? I think for the Knicks, the question is how they want to defend the Pacers pick and roll. Obviously, the Knicks were getting a lot of what they wanted offensively. I thought basically any time the Pacers put Cat into the action, Tyrese was walking by him to the rim.

They were creating good stuff, forcing rotation, forcing a lot of overhelp, getting good shots for everybody. else. At some point, that's untenable. And I get from a game one perspective, you come out, you make the Pacers prove it, you make them show that they can build offense that way consistently. And maybe you want to start game two that way just to see if they've got the kind of crazy shot making they had at the outset of this game. But you need a response other than just keeping cat and drop and letting him be basically feast, like letting he be food for the Pacers' guards. Yeah, I think that to me the adjustments are about the Knicks defense. I wonder what the Pacers do. to get Cat off

for the three-point line. I wonder if they do become a switch-heavy team. You know, I don't know that they necessarily have the personnel for that in their guard rotation. So that's a tough decision

that they have to make. So keeping Carl off the three-point line is something they need to do. I think that Knicks need to be smarter about, yeah, like Tyrese is going to cook Cat on the ball. Like, I mean, that's just kind of how the series is going to go.

But off the ball, man, they got to be cleaner about how they're handling the Pacers' screening and movement off the ball. That's where they got to be a little bit more focused to me. So, yeah, you got to live with Tyrese. If Halliburne's going to drop 35 a series, hey, man, say, man, he's a freaking MVP.

He's a champion. He's a killer. But I think you could live with Tyrese becoming more aggressive offensively, looking for his shot. That's not how he likes to play. And so I think that's what they should be doing. in terms of the other guys, like one of the points in overtime, Nemhard just gets a back door wide open.

You know what I mean? Like, they got to clean all of that stuff up. It actually, at moments, reminded me of game five against Boston, where they were just lost in some of the most basic-ass actions, right? And in game six, they just came and cleaned a lot of that stuff up. I think that's where the Knicks need to be looking. Offensively, they had a freaking peach of a game, and defensively, they need to clean it up.

You can get a sense of that high wire act, though, because I thought, like, at times, Josh Hart and Deuce and McAle and OG were rotating really well around the basket, and they were able to stifle some of the Pacer's attempts to finish inside when they got there. But sometimes they just, as you alluded to us, straight up, did not see it, did not recognize it, got caught up on some other action. So it was either like perfect or absolute implosion defensively for them around the basket. I think something's up with towns. And it seemed more pronounced later in the game. there's that one play, I think in overtime where it seemed very clearly he was hobbled. But even if you watch him earlier on in the game, I had this in my copious, just detailed notes here. It seemed like he struggled to accelerate even on closeouts.

Like it seemed like he could move around, but actually like going from start to stop quickly was an issue for him. I wonder that's why they were giving so many Halberton threes early on. He was missing him. So maybe that's why they stayed in it. But they were aggressively in drop for longer than I would. expected them to be considering the returns. And so I have to imagine something's up with him. I guess on the flip side, he was actually hitting three.

So that's something on the other end that he can build on. Hit four in this game. He had three in the entire series of Boston. That's crazy. He took eight, which was even more than probably had in half the series of Boston. I thought the best of CAD in this game was awesome, almost unstoppable shot making. Like really, really tough stuff that you have to hit to win a series like this. And the fact that he's showing himself capable of that is very promising for

the next. The fact that Jalen Brunson is showing himself capable of just putting up a casual 43 in a game like this. And we're like oh, he sucked on a stretch. Both things can be true, you know? So Halliburton's talking to the media right now and on his choke sign, he says, I wasn't like plotting it

or anything. If I would have known it was a two, I would not have done it. I might have wasted it. If I do it again, people might say I'm aura farming. I don't plan I'm using it again. God damn Gen Z. Hoopers, I don't know how much more I can do with this. All right.

Well, if you were offended by Jalen Brunson's foul baiting tactics in game one, we have the Western Conference Finals for you, which has just gone wild since the Thunder just plastered the Timberwolves in game one. Why don't we start there? Because I'm curious to hear Waz's thoughts on this, because you're already kind of piloting some takes in the group chat group. chat. How did you feel overall about the whistle for SGA and just like everything that played out there? Again, I just think it's a stark difference. Like, Shea is drawing legitimate contact. This isn't hard in hooking guys his arms and flit. Like, the way he's shifting, he's drawing contact. However, when you contrasted with the contact that say a Julius Randall draws every time he's within five feet of the basket,

it looks insane. It's jarring to see it, dude. I get it there of different body makeup, different kind of games. I get the refs have to be like, look, we kind of have to officiate the two players differently. But if you're just watching the game and you watch Julius Randall get mauled,

literally, like they are just, boom, boom, hitting him. Every time he puts the ball on the deck, on a post-up or just a regular drive, And then Shay gets what feels like a graze on his shoulder. And it's just automatically a foul. Like, I'm sorry, dude. Like, that just looks crazy. It's not that he's not drawing contact.

It's just what gets counted for foul level contact does not seem consistent. I don't know. And, you know, whatever. It was the same thing in the freaking Denver series. Like, Yolk it's he had to resort to flopping. He was doing it too for sure. You would never do it otherwise, you're right. But again, if you look up the Hartenstein Yokic one-on-ones,

where Yolkich is backing this dude down, and Hartinstein is literally hitting this guy with a Billy Club for a forearm, like just smacking them every single time. And then you see when Shay, the second this man gets touched on his way to the rim, he's getting a foul. Again, he's getting touched. Yeah. It's just like, there's got to be some level of balance here.

just to calibrate what we're talking about. I think ultimately people are very worked up about like three different possessions in an entire game. It was like there were a couple of plays where Shea kind of took a dive off of yes, some marginal contact and then would just hit the floor and get the call in a way that other players in the postseason are not getting. And not only the contrast in terms of Julius Randall or aunt and the kind of contact, those guys are allowed to be bludgeoned with, but that push off forearm for Shea is working over. time. Like he he gets he gets to create space through contact but players do not get to have any contact with him. That is frustrating for an opponent, for an opposing fan base. All those things are

true. I also just think like part of the reason she had so many free throws is he had 28 drives in that game according to NBA.com. Ant had seven. That's kind of it. He had the ball in his hands more than any other player in that game. He took more shots than any other player in that game. Stans to reason he would probably get more free throws and especially when the team their disparity is not really glaring at all. I just have a hard time getting too worked up about it. But there were a couple calls that he got that other players don't. There's no way around that part of it.

Yeah, it's funny you bring up Yokish because as Shay was just like, had the parade going to the line. I was visualizing Yokic almost like Hodor, where he has just, just zombies on top of him. And he's just like just getting piled on. But yet he can't even sit for two minutes in a game while Shay's just going the line every five seconds. And here's the thing, too.

we've said this before. OKC deliberately is playing this way. They are the most physical, handsy-ass defense in the entire league, and they're daring the refs. They're doing the right thing. They're daring the refs to call fouls on them because they are smaller than everybody they play.

They have to be able to get handsy. They have to be able to be physical against their opponents to have a legitimate shot. Or else, their guys are skinny and short, oftentimes in their matchups. that's always happening. So they're leveling the playing field and you add their level of execution,

their speed and quickness and agility, and these guys have great hands, strong hands. Like, I love watching OKC play defense. However, they're following the shit out of people. There's just, like, it's undeniable. Let's just say OKC we're playing defense the way that they do against Shee Gilger's Alexander. He'd be getting 30 free throws a game.

Are you kidding me? Like, they are following. people, but it's on the refs, man. The onus is on the reps. They are fouling people. I would say every great defense in the history of the league has also filed a shit out of people. The bad boy pistons, the 2004 pistons, the Grisdons,

the Grisd and Greisleys. I disagree with you, Rob. Show me the team that was not hyper physical. I disagree with you. The Warriors, their championship run, great defense. Draymond Green filed you on every play. Everybody else was not filing you on every single play.

You don't think Andre Aguadala, you don't think Clay Thompson and you'll think those guys are felt extent. No. KG on Ubuntu Celtics. Oh my God. That motherfucker fouled you on every single player. Tony Allen on the Ubuntu Celtics. Kendrick Perkins on the Ubuntu Celtics.

Like, there are these guys on every team. But like, man, OKC files a lot, bro. That is the thing is that the thunder, you know, every championship defense has those sharp edges. The Thunder made a whole roster out of the sharp edges. And then put Shay on top of it. I think it was a bad whistle. first and foremost. I think everyone can agree on that. Unfortunately, it is intrinsic to the way Shea plays

that his superpower is that he is shifting. He gets hit. In a way that he can contort to avoid people, but also nick them just enough in order to get what he wants plus the foul. And so it's going to keep happening. It's funny, it's like I always draw the comparison to Hardin because I've said in the past, like Hardin just feels like on another level than Shea, where it just seems like Shay gets fouled in the course of doing what he's doing. I've said ethical ball drawing in the past, whereas Hardin just feels like his primary motive is get to the line. Unfortunately, I did look up the numbers before this.

Hardin's Houston era did average 9.4, free throws a game, shade this postseason, 9.2. It has gone higher. There have been more extremes for Hardin where he had 10 and a half two post seasons of this amount of games, like 10 plus. So we are getting into that territory, but still even aesthetically as someone who's watching it, I don't find it as offensive as Hardin's sidestepping his way.

It's not the same thing. We're just trying to fucking hook them. It's not the same thing. And so I almost feel like someone's been through a more difficult battle or war. And I'm like they send me to to a lesser one. It's not the same thing. It's not Tray Young. It's not Harden.

It's not the worst of the worst. It's not. Again, he's getting hit. He is. The only point is other guys. are getting hit too, dude. They're getting hit just as hard as She is.

I think it's being amplified as well because I have to wonder how many people were really plugged into Thunder over the course of the regular season. Especially after the trade deadline, Lucas on the Lakers, all this other stuff, how many people were really plugged into this being the course of action for them

winning, what was it, 68 games? And so that plus Shea winning MVP today was also unfortunate timing because it almost amplify that amplification. It does feel like they are fast becoming a little bit of the villains. And it's funny because you would think like just based on how their makeup is, they would be the sprightly young upstarts that everybody loves.

If anything, it seems like people are piling on them. And I don't hate it. At least it gives them something of an identity in the big picture that at least people can latch on to. And almost it works for the NBA narratively to sell them as the death star. and like the rebel force from the Eastern Conference, if let's say it's the Pacers coming to fight them, that's a little bit more of narrative tension

than I can kind of, I could get behind. But if Tyrese Halliburton is also the heel, or is it just two death stars? Oh, double a heel. Well, it's kind of like how the rock is a heel sometimes, but he is always a superstar, you know? I have no idea what you're talking about. I trust you and I trust Ben Cruz to correct us if you're wrong,

but I don't know. Here's the thing about OKC, See, I'm happy people are starting to hate them. I think we need more hate within the sport. Because I would say outside. It's passion. Yeah. It's passion.

Outside of the Jordan Bull's second three peep. The most juice that's ever been around the NBA was Steph Curry, which, you know, was legitimate love. And the heatles. And which was just pure, unfiltered, unadulted. unadulted hate. So listen, if fans got to burn jerseys, call people's moms out of their names at the game, you know, throw batteries at reps. Let's do it. Let's bring passion back to the NBA. You heard it here first. Wasney Lambrey, senior staff writer at the ringer.com. More hate. More hate. More hate. More toxicity. Maybe don't throw a pile of trash on a guy

in a Pacers jersey. Seems uncall for. Bring that guy to a game. Because you know, maybe don't do watch how how bad is is coming back for the finals all of a sudden he's going to be sitting court side and i don't think he's coming back till next season it's not a lifetime band but he's probably done for the playoffs it's extremely tough yeah uh all right do you want to talk about the actual game now i i will say this about the foul drawing part of this like

ultimately one way in which it did put a damper on the game is jaden mcdaniels fouls out in 24 minutes and that was an awesome matchup when it was allowed to happen. And some of that is the rest needing to maybe allow a little more contact. Some of us, Jaden McDaniels needing to pull his hands back and play with the utmost discretion given the opponent. Because I thought they're kind of back and forth, specifically in the first half, was one of the best parts of the game, was kind of the chess match within the chess match.

There was a lot given there in certain situations. I thought Jaden was just hounding him, denying him, do it. You can tell the thunder's respect for Jaden McDaniels by the fact that they would sometimes give the ball to Lou Dort to bring the ball up court, just so Shea didn't have to deal with Jaden 94 feet. I thought that was a nice little tip of the hat. But ultimately, like, I want Jaden McDaniels to be able to stay in these games. And it's incumbent on him to figure out a way to do it because the wolves will not win if he's fouling out of these things in 20-something minutes.

We talk so much about what would happen if the Thunder didn't make their threes. And then the wolves put up 51 three-borders in that one and just an atrocious supply of shooting. I think this is going to happen against the Thunder. unfortunately, I think it was compounded by the fact that ant was a little tentative, especially after it seemed like he turned his ankle, maybe even like turned it twice on the same play. He just went back and just didn't seem right that entire game. I do wonder a more aggressive ant, and especially now that the officials will not be able to bear their head about the falls. I imagine a pretty dramatic swing the other way in which the game is a little bit more physical.

And so maybe that plays into the wolf's strengths, not only because they are a more physical team, first and foremost, but it seemed like a lot of the success was that the Thunder had wasn't that smaller ball lineup. Can you not go to J-Dub at center, Kenrish Williams at center, if everything is going to be more of a pushing contest. Yeah, to me, the shooting, it was working in the first half,

and Justin mentioned it felt like some fools gold. I think the aunt not being able, you mentioned he had seven drives all game, Rob. I think that's why their offense came to a standstill. and just could not be the juice in the engine. Because, look, Julius Randall's been doing a good job at generating offense for them, but it is ant that is the engine of what they do.

And if it was because he was hobbled, well, he better get unhobbled for game two. Because that's the only way they're going to puncture this defense, especially of, you know, Julius Randall, God bless him, had a great playoff from the amount of times this guy turned his back to the damn defense and just had, oh, okay, case he's just taking his cookies, it was ridiculous, right?

That's why you need it to kind of be the one that's serving the defense, forcing the double. Then you're getting the nice whipping the ball around, you know, Nas Reid actually not. Nas Reid was harried all game. He did not look comfortable. Some of the shots were open. The wolves did have some open looks that they just missed. But a lot of Nasreys threes felt like forces to me.

A lot of his shooting, his shot attempts felt like he was in a rush. the entire game. And it's because it wasn't, the shots weren't coming out of the natural flow of Anthony Edwards, puncturing the defense, putting the defense in a bind with the pull-up three, and then just destroying guys going downhill. It's that

combination that makes, has been making the wolves offensive. And yes, Julius Randall being a dog, which he was in the first half, splashed like four threes or something like that. And so I think Ant has to be better. He's risen to the occasion pretty much every single

freaking series so far. He's brisen to the occasion, damn there his entire playoff life as a player. Even in defeat, he's shown that, like, all right, I belong on the court with these guys. And I think he's going to show that against Shea next game. I think he's going to have great games in this series.

I just don't know how much the downhill stuff is going to be there. If you kind of like freeze frame it when Ant has the ball, obviously he's got someone like Lou Dort guarding him. He's got the two nearest defenders encroaching, flanking Lou Doort. And then he's got usually, usually at least one other guy waiting for him in the paint. There's not a lot of room there to actually navigate anything.

And so when you think about the wolf's offense, like this was a team that during the regular season was a ton of threes and a ton of shots at the rim, the thunder do not let you get to the rim. They just don't let it happen. They play with that physicality. They do foul a lot. They create these walls with all these defenders. They create a bunch of turnovers out of all that.

And so if the thunder aren't going to let you get to the rim, what happens? In this game, it was just even more threes. that was really the only card that Minnesota had to play. They're going to have to find other ways to create other types of mid-range offense to get, you know, to channel their inner Shea in some ways. And that's going to be Julius Randall, that's going to be Ant, whether he's pulling up from three or pulling up from two, all that stuff is going to matter. Ultimately, to put the three-point stuff in context, in terms of supporting cast,

the players around Shea and the players around Ant. The guys around Ant made one more three-pointer than the guys around Shea in this game. And they took 26 more threes to, do it. That's not going to fucking work. Like, you've got to find other avenues to consistent offense if you're going to have a chance in the series. I think the wolves can find some of those inroads, but this is not the formula.

They get some foul calls. I bet you things loosen up. That'll definitely help. It is a miracle how space opens up when guys can't hold you on your drives. There's that. I do think the thunder, though, have every reason to

force the wolves, basically to prove it from the outside. Like, that's what this game is going to prove them. And they're going to be like, oh, just let them do that. And on the one hand, I want to say, like, the bench can't shoot any worse because I believe they were five from 20A overall from three. On the other hand, they kind of do this sometimes. And I wouldn't be surprised if it happened one or two more times over the course of this

series. And so, I don't know, Thunder just have that advantage where it seems like even when it comes down to a situation like this, they have options. I was so just marveled, like, once again, when they were able to turn to Ken Rich Williams basically dig him out of the deep rotation. I don't think he played beyond garbage time in the playoffs. He's going to bubble wrap the whole playoffs. And basically they were like, oh, we need to go to our small ball center.

And I could almost envision an assistant coach for the Thunder being like, which one? No, not the bigger small ball center. We want the winger, the wing size. The wingy. Small ball center, the winger. He just made an instant impact. And like, they just have options, you know? A series is problem solving yet again,

and they just have options. I think ultimately, like we pointed at OECC going smaller overall. Isaiah Hartnstein, not really that huge a factor in this game doesn't play in the fourth quarter. Rudy Gobert does not play in the fourth quarter and Nas is playing terribly in this game.

It might not be long for this series. This is my question for the two of you. From now on, games two to whenever this series ends, who plays more minutes at the five in this series? Rudy Gobert or J-dub? Who ends up logging more? minutes at the five in this series.

Definitely, Rudy. You think so? Yeah, definitely Rudy. Because I think you do want to still preserve some kind of advantage on the boards. And I think Rudy has the ability to not be a complete train wreck when they force him to play in space. It's just the reason why he got pulled his cousin, the team is struggling to score. And Rudy Copier is not going to aid in that test. Like, but it's also because he had three rebounds in 21 minutes.

And every time they did try to give him the ball, I agree with you. Like, he can be better. But this is sort of a worst case scenario for Rudy Gobert's offense, right? All of these swarming guys slapping down at the ball. His slow ass, it's tough finishes are death. It's always the offense. This team, man, like, you know, with the Lakers and their slow ass rotations and a hobbled as, you know, Golden State, that was one thing.

But these dudes, that possession where he's running clear to the rim and he turns himself around and throws it up like that. Like, what are you doing, bro? Catch the rock and dunk it on a six foot one guy's head. That's the problem. If you're going to go small, Rudy should be the counter. He has to make them pay for doing that. But he's never able to do so. I think the good news for the wolves is we've seen when Shea isn't getting to the line, isn't having success in the.

the paint, things start to spiral as quickly as it did for the wolves. And so we, we know the script here. It's like they'll go to their threes. If they're not hitting their threes, then Rudy can stay on the floor and then it plays more into your advantage. And so that could just happen in game two, just by sheer dint of like the whistle not going SGA's way. And so like the blueprint, I think, is still there for the wolves. Unfortunately, I think it just takes a little bit more than from what the thunder need to go right. Because the defense, once again, has just been so reliable. Everything is, is fluctuating throughout the playoffs. The Thunder's defense,

gaming and game out, has showed up. It's the most reliable thing in the entire playoff field. More reliable than any superstar player. We've been going back and forth and like who's the best player in this postseason? I don't know.

Everyone's had their ups and downs a little about. I now know who the best players. Let's correct the record. It's Aaron Neesmith. But yeah, so the Thunder defense is going to be there. I think from the OKC side, there's also, there are also two pretty positive developments in this game.

One of them, I thought J-dub looked better. going one on one and getting to his stuff in the mid-range, then he did at any point of the series against Denver. If that holds, that helps kind of counter, you know, Shay's lulls or the times where he isn't getting to the line or he isn't scoring us consistently. Because in the first half, Shea could not hit anything.

And they were really reliant on J-W to create some offense. I also thought with Chet, only had 15 points in this game, not a number. It's going to really pop. But by the fourth quarter, especially, they were moving them around. They're like high pick and roll stuff going to the basket, baseline cutting, free dunks.

Like, they were getting, him moving in a way that I wasn't positive they were going to be able to do with the wolf's defense. And so that's a finisher. Yes. Not a starter. Yes. And that has happened against the nuggets as well. Great at it. Yes. Like there are times where he'll be squirly

and you're like, oh, he's getting pushed around a little bit. He's not making the easy buckets for himself. But as the game goes along, it almost seems like he gets more powerful. I don't know if he just gets more into it or what, but he was swatting shots by the end of that game. Like, he was fucking Rudy. Yeah. Was, you feeling any differently about

the wolves long term. You picked them for the series. No, I think they, again, it's a game one. They have to be a lot more crisp in their defense. I know it's a broken record, but oftentimes these game ones come down to, you just didn't nail your assignments, man. Like, they got to be a lot more crisp. And, you know, this sounds stupid with the adjustment. Ann Edwards, Superstar, play better.

That's the adjustment. My best guy has to be way better. And look, like in the last round, like Denver pushed it to whatever they pushed it to, to seven games because what? Jamal Murray and Yolk ended up playing better in certain games. Like, that's oftentimes what you need from your guys in order to, you know, make the series look more like what we thought it would.

So to me, that's the adjustment, man. Being athletic, being physical on defense, like they've been all playoffs long. And they were for big stretches in the first half. and Ann Edwards being, he's just got to be better. He's got to be great. I think ultimately,

there is still clearly a path for the wolves to win this series. They're immensely talented. They can play much better than they did. We've seen it. Other teams have experienced it. The wolves are really good. They were going to have to overcome

this Thunder defense to win this series. Like, this is a show of force from the Thunder. And these are the stakes, right? Like if you don't play really clean, near perfect basketball, you're going to lose some games like this if you're Minnesota.

And I think the nine combined turnovers for Ant and Julius Randall, some of which is born out of the fact that they're not getting those calls, that they're trying to go through some contact or shying away from it. That's a huge problem. Ultimately, I think the Thunder had, what, 31 points off turnovers in this game. Not a formula. It's going to be very successful for the wolves of that, so long as that's the case. So they have a lot to clean up both sides of the ball.

They need to figure out the rotation. They need to look themselves in the mirror and figure out if they want to be the big team in the series or not. Like, do you want to make Rudy work? or are you going to default to Nas at the five? Are you going to default to other looks? Are you going to try to meet the thunder where they are? I wouldn't recommend that. But at the same time,

I don't have the magic solution that's going to make Rudy Gobert a great offensive player in the series either. OKC finished with 30 plus points off of turnovers for the fourth time this postseason. It's the most in a single postseason already since 1997. The wolf's head zero. Zero fast break points.

Wow. So that has to change. Yeah. Unfortunately, the Thunder is when you get them in transition, they're going to fucking run you over. And so let's hope that tilts at least a little bit more in the Wolf's direction in game two. Why don't we wrap it there?

Guys, thanks for not choking this one away. Appreciate it. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely. And thank you to Ben Cruz. We'll be back Saturday night for game three, I think, of the West Finals. So, yes. Must be 21 plus and present in select states

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