April 25, 2025 • 51 mins
The nerds react to Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and the Los Angeles Clippers handling Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of their epic series, dive into how Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson led the New York Knicks past Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons, and react to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the OKC Thunder making a historic comeback to take a 3-0 lead over the Memphis Grizzlies as Ja Morant was injured.
Timestamps
00:00:23 - Thunder-Grizzlies
00:15:56 - Clippers-Nuggets
00:32:27 - Knicks-Pistons
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. No, Oh my god, how could he do that?
What Charles Darwin? The nerves is where it's at.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome everybody back into Nerd Sash as always, I'm Garson
Bravert alongside, and he is Logan Camden, and you already
know the drill. We've got some playoff basketball to talk
about today. Three game threes and Logan, I gotta say,
I came into today expecting one game to be the
biggest story of the night, but that was not ultimately
(00:44):
the case. We put it to the people. We asked you, guys,
where do you want us to start this show? And
overwhelmingly you said, we want to hear about the Oklahoma
City Thunder pulling off the second biggest comeback in NBA
playoff history, erasing a twenty nine point deficit against the
Grizzlies to take a three zero series lead. Just a
(01:07):
remarkable performance. Obviously, have to start this conversation by pointing
out the Ja Morant goes out with an unfortunate injury
when the Grizzlies are up twenty seven that dramatically changes
the tone of this entire game. Jaw was playing really
well and certainly aided the Thunder in his in their
comeback effort his absence. But nevertheless, what did you make
(01:29):
of that performance from OKC.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Logan, I mean, I thought it was a really impressive comeback.
I do think you need to mention the jaw is
not in the game. He was dominant in fifteen minutes.
He gave you fifteen points and five assists. They were
plus sixteen in the minutes. Job was out there. But
like you mentioned, this is a twenty nine point deficit,
and I don't know a lot of the questions about OKCE.
(01:51):
You've got to be confident in the answers that they
gave you in this game, man, the way that chet
Holmern bounced back after a one point first half and
was crucial to the come back offensively SGA who threw
You know, ten quarters of this series has been really,
really disappointing, but in these last two quarters put it together.
(02:11):
Jalen Williams had a good game, I thought, start to finish,
but specifically the level that their defense reached. You know,
they they held Memphis scoreless for almost four minutes in
the fourth quarter, and that's what really just shines in
this game for me. From the thunder, it's all the
other components, like I expected SGA to finally put it
(02:32):
back together, but to see Chet really get it going
in the second half, to see Jalen Williams get it
going in the second half. When you're backs against the wall,
it's different, right, because we've seen Oklahoma City in a
lot of games in the regular season get comfortable, and
this was a historically great regular season team. But this
is different. This is back against the wall. This is
(02:52):
you're fighting back from a huge deficit. And they didn't
lay down. They said, we're gonna give you all that
you can take, and we're gonna see if we can
come back and win this game. And that's exactly what
they did. I don't know if Memphis would have won
this game if Jah had stayed out there. I mean,
he was dominating, but I thought they really disrupted Triple
J after he became the focal point. I mean the
way they trapped him, the ball pressure, I thought they
(03:13):
were really disruptive on him, like they shut him down,
and really the Memphis offense crumbled late, like they completely
fell apart and couldn't get anything going. I think it's
a super impressive thunder comeback, and I just really like
what we're seeing from this team right now. Man, now's
the time to really tune up your game and get
(03:36):
ready for you know, I'm not calling Memphis a pushover
anything like that, but these are the tune up games.
This is the time to get ready and get into form.
And I really like what we saw from the defense.
I really like what we saw from Chet, from Sga,
and from Jada. It was a really impressive comeback tonight. Man.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It takes a special performance to a race of twenty
nine point deficit in a half, no matter what. And
even though I think the Grizzlies looked infinitely better with
Jaw on the floor in this game, and I just
think they desperately missed the offensive stability that he was providing,
just the comfort getting to his spots, that level of
shot making, play making, everything, having an athlete to that
(04:14):
caliber on the floor, like their offense really crumbled in
the second half in his absence, and I do think
he would have stabilized things. But the Grizzlies without Jaw
this year have still been a good basketball team. They're
eighteen and fourteen in games that he misses entirely, they
have a plus five net rating in all the minutes
that he hasn't been on the floor, so even in
his absence, like this is a team that has been
(04:36):
more than capable of winning games, playing highly competitive basketball,
especially when they build themselves a twenty nine point lead.
And I thought Memphis was phenomenal in the first half.
It was the worst basketball I've seen from the Thunder
all year. I thought it was an embarrassing first half
performance from ok See. Honestly, I'm not sure if anything
comes all that close. Like the play in final against
(04:58):
the Bucks was ugly. First Lakers game was ugly, but
not like this, man. I mean, I thought it was apathetic.
I thought that their effort, their physicality, their intensity was
just not there. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies were shot out of
a cannon. It felt like they really woke the hell
up after what happened to them in the first two games.
They had so much energy, they were so physical, they
(05:21):
were pressuring the ball, they were running shooters off the line,
and Okac's guys couldn't make shots from the three point line.
They looked a little bit rattled being run off the
line so consistently. Just their entire offense looks so disjointed.
And then Memphis is shooting better than fifty percent from three,
and they're getting transition chances, and like, honestly, they did
what Okac does to teams to Oka see it felt
(05:43):
like what Okac did to Memphis in the first half
of Game one. But the difference, obviously is the response,
because the second half from Okac highlighted basically everything that
they do best, absolutely special defensive performance. There are so
many dudes who I think deserve so much credit. Cason
(06:03):
Wallace I thought was phenomenal with his activity, his ball pressure,
his hands, but Alice Caruso is the one who stands
out the most. Like that was flat out one of
the best individual defensive performances I have ever seen from
a basketball player. Logan four steels in a block doesn't
even capture the absolute chaos that he was causing and
(06:25):
the fact that this dude is guarding triple j and
locking him up in the second half, and like, yeah,
they did a really nice job of rattling him with
some doubles and forcing him into a couple of turnovers.
But Caruso on an island is just forcing his catch
points so far out, and this dude has such insanely
good hands, and he's so physical. Triple J can't comfortably
(06:48):
put the ball on the floor against him, so he
can't move him even with his massive size advantage and
the fact that he's got so much weight on. Caruso
so just the versatility man in terms of the matchups
he can take on as a non ball defender and
the statistically he is destructive off ball dude.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I think he's like an eleven percent. I mean, like
his defensive field goal percentage inside six feet this year
is like eleven percent too. It's ridiculous for a guard.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
He does everything bro as a roamer, he is just
going to fuck your offense up. He is getting his
hands in there on every single ball. He's just the
ultimate playoff player man. Like I thought it was so
clear that Caruso's role was only going to increase for
this team in the postseason. He is such a winner.
He is such a nightmare for opposing offenses to face,
(07:34):
and like he just makes play after play that swings
games down to forcing the jump ball right where he
strips Scottie Pippen Junior and then Lou Dort falls on
it and then Edie for whatever reason, fouls Blue Dort
on the jump ball. I thought that was a big
mental air by him. You don't need to do that,
you got a foot on the guy. But absolutely incredible
defensive performance by them collectively, but especially by Caruso individually.
(07:57):
He's the best defensive guard on the planet. That's where
I had him in our player rankings coming into this year,
and a lot of people were pissed about that, honestly,
like that might have been the thing about my list
that people were most pissed about me having him over
Herb Jones. It's just that off ball, recking shit. Man.
It's so so special his defensive playmaking. But you mentioned
Cheed Holmgren won a masterclass by him in the second
(08:19):
half and especially in that third quarter when they just
need an infusion of offense. He's punishing the Grizzlies for
helping off of him. He's beating them with the pick
and pop game, exact same things that he was doing
last game. Just so big to see him that comfortable,
that effective as a three point shooter. And he has
a play where he blows by Edie. He's using his quickness,
he's showing his comfort as a driver. But just his
(08:41):
continued aggression and his continued three point shooting at this
level is so so important for them and so encouraging.
And then Jalen Williams logan, Jadob has been excellent for
three straight basketball games. It's not a question who has
been their best player in this series. It's Jada probably
in every single game. If you wanted to make the
(09:02):
Caruso case for this one, I would genuinely hear it.
I thought he was that insanely impactful. But the offensive
production that you're getting from Jadub while he's also wrecking
the game defensively, the transition scoring, but also the poison
the half court, he has just been so so impressive.
So it is a hell of a performance. It is
a very very rare thing to see a team that
(09:25):
you feel is even capable of this. And I have
to say, Man, as bad as the first half was,
I could never count the thunder out because, as I
literally said after Game one, this is a team that
puts together runs at a rate that only the peak
Golden State Warriors are comparable to. Their ability to shut
down your offense, turn defense into offense by forcing you
(09:47):
into so many mistakes and then getting out and running
in transition where their athletes are just insane. It's one
of one in the sport, and all of that was
fully on display in this one. And you still aren't
getting the best version of Shay, not even Clo honestly,
like he played better in this game, but I still
think he's forcing some tough looks. I still think he's
specifically hunting the three.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I got to give Triple J some credit too for
what he's been doing defensively, like on SGA and like,
you know, yeah, I got to give a little bit
of credit to Memphis, but she has a.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Good interior defense. But I thought he looked uncomfortable playing
in a crowd at times. I thought his decision making
in traffic wasn't great. I mean, he ends up with
eight assists, but a couple ugly turnovers and four shots
Like this is not that Sjay that we saw in
the regular season. And the Thunder are still sitting here
up three to zero in this series, and it's just
such a testament to how insane their defense is, how
insane their depth is, and how many game breaking players
(10:40):
they have. Isaiah Joe is so active defensively and makes
a couple of threes and is getting out in transition
in this one, they're one of a kind man. Their
ability to erase deficits, to build leads so so quickly
and so explosively, and to just dominate defensively so so special.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It's specifically that ability to win on defense and their
ability to capitalize on it on the other end. That's
how they're able to put all these runs together, right.
It's the defensive playmaking, it's the stops, but it's also
the ability.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
They had this game tied up by like eight minutes
to go on the fourth. Yeah, from that point forward
they were a little sloppy, but they erased that twenty
nine point lead in what twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And yeah, I mean they're down jaw too. Like, that's
important context, but it's still impressive. You do that in
any context, right, Like, But it's that ability to capitalize
on their defense, winning on that end, and then that's
how you generate easy points. The playoffs are tough when
you've got to grind it out and you've got to
get in the half court so many times. The way
to generate easy offense is to get out in transition
(11:43):
where you're gonna have mismatches that you can attack, where
the defense isn't set up where if you move the
ball quickly enough you can kill them. And Oklahoma City's
as good at that as you know any team in
the league today. Man like them are Boston right, It's
it's so special. I think Memphis has done man. I mean,
if jobs back or not, I mean, you just I
(12:04):
don't think you can bounce back from this game. I
can't believe. Shout out Scottie Pippen junior. Man, I mean,
dude was spraying in the.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Field past ology.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, dude, that's exactly what I was thinking about when
I was watching this game, Carson. I was like, Carson
was talking about the death last episode and then Scotty
Piffn does this in this game.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And it was a really good defensive performance by him too.
But yeah, I mean the shooting was just insane. He
was really really good in this one. He was their
best player.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, I completely agree, and I mean that's what got
them out to that early lead. In Memphis offense just
stalled out towards the end. I thought this was a
really bad Desmond Baye game too. Like I'm dogged down
Triple J. I've been disappointed by him as well. But
Oklahoma City is instilling a lot of confidence in me
man to come back. Like just the stakes of this game,
(12:54):
it's like, you're up to Oh, Memphis has smacked you
in the mouth in the first half on the road.
It would be so easy to just curl up into
a ball and to take this al and say, all right, well,
we'll finish this in Oklahoma City in game five. But
they didn't. They said, no, we're the Thunder. We're not
just gonna lay down. We're gonna come back. We're gonna fight,
and it was enough to come back and win. That's
(13:15):
what's really impressive to me is this just feels like
a game that they could have laid down for, but
they didn't.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that. I think
twenty nine out of thirty teams, if they're up to
OHO and they feel like they're that much better, they
just say, all right, this isn't our game. We're not
gonna fight that hard, like we know that we're going
to win this series in five. Still, the Thunder are
the one teams that are so psychotically competitive, and als
Caruso might have the number one motor in the league. Man,
(13:44):
he is an insane person on a basketball court, and
they have so much youth, and they have so much energy,
and they have so much athleticism and so many great
defensive players that like, they just fight so hard. I
honestly couldn't believe their apathy in the first half, because
I'm like the Thunder of the one team that never
comes out flat. They don't play like this, and then man,
(14:06):
did they turn it around. I also think Mark Dagnall
is just such a good coach, and Timmy Fairy's got
a lot of talent to work with, but I think schematically,
I think in terms of the intensity he instills in
this team, he is so damn impressive. So it's the
worst basketball that they've played all year for a half,
and somehow I still think you leave this game wildly
(14:28):
impressed with the Thunder. It's a different way than it
was in the fifty point win, but like the resolve,
the toughness, the fight, and still them showing all the
things that make them special just in terms of their
basketball traits. It was all on display in this one
and signature win. Man Grizzlies fans, if you're pissed with
(14:49):
any sort of Thunder glaze in this one. I get
it because I do think they probably would have won
this game with Job, and I'm sorry that he got hurt,
and I think it sucks, and it especially sucks how
it happened, where like you're up twenty seven, it's gonna
be an easy transition lay up for him, and I
know that lemutation, and I feel like some people might
(15:09):
try to spin that as a dirty play because we
saw this with the Men yesterday. I don't know how
you could. He so clearly has lost his balance and
is just trying to make an effort play like it's
just unfortunate. This stuff happens in the NBA, especially happens
in the playoffs when dudes are trying to make an
extra effort on every play and there's extra physicality on
every play. But that sucks for Grizzlies fans because Jaw
(15:30):
really really struggled in the first two games, but he
looked comfortable. He was dialed in in this one, and
that version of Jaw is really essential to this team
reaching their ceiling and being a team that you feel
can go out there and win playoff games. So whether
he returns or not, I think the thunder are gonna
win Game four like this was the Grizzlies chance. Obviously,
they had everything going. The first half was the perfect storm,
(15:52):
and they still weren't able to close it out. Let's
talk about the other game that we saw out West Logan.
This was a dominant win for the Los Angeles Clippers
over the Denver Nuggets. We saw two games in which
the total scoring margin was one point, as close as
(16:12):
it could be, as high quality basketball as it could
be between Denver and LA. This game was a very
different story. What did you take away from LA cruising
to a victory in this one.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
That's why it was so crucial for the Nuggets to
get that last game man and for Jogics to be
that much better, because their margin is nowhere near as
large as the Clippers. And that's what we said coming
into this series is the Clippers have so many more
good basketball players, guys that can produce for you want
to give a night that they've got to capitalize on
(16:48):
the ones that they can win. And things swung back
in the Clippers favor in this game. I thought they
shot a lot better. I thought Norman Powell played a
lot better. James Harden pulled his weight in this game,
and it's like, you get a this is a really
good Kawhi game, and obviously wasn't great as game two.
Game two is a historic performance, but I still thought,
(17:09):
even though he didn't shoot as efficiently, I thought this
was a really good Kawhi game. In Yo Kitchen, Jamal
do their thing. But it's a bad Aaron Gordon game.
It's a bad MPJ game. It's a bad Rust game.
And I thought the Nuggets were sloppy. I thought their
defense was really poor. I thought they were conceding way
too many open threes. That's what sucks, man, is it
(17:34):
really feels like the Nuggets needed that game more than
the Clippers. And when Kawhi was perfect and nobody else
was on and Jokicic just makes a few too many
mistakes and that feels like the margin in game two.
Those are the ones that come back to bite you
in the playoffs. And I don't want to bail on
my Nuggets pick Carson, but I'm gonna be honest with you.
(17:56):
It's the least confident I think. Yeah, I am in
any of my first round predictions at this point. And
it's how I felt after Game one. You know, I
thought the Nuggets. I thought the Nuggets almost played to
their peak, right, MIMPJ didn't have a good game, but
a lot of things went right for the Nuggets in
that game. And that's the thing to me about this series.
(18:16):
The Clippers just have more margin. The Nuggets need to
play more refined, perfect basketball every single night to win,
and it feels like the Clippers don't. They've got more
guys that are reliably good. Zubots I didn't even mention
had a really good game in this one too.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It's like always does yeah, right, so consistent.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, it's the prediction that I have the least confidence
in at this point, man, And I don't know, man,
I'm disappointed. A lot of the Nuggets flaws came to
light in this game, and you can't be surprised. The defense,
the sloppy play, the inconsistency, but most importantly it's the
lack of shooting, and Clippers just got more margin. Man,
(18:56):
I'm disappointed in the Nuggets up to this point.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah. This is a reversal of Game two in the
sense that you felt like the Nuggets' role players really
played quite well in that one and gave them a chance.
And this is a disaster from Aaron Gordon outside of
the first five minutes when he was hooping, but after that,
I mean, can't finish at the rim, can't make a shot,
(19:22):
disaster from Michael Porter Junior, who goes two of nine
from the field in this game. And both of those
guys are playing through injuries, so you're inclined to give
them a pass. At the same time, it doesn't matter,
Like if this is the level that those two are
going to be at for the remainder of this series,
the Nuggets do not have a prayer in hell. Really
(19:43):
bad from both of them. Russ could not make a shot,
and like, this is the problem that we've been talking about.
Right when he's on the floor, the Clippers are going
to completely ignore him. They are going to roam off
of him every possession. And unless he is making those
open c threes, you're playing four on five, so you
basically have to get him the ball on those possessions.
(20:05):
And do you want your offense to be decided by
whether or not Russell Westbrook is making open threes? Me personally,
if I'm the Nuggets, no, I don't. And in this
one he was missing them. And then again they lose him,
which just sucks because their depth is so shoddy and
now you have to get some Julian strawther minutes. In
this game. They also got I don't know, like three
(20:28):
bench points in this game. I want to say, ends
up being six bench points in this game. So just
basically zero production outside of Murray and Jokic. I just
think the burden on those two in this series is overwhelming.
And I actually thought they were getting a lot of
good offensive results when they ran through Jokic, like in
the first quarter, he was just absolutely dissecting doubles, dotting
(20:52):
up cutters, racks up seven assists, and then I just
didn't think was assertive enough. He really needs to be
the folk point of every single possession, like he needs
to be a god. We need absolute monster Yokic production
where he is either scoring, which he was on most
touches when they left him in single coverage, or he's
(21:12):
drawing so many doubles. I just think they need even
more Yokic. And at the end of the day, even
if they get that, if the role players aren't gonna
be better than this, it's not gonna matter. And it's
not gonna matter unless they're better defensively, where they really
just did not have any answers in this game. I
thought that their pick and roll defense was not good enough.
I thought that James Harden was absolutely cooking them in
(21:35):
the first half. They try a couple possessions of drop
and he's just walking into pull up threes that he reigns.
They're putting two up on the ball, and I just
think they're not nearly active enough on the back line.
They're tagging Zoo way too late. They're getting over to
deal with him off the roll too late, where he's
comfortably finishing a lot of those looks, And as you said,
(21:57):
they also allowed a lot of open threes. Hawahi was
really good as a passer in this one too, so
they were trying to send multiple bodies at him, but
he was making the right reads, he was finding shooters,
he was finding cutters. The Clippers are just a really,
really good, complete basketball team, and the Nuggets have more holes.
So when the Nuggets' best games, absolutely they can go
(22:17):
toe to toe with the Clippers. They can beat the
Clippers when everything is going right, when they're engaged in
competitive defensively, when Jokic just perfect offensively, when guys are
making shots around him and making good decisions. But in
a game like this, where the Nuggets are disjointed and
they're not making shots and they're not engaged defensively, not
playing up to their potential, the floor for the Clippers
(22:40):
is just so much higher. And they just ran away
with this one without playing a remarkable game by the
Clippers standards, they played a good game, but this was
more about them just being so much better than the
Nuggets when Denver's at their worst.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I completely agree. I completely agree, man, Like the Clippers
just have more good players that can kill you on
a given day. And I still so ridiculous about this
Nuggets Clippers series is that I feel like the Clippers
have yet to throw anywhere close to their best punch.
Like I don't feel like they fully put it together
(23:14):
yet on the Nuggets, and this was a convincing win. Like,
don't get me wrong, wholeheartedly, I think the Nuggets can
play much much better basketball. I mean I've seen it
in this series. Like the level they were able to
reach at defensively in Game one on a possession to
possession basis, the level that Jamal was at, the level
that we've seen Gordon and MPJ play at and spurts
(23:36):
in this series. Russ too, like the Nuggets can play
way better, but it feels like the Clippers haven't played
close to They haven't thrown close to their best punch yet,
and I feel like they can. Clippers are dangerous, man.
I was sleeping. They need to tuck me in and
give me my pillow, bro in my blanket. I was
sleeping on the Clippers.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
They are dangerous, bro, And I'll take it asta up further.
I don't see why the Clippers can't win the NBA title. Like,
I'm not going to put them in a tier with Boston.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
I don't think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Like, how are they not clearly a top five team
in basketball? There is not a box that they are
not checking. Their stars are playing at a dominant level. Kim,
He's playing like a top ten player. James Harden is
playing like a top twenty player. And they've been doing
this for months now. Their depth is really what X player.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Is zubat in the league, like top what.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Probably Kareem A dul jabbar oh, I thought you were
looking for a player comparison. I was gonna say, he's
basically the modern Kareamo Dul Jabbar Zoo is a top
forty ish player in the end.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
They have three top fifty players.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Though absolutely and Norman Powell. He's not as consistent, but
he's an absolute weapon when he gets going offensively, like
he did in this game. So I'm just looking up
and down at this team, man, and they've been playing
phenomenal basketball for a long time. They're two stars have
been playing at an incredibly high level for a long
time now. They have one of the most consistent third
(25:06):
options in basketball, who is such a high impact two
way player night after night and is just such a lean,
efficient contributor who fits so seamlessly on both ends. They
have great creators, and they have great play finishers with
a big like Zoo and with their spot up shooting,
and you're getting the elite creation from Kawhi and James Harden.
They have really really good depth, like they have role
(25:29):
players who can go out there and have a massive
impact on the game. If it's Chris Dunn, who has
eight rebounds in this game, who's one of the best
defensive guards on the planet, one of the best on
ball guys as a screen navigator, and one of the
best off ball disruptors. As a roamer, Nick patsum Logan
is first ballot role player Hall of Fame four to
(25:49):
three is in this one three blocks. He's still so
productive and so effective as a two way player. They
have awesome perimeter defenders and they have a dominant interior defender.
Like if you get the best version of Kawhi and Harden,
who at this point it feels like, basically just take turns,
leaving defenses helpless, Like you're gonna get a game where
(26:10):
Harden is absolutely nails as a pull up shooter and
he's getting by you at will, and he's picking you
apart as a playmaker, and then the next game is
just gonna be okay. Nobody can deal with Kawhi on
an island and he's just gonna give you a super
efficient thirty five plus or whatever. Both of them are
capable of dominating games, being the best player on the
floor in playoff games. Why are they not in those
(26:32):
conversations Like I've been saying, I had them as the
second best team in the West for a bit, and
then I said, the Lakers at their best probably have
the edge, But I don't know. The Clippers are just
more consistent because their defensive infrastructure is so sound. They're
just so reliably awesome, and I do think they're gonna
(26:55):
win this series. And I think they're gonna give okay
See a hell of a fight in the second round,
as good a fight as an anybody in the West camp.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
That's what I was just gonna ask you. Do you
think they match up with the Thunder better than the Lakers.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I don't know if they match up better. I think
that they are a better defensive counter just with their
speed and athleticism. On that end, I think that the
Lakers pose more problems offensively just because dealing with two
ball handlers and creators with the size and strength of
(27:27):
Luke and Lebron. We've seen post some issues for the Thunder.
I think that they are like right on par with
each other as clearly the two biggest threats to the Thunder.
Minnesota also a tough matchup, playing really well. But I
do tend to lean on the offenses that I trust more,
and that is still both of the LA teams. But
the better two way team, certainly, the more consistently great
(27:50):
two way team is the Clippers. It's awesome to see
man because you know, sometimes when you talk about the
Clippers in a positive light, the world makes you feel
like you're an insane person. Logan, Well, i mean suffering
from schizophrenias, scribbling on the walls, drinking the kool aid.
And I'm glad I drink all that kool aid up
because it was delicious. It was cherry flavored and it
(28:11):
was awesome. Thankfuli's back, James Harden is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Thankfully you didn't die, you know, Thankfully the kool aid
didn't kill you.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I mean, well, I shouldn't count my chickens before they.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is, it is. It is good
to see though, I mean, Clippers fans have suffered enough,
and the team has been He's been on the cusps
so many times, right, like the Chris Paul and Blake
teams and how great they were every single year, but
they just couldn't get over the hump. And then you
know PG doing his thing down Kawhi, and just nice
(28:43):
to finally see this at least come to fruition a
little bit in the first round. Man, here's to to
continued health. Yeah. Like you said, man, I don't want
to count the chickens before they.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Hash but they are playing excellent basketball and the Nuggets
not have it in this one. I know there are
some people who are probably gonna look at this game
and say, all right, this is all the evidence that
we need that the Nuggets need to blow up their roster.
And I think the changes are needed, but I think
that's been apparent for a while, we've talked about it.
(29:13):
I think MPJ is the most likely candidate to be
on the move. See if you can find somebody who
is more of a complete two way wing, somebody who
can bring you that value, and then maybe you can
also get a depth piece along with that, because obviously
those are the couple of things that need to improve
your perimeter athleticism and your overall wing defense and speed
(29:35):
on that side of the ball, and then your depth,
and both of those things you very much saw the
absence of for the Nuggets in this one. This is
a rough one. They still have a chance to be
very competitive in the remaining games in this series, unless
these injuries are gonna affect Aaron Gordon MPG. To this point,
MPJ is the more concerning one to me because it's
(29:57):
a new thing, and it's a shoulder, and he's obviously
a shooter, and his shooting was terrible in this one,
so that is definitely something that they have to monitor.
Not a good game if you're a Nuggets fan. Not
a good feeling. And I think you see what I
was talking about when I picked the Clippers to win
this series. Man more margin, more of an ability to
make the Nuggets offense uncomfortable than vice versa. We're gonna
(30:21):
take a quick break to get some words from DraftKings
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Speaker 2 (32:37):
Logan. We got a fuck you Brunson chant from the
Detroit crowd in this game, which I feel captures the
intensity in the nastiness of this years. You don't mind
my language saying that, do you? You look perhaps a bit offended?
You're not clutching your pearls, are you?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Second straight day, we got an f u X player
chant from two different fan bases in two different arenas.
And I gotta say, man, I love it these playoffs.
There's so much tension, there's so much beef, there's so
much animosity, there's so much physicality being allowed. And these
are a couple of classic basketball cities that are honestly
known for having nasty teams in years past. And this
(33:16):
was a great basketball game between the two of them.
The Knicks bounce back, they get a win in Detroit
to take a two to one lead in this series.
What did you take away from their performance?
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I mean, I was really happy with what we got
out of Karl Anthony Towents. In this game. He gives
you thirty one eight and one on ten of eighteen
from the field, four of eight from deep, and he
went seven of seven from the line. In Game two,
he gives you just ten points and he had zero
field goal attempts in the fourth quarter. To me, Kat
was the big difference maker in this series and what
really gave me confidence in taking New York to win
(33:51):
the series just how reliable he could be nightly offensively
and they eke this one out. I want to give
the Pistons a ton of credit for coming back in
the second half. The Knicks finished the first half on
a twenty three to six run. They're up sixty six
to fifty three, and by five minutes left in the
third quarter, the Pistons had erased the lead. Or excuse me,
(34:13):
five minutes into the third quarter, they had completely erased
all of that lead. They were right back in the game,
and they just didn't get enough out of their offensive
supporting cast. And I think that's the real big difference
in this series. Dennis Schroeder had a great game. Tim Hardaway,
Junior kept them around in this game, but Malik Beasley
(34:35):
wasn't good enough, and I think Kate Cunningham had to
be just a little bit better in this game. You know,
I hate picking on him because he had twenty four
points eleven assists, but he ultimately shoots just ten to
twenty five from the field. He's got six turnovers, and
he just needs to be a little bit more efficient
in this series. It sucks because he's got such a
big burden on his shoulders, but I think Beasley could
(34:58):
have shot better. Honestly, if Beasley should it's better. In
this game, I don't think it matters. I think the
Pistons just win. But they were negative nineteen in his
minutes in the first half. But that's a difference, man,
Like you just trust Anonobe to get his, you trust
Bridges to get his. You know what Brunson and Cat
are going to give you for the most part. And
that's why Kat's a difference. Man. Kat took over in
(35:18):
this game, had a really good one and that's why
I picked the Knicks to win this series. But I
thought this was a really, really encouraging game for the
Pistons to won. Win that game, Get that monkey off
their back the first win in seventeen years in the playoffs.
That was step one, and they didn't give up in
this game. Man. They battled and I thought they were
(35:39):
really physical with New York. I thought they battled in
the glass in this game, and the Cad and Duram
pick and roll really got going in the second half
and generated them some easy offense. You know, it wasn't
this was a really good loss, like any loss sucks
in the playoffs. But I thought the Pistons played really
really well and played hard. They just this came up
(36:00):
just short.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
They always play hard, and he got to give them
props for that. But I thought this was a really
impressive performance from the Knicks in a really nice bounce
back game from a disappointing game too, in which I
specifically thought their offensive approach was frustrating. And I talked
about this, But it wasn't just that Brunson was making
(36:23):
his case for the greatest grifting performance that we've seen
since prime James Hardener, maybe Joel Embiid. It was the
fact that he was basically icing all of his teammates out.
And this is a Knicks team that has a lot
of collective offensive talent, and they're at their best when
everybody is touching the ball, and especially like kat is
basically constantly working with an advantage because they're guarding him
(36:45):
with Tobias Harris, and he had been so good for
a game and a half and then he just was
not involved in the offense whatsoever. And Brunson had some
really bad turnovers in that game. He wasn't efficient from
the field, and I talked about how it felt like
he wasn't trusting his team. I realized afterwards, like Game
two felt like Brunson thought that he had last year's
(37:07):
roster around him, like his job was to carry every
offensive possession, sometimes to just get shots up on the rim,
because obviously last year there was nobody else who was
healthy for the playoffs who could create a shot. It's
a much more talented team. It's a very different vibe
this time around, and I thought that he got that,
Like there was no hero ball from Jalen Brunson in
(37:28):
this game. He was selfless and when it came time
for him to make some big time shots in the clutch,
he was there and he delivered, but everybody was getting involved.
I also liked that the Knicks were very intentionally playing
with more pace. They have ten more transition points in
this game than they did in Game two, getting more
easy early offense, The ball was moving around better. They
(37:48):
only had three turnovers in the first half against fifteen assists.
That was phenomenal efficiency and selfless basketball. And four of
their starters go for twenty plus points. So I just
think that's really what makes this Knicks team so good.
That's their advantage over the Pistons. It's not just that
I do think brunton Is is the best player on
(38:10):
the floor in this series. It's more so the number
of really reliable, high end offensive contributors that they have.
And the best player in this game was Karl Anthony Towns.
He was absolutely phenomenal. They were getting him the ball
and allowing him to attack mismatches that's including Tobias Harris
as a mismatch, and he was really really good there.
(38:30):
He was under control, he was getting to those floaters
and he was really really good on them. But there
was one possession where like they're even going to switch
Shrewder onto him, and that was just cake for Cat.
Sometimes you can see him when he's trying to attack
smaller players get a little bit flustered, get a little
bit sloppy with the handle. Not in this game, he
(38:51):
was excellent there. I want to see more of them
leaning into him as a mismatch attacker. But then also
he was getting his most efficient offense, which is those
transition threes as a trailer, which he was just stepping
into an absolutely raining So phenomenal offensively, And allow me
to praise Karl Anthony Towns defense logan, because I gotta say,
(39:12):
in this series it's been better than I expected. It's
been better than the level it was at in the
regular season. Now, is he still lacking in some areas? Absolutely,
Still not a good rim protector. Still somebody who obviously
they're bringing up to the level a lot in part
to put some pressure on Cade but also because they're
not comfortable with him as a drop defender. But two
(39:34):
big blocks in the last three minutes of this game.
Through three games of this series, he's got five steals
and he's got six blocks. He's been active with his hands,
he has put some pressure on Kate up at the level.
So great game from him. And then I thought mckel
and og were both excellent on both ends. Og is
such a tough matchup for Cade, But I also thought
(39:54):
that mckel, who we had seen get bullied a little
bit more in that CAD matchup, did a better job
holding up and applying some pressure to him and making
life hard on him, and also just made some plays defensively.
Three steals, two blocks, shot it really well from deep,
shot it well for mid range. Just a really nice, efficient,
good two way performance from him. And then Josh Hart
(40:15):
is still doing Josh Harstutton in this one. He's great
on the glass, He's really good as a passer. So
that's the strength of this Knicks team. It's that their
starting five is sick. You're not going to get a
ton of bench production. But when everybody in their starting
five is at their best and they're playing together, they've
got a lot of really good basketball players and that's
when they're going to get their best results. And that's
(40:37):
what happened in this one.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, And I think the Knicks are just more talented
than Detroit. I think that's the big difference in this series.
But I do want to give Detroit and their in
them credit just for being really physical in this game too.
Like I didn't feel like New York convincingly won that battle.
I thought they played more physical and came out with
a better intensity than they did game because even though
(41:01):
it is kind of cliche like that does determine individual games.
And I thought the Knicks had a better punch in
this one. But I thought Ron Holland in his minutes
was really really good defensively. I thought Paul Reid in
the minutes that he evolved, gave them, you know, really
a big impact defensively and on the glass. Like I
(41:22):
really like Detroit's identity. Man. They're solid, they're not gonna
give up. They're scrappy, man, Detroit's scrappy now, and they're
just a team that you can really easily root for.
And I don't think this is their year. I think
New York's gonna bounce them. But I think Caid's gonna
get more efficient. I think he's gonna get better at
taking care of the ball. I think he's gonna become
(41:43):
more reliable as a scorer. And I think the Pistons
are on their way up. They're just they're they're at
a little bit of a talent disadvantage here. And if
Kat continues playing the way that I know Kat Can
I think the Knicks are gonna run away with this
year is because that's what I've been preaching every game
in this series, is that Cat, to me is the
difference every single game. The Pistons just don't have somebody
(42:06):
that can check Cat. It really is that simple. I
don't think they have a guy that can hold him.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
He was excellent. One of the best playoff games of
his career, for sure. Only one I could think of,
and he does that was Game seven against the Nuggets
last year.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
I don't want to give him props. Man. Cat's becoming
a little bit more steady. You know. I can't say
that completely, but like Game two is disappointing, but Game one,
in Game three, I was really really satisfied with Kat.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
He's one of the most gifted offensive big men we've
ever seen. And if you give him spacing where he's
at the five, just look at his production this year,
look at his efficiency. Do you think about that incredible
offensive talent?
Speaker 1 (42:45):
They went less with the double big lineup in this game.
Do you think that's something they should continue doing.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Like I've said, I like the double big look in
this matchup. I don't think it's going to be viable
against Boston, but I also don't think that they need
to force it, like I think that they're just a
bit better than Detroit, whether they go double big or
whether they go with their starting five. But Mitch has
given them good minutes. He's been phenomenal on the glass,
and he's been good defensively. I do want to give
(43:14):
some shouts to some Pistons who stepped up though you
mentioned Paul Reid eight rebounds in his sixteen minutes, just
so active, playing so hard, and Dennis Shrewder. What a
excellent basketball player he has been over these last two games.
I really like seeing him play at this level because
as a Warriors fan, I thought he was going to
be a significantly more impactful addition for the Dubs than
(43:36):
he was. Obviously, he ends up getting moved, but he
really struggled with the Warriors. But he's shooting the laces
off the ball right now. When you just see his
ability to get by people off the dribble to make
good decisions with the basketball. This team really needs that
in a playoff setting, especially because in the regular season,
after Jay and Ivy gets hurt, like they can ride
(43:58):
cad As really there Loane creator ball handler more so
than they can in a playoff series when it's like, Okay,
we're gonna put two on him every time down and
like he is so far and away our top priority
as a defense and we're scheming for him aggressively. Shrewder's
a guy who can take the pressure off, who can
make shots, who can make decisions, and he's done a
really nice job of that. For Cad, he had to
(44:21):
be better in this one. At the end of the day,
I thought that he was pretty good as a passer,
but as you said, forty percent from the field with
six turnovers, the efficiency is just not good enough. And
there was that stretch in the third quarter where kay
durin pick and roll was just dicing the knicks up
like they're putting two on the ball, and he keeps
on finding during off the roll and Duran is finishing.
(44:43):
He also made a nice read off the short roll.
But overall, Kate just has to get better with the turnovers,
specifically because like some of them are just sloppy. This
has been a thing with him all year, but like
in every game of this series he's had five or
six turnovers. That's just too many. Regardless of the offensive
burden that you're taking on. And again you see the
(45:03):
limitation that he has as a lead offensive creator in
this game, nothing comes easy for Cad. Like he has
to work hard for all of his buckets. There's so
many tough mid range pull ups just because he doesn't
have that high level rim pressure and rim finishing. As
logan is now being raised by the Dark, Is everything
(45:24):
okay over there, It's all right, we're wrapping this show
up in a couple of minutes. Anyways. Only bummers that
I can't see your beautiful smiling face quite as well.
But again, like he's not really capable of getting easy
offense when he's matched up with Og. He's ten of
thirty two when guarded by og Ananobi in this series,
he's done such a great job on him. He's so strong,
(45:45):
he's impressibly good at navigating screens for his size, and
so he's been a really, really big challenge for Cad.
And then last game I praised Kid for getting a
lot of easy transition offense for involving Brunson and so
the actions for hunting the mismatches, so he didn't have
to go right at Og as much and in this game,
(46:06):
he just wasn't able to do as much of any
of those things. Like when he did try to go
at mcel as a smaller wing, mckel held up a
lot better than he did last game. Jalen Brunson had
a possession where he was switched on to him late
and did a decent job, and then they sent a
late double and they forced a tough shot on kid
late in the shot clocks. So those are really the
(46:27):
limitations for him right Just where is that easy offense
coming from? Can he get the efficiency up? Those are
the couple of reasons that I'm not as high on
Cad as some people are right now. And I do
think that you've seen those in this series. Be a
bit of a limitation.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Still an awesome basketball player, to be clear, And it's
not easy to be going to continue playoff run no
matter what Kid's is sending.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah, Kay's going to continue to get better specifically in
this series, though I don't know. I think it would
take the Knicks having another really off offensive night from
one of their guys, like I think Kat would have
to have a bad night Og Bridges. I don't really
think Detroit can disrupt those guys all that much. Like,
(47:15):
I think they can disrupt Brunson, but Brunton's still always
gonna get his It's like, I don't know. I'm also
debating if Detroit can shoot better, man, because it does
feel like if they can get Beasley and Hardaway Junior
on in the same night, They're just so dependent on
those guys, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
They did have that in Game one, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
But it's like you need you need them and Harris
on really to maximize that offense. And it's just hard man.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
They did have that in game one, to be fair,
but Cade wasn't good enough in Game one.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
All those things have to come together for Detroit, and uh,
it's not gonna be easy, though, man. I think that
I think we're in for six or seven.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I'm on the fence between that. I still think this
is a really it's a really competitive series. And again,
the Pistons have been in every single one of these
games and they have tight down to the wire every
single one of them.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Absolutely, I do think the Knicks have more offensive talent,
they have more margin, and that's the reason that I
lean on them. But the Pistons are highly competitive, they're physical,
their intense night after night. You get a couple of clunkers,
obviously from Tobias Harrison Malik Beasley in this game, but
you also do get a couple of really good performances
from Shrewder and Tim Hardaway Junior to off set that
(48:30):
at least to some extent. And I thought Duran was
mostly really good in this one. I think he's been
impressive in this series. A couple of rough possessions that
he cost them batting the shit out of that jump ball.
We saw two instances in games today on big jump
balls where centers with huge size advantages managed to mess
(48:51):
it up in their own ways going up against a
much smaller player. And then I saw some people getting
on him for just like throwing away the inbound decade,
which I get. I mean, you have to complete that pass,
but also there was a half second on the clock,
and it's like Cage's maybe gonna get off a half
court attempt. So like, yes, I would prefer if Duran
didn't mess that up, but I don't know that that
(49:12):
was consequential at all on the outcome of this game. Overall,
I think Duran's played well and the Pistons have been very,
very solid. Man. They're right there with the Knicks. It's
not like there's a big gap between these teams. It's
just there's one team who I trust a little bit
more fun day of basketball. Logan gotta say there was
a moment where I was like, are we gonna have
(49:34):
two stinkers in this late window? No? Man, the Thunder
what a performance.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Don't count them out. Don't count them out, man.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
I never would, Logan. If there's one thing that I'm
gonna do, it's Glades the Oklahoma City Thunder. Something I'm
great at and I take a lot of pride in
Alex Caruso. Unbelievable, unbelievable, what that man is capable of. Logan.
I'm getting word we're gonna be back tomorrow night. Is
that true?
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Sources are telling me. I can't confirm we're gonna be
back tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Sources are telling me it's gonna be a party because
it's a Friday night and everybody's gonna be here with us,
and we're all gonna be having a great time talking
about basketball. We're gonna be turning up and enjoying the
libations that are offered to us.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
I don't know what that word means, bro.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Look it up, crack open at the saurus and enjoy.
Appreciate you guys tuning in. Hope you all enjoyed this one.
If you did, then we have plenty more of our content.
You can find it all on our YouTube channel. You
can see all of the full episodes of the pot
of course, you can catch all of our post game
live streams in the moment or you can watch them after.
(50:39):
And you can listen to all of these shows, of course,
across all audio platforms. You can also follow us across
social TikTok, Instagram at nerd, sessh, Twitter at nerd Underscore, sesh.
Just see clips from the show, graphics from the show,
and all of our short form trivia content, and you
can see Logan's smiling face. You're just giggling over there.
What are you giggling about? Man? You crack open that
the saurus. You got one on you.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
I did find out what libationis meant.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Good one, bro, you know, just a good time. That's ridiculous, Friday.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
That's a little convoluted, but kudos.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Alright, Well, on that note, appreciate you guys tuning in
as always, I've been Carson Braber, i've been Logan Camden
and this was nerd Sash
The volume. No, Oh my god, how could he do that?
What Charles Darwin? The nerves is where it's at.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome everybody back into Nerd Sash as always, I'm Garson
Bravert alongside, and he is Logan Camden, and you already
know the drill. We've got some playoff basketball to talk
about today. Three game threes and Logan, I gotta say,
I came into today expecting one game to be the
biggest story of the night, but that was not ultimately
(00:44):
the case. We put it to the people. We asked you, guys,
where do you want us to start this show? And
overwhelmingly you said, we want to hear about the Oklahoma
City Thunder pulling off the second biggest comeback in NBA
playoff history, erasing a twenty nine point deficit against the
Grizzlies to take a three zero series lead. Just a
(01:07):
remarkable performance. Obviously, have to start this conversation by pointing
out the Ja Morant goes out with an unfortunate injury
when the Grizzlies are up twenty seven that dramatically changes
the tone of this entire game. Jaw was playing really
well and certainly aided the Thunder in his in their
comeback effort his absence. But nevertheless, what did you make
(01:29):
of that performance from OKC.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Logan, I mean, I thought it was a really impressive comeback.
I do think you need to mention the jaw is
not in the game. He was dominant in fifteen minutes.
He gave you fifteen points and five assists. They were
plus sixteen in the minutes. Job was out there. But
like you mentioned, this is a twenty nine point deficit,
and I don't know a lot of the questions about OKCE.
(01:51):
You've got to be confident in the answers that they
gave you in this game, man, the way that chet
Holmern bounced back after a one point first half and
was crucial to the come back offensively SGA who threw
You know, ten quarters of this series has been really,
really disappointing, but in these last two quarters put it together.
(02:11):
Jalen Williams had a good game, I thought, start to finish,
but specifically the level that their defense reached. You know,
they they held Memphis scoreless for almost four minutes in
the fourth quarter, and that's what really just shines in
this game for me. From the thunder, it's all the
other components, like I expected SGA to finally put it
(02:32):
back together, but to see Chet really get it going
in the second half, to see Jalen Williams get it
going in the second half. When you're backs against the wall,
it's different, right, because we've seen Oklahoma City in a
lot of games in the regular season get comfortable, and
this was a historically great regular season team. But this
is different. This is back against the wall. This is
(02:52):
you're fighting back from a huge deficit. And they didn't
lay down. They said, we're gonna give you all that
you can take, and we're gonna see if we can
come back and win this game. And that's exactly what
they did. I don't know if Memphis would have won
this game if Jah had stayed out there. I mean,
he was dominating, but I thought they really disrupted Triple
J after he became the focal point. I mean the
way they trapped him, the ball pressure, I thought they
(03:13):
were really disruptive on him, like they shut him down,
and really the Memphis offense crumbled late, like they completely
fell apart and couldn't get anything going. I think it's
a super impressive thunder comeback, and I just really like
what we're seeing from this team right now. Man, now's
the time to really tune up your game and get
(03:36):
ready for you know, I'm not calling Memphis a pushover
anything like that, but these are the tune up games.
This is the time to get ready and get into form.
And I really like what we saw from the defense.
I really like what we saw from Chet, from Sga,
and from Jada. It was a really impressive comeback tonight. Man.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It takes a special performance to a race of twenty
nine point deficit in a half, no matter what. And
even though I think the Grizzlies looked infinitely better with
Jaw on the floor in this game, and I just
think they desperately missed the offensive stability that he was providing,
just the comfort getting to his spots, that level of
shot making, play making, everything, having an athlete to that
(04:14):
caliber on the floor, like their offense really crumbled in
the second half in his absence, and I do think
he would have stabilized things. But the Grizzlies without Jaw
this year have still been a good basketball team. They're
eighteen and fourteen in games that he misses entirely, they
have a plus five net rating in all the minutes
that he hasn't been on the floor, so even in
his absence, like this is a team that has been
(04:36):
more than capable of winning games, playing highly competitive basketball,
especially when they build themselves a twenty nine point lead.
And I thought Memphis was phenomenal in the first half.
It was the worst basketball I've seen from the Thunder
all year. I thought it was an embarrassing first half
performance from ok See. Honestly, I'm not sure if anything
comes all that close. Like the play in final against
(04:58):
the Bucks was ugly. First Lakers game was ugly, but
not like this, man. I mean, I thought it was apathetic.
I thought that their effort, their physicality, their intensity was
just not there. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies were shot out of
a cannon. It felt like they really woke the hell
up after what happened to them in the first two games.
They had so much energy, they were so physical, they
(05:21):
were pressuring the ball, they were running shooters off the line,
and Okac's guys couldn't make shots from the three point line.
They looked a little bit rattled being run off the
line so consistently. Just their entire offense looks so disjointed.
And then Memphis is shooting better than fifty percent from three,
and they're getting transition chances, and like, honestly, they did
what Okac does to teams to Oka see it felt
(05:43):
like what Okac did to Memphis in the first half
of Game one. But the difference, obviously is the response,
because the second half from Okac highlighted basically everything that
they do best, absolutely special defensive performance. There are so
many dudes who I think deserve so much credit. Cason
(06:03):
Wallace I thought was phenomenal with his activity, his ball pressure,
his hands, but Alice Caruso is the one who stands
out the most. Like that was flat out one of
the best individual defensive performances I have ever seen from
a basketball player. Logan four steels in a block doesn't
even capture the absolute chaos that he was causing and
(06:25):
the fact that this dude is guarding triple j and
locking him up in the second half, and like, yeah,
they did a really nice job of rattling him with
some doubles and forcing him into a couple of turnovers.
But Caruso on an island is just forcing his catch
points so far out, and this dude has such insanely
good hands, and he's so physical. Triple J can't comfortably
(06:48):
put the ball on the floor against him, so he
can't move him even with his massive size advantage and
the fact that he's got so much weight on. Caruso
so just the versatility man in terms of the matchups
he can take on as a non ball defender and
the statistically he is destructive off ball dude.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I think he's like an eleven percent. I mean, like
his defensive field goal percentage inside six feet this year
is like eleven percent too. It's ridiculous for a guard.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
He does everything bro as a roamer, he is just
going to fuck your offense up. He is getting his
hands in there on every single ball. He's just the
ultimate playoff player man. Like I thought it was so
clear that Caruso's role was only going to increase for
this team in the postseason. He is such a winner.
He is such a nightmare for opposing offenses to face,
(07:34):
and like he just makes play after play that swings
games down to forcing the jump ball right where he
strips Scottie Pippen Junior and then Lou Dort falls on
it and then Edie for whatever reason, fouls Blue Dort
on the jump ball. I thought that was a big
mental air by him. You don't need to do that,
you got a foot on the guy. But absolutely incredible
defensive performance by them collectively, but especially by Caruso individually.
(07:57):
He's the best defensive guard on the planet. That's where
I had him in our player rankings coming into this year,
and a lot of people were pissed about that, honestly,
like that might have been the thing about my list
that people were most pissed about me having him over
Herb Jones. It's just that off ball, recking shit. Man.
It's so so special his defensive playmaking. But you mentioned
Cheed Holmgren won a masterclass by him in the second
(08:19):
half and especially in that third quarter when they just
need an infusion of offense. He's punishing the Grizzlies for
helping off of him. He's beating them with the pick
and pop game, exact same things that he was doing
last game. Just so big to see him that comfortable,
that effective as a three point shooter. And he has
a play where he blows by Edie. He's using his quickness,
he's showing his comfort as a driver. But just his
(08:41):
continued aggression and his continued three point shooting at this
level is so so important for them and so encouraging.
And then Jalen Williams logan, Jadob has been excellent for
three straight basketball games. It's not a question who has
been their best player in this series. It's Jada probably
in every single game. If you wanted to make the
(09:02):
Caruso case for this one, I would genuinely hear it.
I thought he was that insanely impactful. But the offensive
production that you're getting from Jadub while he's also wrecking
the game defensively, the transition scoring, but also the poison
the half court, he has just been so so impressive.
So it is a hell of a performance. It is
a very very rare thing to see a team that
(09:25):
you feel is even capable of this. And I have
to say, Man, as bad as the first half was,
I could never count the thunder out because, as I
literally said after Game one, this is a team that
puts together runs at a rate that only the peak
Golden State Warriors are comparable to. Their ability to shut
down your offense, turn defense into offense by forcing you
(09:47):
into so many mistakes and then getting out and running
in transition where their athletes are just insane. It's one
of one in the sport, and all of that was
fully on display in this one. And you still aren't
getting the best version of Shay, not even Clo honestly,
like he played better in this game, but I still
think he's forcing some tough looks. I still think he's
specifically hunting the three.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I got to give Triple J some credit too for
what he's been doing defensively, like on SGA and like,
you know, yeah, I got to give a little bit
of credit to Memphis, but she has a.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Good interior defense. But I thought he looked uncomfortable playing
in a crowd at times. I thought his decision making
in traffic wasn't great. I mean, he ends up with
eight assists, but a couple ugly turnovers and four shots
Like this is not that Sjay that we saw in
the regular season. And the Thunder are still sitting here
up three to zero in this series, and it's just
such a testament to how insane their defense is, how
insane their depth is, and how many game breaking players
(10:40):
they have. Isaiah Joe is so active defensively and makes
a couple of threes and is getting out in transition
in this one, they're one of a kind man. Their
ability to erase deficits, to build leads so so quickly
and so explosively, and to just dominate defensively so so special.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It's specifically that ability to win on defense and their
ability to capitalize on it on the other end. That's
how they're able to put all these runs together, right.
It's the defensive playmaking, it's the stops, but it's also
the ability.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
They had this game tied up by like eight minutes
to go on the fourth. Yeah, from that point forward
they were a little sloppy, but they erased that twenty
nine point lead in what twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And yeah, I mean they're down jaw too. Like, that's
important context, but it's still impressive. You do that in
any context, right, Like, But it's that ability to capitalize
on their defense, winning on that end, and then that's
how you generate easy points. The playoffs are tough when
you've got to grind it out and you've got to
get in the half court so many times. The way
to generate easy offense is to get out in transition
(11:43):
where you're gonna have mismatches that you can attack, where
the defense isn't set up where if you move the
ball quickly enough you can kill them. And Oklahoma City's
as good at that as you know any team in
the league today. Man like them are Boston right, It's
it's so special. I think Memphis has done man. I mean,
if jobs back or not, I mean, you just I
(12:04):
don't think you can bounce back from this game. I
can't believe. Shout out Scottie Pippen junior. Man, I mean,
dude was spraying in the.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Field past ology.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, dude, that's exactly what I was thinking about when
I was watching this game, Carson. I was like, Carson
was talking about the death last episode and then Scotty
Piffn does this in this game.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And it was a really good defensive performance by him too.
But yeah, I mean the shooting was just insane. He
was really really good in this one. He was their
best player.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, I completely agree, and I mean that's what got
them out to that early lead. In Memphis offense just
stalled out towards the end. I thought this was a
really bad Desmond Baye game too. Like I'm dogged down
Triple J. I've been disappointed by him as well. But
Oklahoma City is instilling a lot of confidence in me
man to come back. Like just the stakes of this game,
(12:54):
it's like, you're up to Oh, Memphis has smacked you
in the mouth in the first half on the road.
It would be so easy to just curl up into
a ball and to take this al and say, all right, well,
we'll finish this in Oklahoma City in game five. But
they didn't. They said, no, we're the Thunder. We're not
just gonna lay down. We're gonna come back. We're gonna fight,
and it was enough to come back and win. That's
(13:15):
what's really impressive to me is this just feels like
a game that they could have laid down for, but
they didn't.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that. I think
twenty nine out of thirty teams, if they're up to
OHO and they feel like they're that much better, they
just say, all right, this isn't our game. We're not
gonna fight that hard, like we know that we're going
to win this series in five. Still, the Thunder are
the one teams that are so psychotically competitive, and als
Caruso might have the number one motor in the league. Man,
(13:44):
he is an insane person on a basketball court, and
they have so much youth, and they have so much energy,
and they have so much athleticism and so many great
defensive players that like, they just fight so hard. I
honestly couldn't believe their apathy in the first half, because
I'm like the Thunder of the one team that never
comes out flat. They don't play like this, and then man,
(14:06):
did they turn it around. I also think Mark Dagnall
is just such a good coach, and Timmy Fairy's got
a lot of talent to work with, but I think schematically,
I think in terms of the intensity he instills in
this team, he is so damn impressive. So it's the
worst basketball that they've played all year for a half,
and somehow I still think you leave this game wildly
(14:28):
impressed with the Thunder. It's a different way than it
was in the fifty point win, but like the resolve,
the toughness, the fight, and still them showing all the
things that make them special just in terms of their
basketball traits. It was all on display in this one
and signature win. Man Grizzlies fans, if you're pissed with
(14:49):
any sort of Thunder glaze in this one. I get
it because I do think they probably would have won
this game with Job, and I'm sorry that he got hurt,
and I think it sucks, and it especially sucks how
it happened, where like you're up twenty seven, it's gonna
be an easy transition lay up for him, and I
know that lemutation, and I feel like some people might
(15:09):
try to spin that as a dirty play because we
saw this with the Men yesterday. I don't know how
you could. He so clearly has lost his balance and
is just trying to make an effort play like it's
just unfortunate. This stuff happens in the NBA, especially happens
in the playoffs when dudes are trying to make an
extra effort on every play and there's extra physicality on
every play. But that sucks for Grizzlies fans because Jaw
(15:30):
really really struggled in the first two games, but he
looked comfortable. He was dialed in in this one, and
that version of Jaw is really essential to this team
reaching their ceiling and being a team that you feel
can go out there and win playoff games. So whether
he returns or not, I think the thunder are gonna
win Game four like this was the Grizzlies chance. Obviously,
they had everything going. The first half was the perfect storm,
(15:52):
and they still weren't able to close it out. Let's
talk about the other game that we saw out West Logan.
This was a dominant win for the Los Angeles Clippers
over the Denver Nuggets. We saw two games in which
the total scoring margin was one point, as close as
(16:12):
it could be, as high quality basketball as it could
be between Denver and LA. This game was a very
different story. What did you take away from LA cruising
to a victory in this one.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
That's why it was so crucial for the Nuggets to
get that last game man and for Jogics to be
that much better, because their margin is nowhere near as
large as the Clippers. And that's what we said coming
into this series is the Clippers have so many more
good basketball players, guys that can produce for you want
to give a night that they've got to capitalize on
(16:48):
the ones that they can win. And things swung back
in the Clippers favor in this game. I thought they
shot a lot better. I thought Norman Powell played a
lot better. James Harden pulled his weight in this game,
and it's like, you get a this is a really
good Kawhi game, and obviously wasn't great as game two.
Game two is a historic performance, but I still thought,
(17:09):
even though he didn't shoot as efficiently, I thought this
was a really good Kawhi game. In Yo Kitchen, Jamal
do their thing. But it's a bad Aaron Gordon game.
It's a bad MPJ game. It's a bad Rust game.
And I thought the Nuggets were sloppy. I thought their
defense was really poor. I thought they were conceding way
too many open threes. That's what sucks, man, is it
(17:34):
really feels like the Nuggets needed that game more than
the Clippers. And when Kawhi was perfect and nobody else
was on and Jokicic just makes a few too many
mistakes and that feels like the margin in game two.
Those are the ones that come back to bite you
in the playoffs. And I don't want to bail on
my Nuggets pick Carson, but I'm gonna be honest with you.
(17:56):
It's the least confident I think. Yeah, I am in
any of my first round predictions at this point. And
it's how I felt after Game one. You know, I
thought the Nuggets. I thought the Nuggets almost played to
their peak, right, MIMPJ didn't have a good game, but
a lot of things went right for the Nuggets in
that game. And that's the thing to me about this series.
(18:16):
The Clippers just have more margin. The Nuggets need to
play more refined, perfect basketball every single night to win,
and it feels like the Clippers don't. They've got more
guys that are reliably good. Zubots I didn't even mention
had a really good game in this one too.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It's like always does yeah, right, so consistent.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, it's the prediction that I have the least confidence
in at this point, man, And I don't know, man,
I'm disappointed. A lot of the Nuggets flaws came to
light in this game, and you can't be surprised. The defense,
the sloppy play, the inconsistency, but most importantly it's the
lack of shooting, and Clippers just got more margin. Man,
(18:56):
I'm disappointed in the Nuggets up to this point.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah. This is a reversal of Game two in the
sense that you felt like the Nuggets' role players really
played quite well in that one and gave them a chance.
And this is a disaster from Aaron Gordon outside of
the first five minutes when he was hooping, but after that,
I mean, can't finish at the rim, can't make a shot,
(19:22):
disaster from Michael Porter Junior, who goes two of nine
from the field in this game. And both of those
guys are playing through injuries, so you're inclined to give
them a pass. At the same time, it doesn't matter,
Like if this is the level that those two are
going to be at for the remainder of this series,
the Nuggets do not have a prayer in hell. Really
(19:43):
bad from both of them. Russ could not make a shot,
and like, this is the problem that we've been talking about.
Right when he's on the floor, the Clippers are going
to completely ignore him. They are going to roam off
of him every possession. And unless he is making those
open c threes, you're playing four on five, so you
basically have to get him the ball on those possessions.
(20:05):
And do you want your offense to be decided by
whether or not Russell Westbrook is making open threes? Me personally,
if I'm the Nuggets, no, I don't. And in this
one he was missing them. And then again they lose him,
which just sucks because their depth is so shoddy and
now you have to get some Julian strawther minutes. In
this game. They also got I don't know, like three
(20:28):
bench points in this game. I want to say, ends
up being six bench points in this game. So just
basically zero production outside of Murray and Jokic. I just
think the burden on those two in this series is overwhelming.
And I actually thought they were getting a lot of
good offensive results when they ran through Jokic, like in
the first quarter, he was just absolutely dissecting doubles, dotting
(20:52):
up cutters, racks up seven assists, and then I just
didn't think was assertive enough. He really needs to be
the folk point of every single possession, like he needs
to be a god. We need absolute monster Yokic production
where he is either scoring, which he was on most
touches when they left him in single coverage, or he's
(21:12):
drawing so many doubles. I just think they need even
more Yokic. And at the end of the day, even
if they get that, if the role players aren't gonna
be better than this, it's not gonna matter. And it's
not gonna matter unless they're better defensively, where they really
just did not have any answers in this game. I
thought that their pick and roll defense was not good enough.
I thought that James Harden was absolutely cooking them in
(21:35):
the first half. They try a couple possessions of drop
and he's just walking into pull up threes that he reigns.
They're putting two up on the ball, and I just
think they're not nearly active enough on the back line.
They're tagging Zoo way too late. They're getting over to
deal with him off the roll too late, where he's
comfortably finishing a lot of those looks, And as you said,
(21:57):
they also allowed a lot of open threes. Hawahi was
really good as a passer in this one too, so
they were trying to send multiple bodies at him, but
he was making the right reads, he was finding shooters,
he was finding cutters. The Clippers are just a really,
really good, complete basketball team, and the Nuggets have more holes.
So when the Nuggets' best games, absolutely they can go
(22:17):
toe to toe with the Clippers. They can beat the
Clippers when everything is going right, when they're engaged in
competitive defensively, when Jokic just perfect offensively, when guys are
making shots around him and making good decisions. But in
a game like this, where the Nuggets are disjointed and
they're not making shots and they're not engaged defensively, not
playing up to their potential, the floor for the Clippers
(22:40):
is just so much higher. And they just ran away
with this one without playing a remarkable game by the
Clippers standards, they played a good game, but this was
more about them just being so much better than the
Nuggets when Denver's at their worst.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I completely agree. I completely agree, man, Like the Clippers
just have more good players that can kill you on
a given day. And I still so ridiculous about this
Nuggets Clippers series is that I feel like the Clippers
have yet to throw anywhere close to their best punch.
Like I don't feel like they fully put it together
(23:14):
yet on the Nuggets, and this was a convincing win. Like,
don't get me wrong, wholeheartedly, I think the Nuggets can
play much much better basketball. I mean I've seen it
in this series. Like the level they were able to
reach at defensively in Game one on a possession to
possession basis, the level that Jamal was at, the level
that we've seen Gordon and MPJ play at and spurts
(23:36):
in this series. Russ too, like the Nuggets can play
way better, but it feels like the Clippers haven't played
close to They haven't thrown close to their best punch yet,
and I feel like they can. Clippers are dangerous, man.
I was sleeping. They need to tuck me in and
give me my pillow, bro in my blanket. I was
sleeping on the Clippers.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
They are dangerous, bro, And I'll take it asta up further.
I don't see why the Clippers can't win the NBA title. Like,
I'm not going to put them in a tier with Boston.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
I don't think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Like, how are they not clearly a top five team
in basketball? There is not a box that they are
not checking. Their stars are playing at a dominant level. Kim,
He's playing like a top ten player. James Harden is
playing like a top twenty player. And they've been doing
this for months now. Their depth is really what X player.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Is zubat in the league, like top what.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Probably Kareem A dul jabbar oh, I thought you were
looking for a player comparison. I was gonna say, he's
basically the modern Kareamo Dul Jabbar Zoo is a top
forty ish player in the end.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
They have three top fifty players.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Though absolutely and Norman Powell. He's not as consistent, but
he's an absolute weapon when he gets going offensively, like
he did in this game. So I'm just looking up
and down at this team, man, and they've been playing
phenomenal basketball for a long time. They're two stars have
been playing at an incredibly high level for a long
time now. They have one of the most consistent third
(25:06):
options in basketball, who is such a high impact two
way player night after night and is just such a lean,
efficient contributor who fits so seamlessly on both ends. They
have great creators, and they have great play finishers with
a big like Zoo and with their spot up shooting,
and you're getting the elite creation from Kawhi and James Harden.
They have really really good depth, like they have role
(25:29):
players who can go out there and have a massive
impact on the game. If it's Chris Dunn, who has
eight rebounds in this game, who's one of the best
defensive guards on the planet, one of the best on
ball guys as a screen navigator, and one of the
best off ball disruptors. As a roamer, Nick patsum Logan
is first ballot role player Hall of Fame four to
(25:49):
three is in this one three blocks. He's still so
productive and so effective as a two way player. They
have awesome perimeter defenders and they have a dominant interior defender.
Like if you get the best version of Kawhi and Harden,
who at this point it feels like, basically just take turns,
leaving defenses helpless, Like you're gonna get a game where
(26:10):
Harden is absolutely nails as a pull up shooter and
he's getting by you at will, and he's picking you
apart as a playmaker, and then the next game is
just gonna be okay. Nobody can deal with Kawhi on
an island and he's just gonna give you a super
efficient thirty five plus or whatever. Both of them are
capable of dominating games, being the best player on the
floor in playoff games. Why are they not in those
(26:32):
conversations Like I've been saying, I had them as the
second best team in the West for a bit, and
then I said, the Lakers at their best probably have
the edge, But I don't know. The Clippers are just
more consistent because their defensive infrastructure is so sound. They're
just so reliably awesome, and I do think they're gonna
(26:55):
win this series. And I think they're gonna give okay
See a hell of a fight in the second round,
as good a fight as an anybody in the West camp.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
That's what I was just gonna ask you. Do you
think they match up with the Thunder better than the Lakers.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I don't know if they match up better. I think
that they are a better defensive counter just with their
speed and athleticism. On that end, I think that the
Lakers pose more problems offensively just because dealing with two
ball handlers and creators with the size and strength of
(27:27):
Luke and Lebron. We've seen post some issues for the Thunder.
I think that they are like right on par with
each other as clearly the two biggest threats to the Thunder.
Minnesota also a tough matchup, playing really well. But I
do tend to lean on the offenses that I trust more,
and that is still both of the LA teams. But
the better two way team, certainly, the more consistently great
(27:50):
two way team is the Clippers. It's awesome to see
man because you know, sometimes when you talk about the
Clippers in a positive light, the world makes you feel
like you're an insane person. Logan, Well, i mean suffering
from schizophrenias, scribbling on the walls, drinking the kool aid.
And I'm glad I drink all that kool aid up
because it was delicious. It was cherry flavored and it
(28:11):
was awesome. Thankfuli's back, James Harden is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Thankfully you didn't die, you know, Thankfully the kool aid
didn't kill you.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I mean, well, I shouldn't count my chickens before they.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is, it is. It is good
to see though, I mean, Clippers fans have suffered enough,
and the team has been He's been on the cusps
so many times, right, like the Chris Paul and Blake
teams and how great they were every single year, but
they just couldn't get over the hump. And then you
know PG doing his thing down Kawhi, and just nice
(28:43):
to finally see this at least come to fruition a
little bit in the first round. Man, here's to to
continued health. Yeah. Like you said, man, I don't want
to count the chickens before they.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Hash but they are playing excellent basketball and the Nuggets
not have it in this one. I know there are
some people who are probably gonna look at this game
and say, all right, this is all the evidence that
we need that the Nuggets need to blow up their roster.
And I think the changes are needed, but I think
that's been apparent for a while, we've talked about it.
(29:13):
I think MPJ is the most likely candidate to be
on the move. See if you can find somebody who
is more of a complete two way wing, somebody who
can bring you that value, and then maybe you can
also get a depth piece along with that, because obviously
those are the couple of things that need to improve
your perimeter athleticism and your overall wing defense and speed
(29:35):
on that side of the ball, and then your depth,
and both of those things you very much saw the
absence of for the Nuggets in this one. This is
a rough one. They still have a chance to be
very competitive in the remaining games in this series, unless
these injuries are gonna affect Aaron Gordon MPG. To this point,
MPJ is the more concerning one to me because it's
(29:57):
a new thing, and it's a shoulder, and he's obviously
a shooter, and his shooting was terrible in this one,
so that is definitely something that they have to monitor.
Not a good game if you're a Nuggets fan. Not
a good feeling. And I think you see what I
was talking about when I picked the Clippers to win
this series. Man more margin, more of an ability to
make the Nuggets offense uncomfortable than vice versa. We're gonna
(30:21):
take a quick break to get some words from DraftKings
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Speaker 2 (32:37):
Logan. We got a fuck you Brunson chant from the
Detroit crowd in this game, which I feel captures the
intensity in the nastiness of this years. You don't mind
my language saying that, do you? You look perhaps a bit offended?
You're not clutching your pearls, are you?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Second straight day, we got an f u X player
chant from two different fan bases in two different arenas.
And I gotta say, man, I love it these playoffs.
There's so much tension, there's so much beef, there's so
much animosity, there's so much physicality being allowed. And these
are a couple of classic basketball cities that are honestly
known for having nasty teams in years past. And this
(33:16):
was a great basketball game between the two of them.
The Knicks bounce back, they get a win in Detroit
to take a two to one lead in this series.
What did you take away from their performance?
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I mean, I was really happy with what we got
out of Karl Anthony Towents. In this game. He gives
you thirty one eight and one on ten of eighteen
from the field, four of eight from deep, and he
went seven of seven from the line. In Game two,
he gives you just ten points and he had zero
field goal attempts in the fourth quarter. To me, Kat
was the big difference maker in this series and what
really gave me confidence in taking New York to win
(33:51):
the series just how reliable he could be nightly offensively
and they eke this one out. I want to give
the Pistons a ton of credit for coming back in
the second half. The Knicks finished the first half on
a twenty three to six run. They're up sixty six
to fifty three, and by five minutes left in the
third quarter, the Pistons had erased the lead. Or excuse me,
(34:13):
five minutes into the third quarter, they had completely erased
all of that lead. They were right back in the game,
and they just didn't get enough out of their offensive
supporting cast. And I think that's the real big difference
in this series. Dennis Schroeder had a great game. Tim Hardaway,
Junior kept them around in this game, but Malik Beasley
(34:35):
wasn't good enough, and I think Kate Cunningham had to
be just a little bit better in this game. You know,
I hate picking on him because he had twenty four
points eleven assists, but he ultimately shoots just ten to
twenty five from the field. He's got six turnovers, and
he just needs to be a little bit more efficient
in this series. It sucks because he's got such a
big burden on his shoulders, but I think Beasley could
(34:58):
have shot better. Honestly, if Beasley should it's better. In
this game, I don't think it matters. I think the
Pistons just win. But they were negative nineteen in his
minutes in the first half. But that's a difference, man,
Like you just trust Anonobe to get his, you trust
Bridges to get his. You know what Brunson and Cat
are going to give you for the most part. And
that's why Kat's a difference. Man. Kat took over in
(35:18):
this game, had a really good one and that's why
I picked the Knicks to win this series. But I
thought this was a really, really encouraging game for the
Pistons to won. Win that game, Get that monkey off
their back the first win in seventeen years in the playoffs.
That was step one, and they didn't give up in
this game. Man. They battled and I thought they were
(35:39):
really physical with New York. I thought they battled in
the glass in this game, and the Cad and Duram
pick and roll really got going in the second half
and generated them some easy offense. You know, it wasn't
this was a really good loss, like any loss sucks
in the playoffs. But I thought the Pistons played really
really well and played hard. They just this came up
(36:00):
just short.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
They always play hard, and he got to give them
props for that. But I thought this was a really
impressive performance from the Knicks in a really nice bounce
back game from a disappointing game too, in which I
specifically thought their offensive approach was frustrating. And I talked
about this, But it wasn't just that Brunson was making
(36:23):
his case for the greatest grifting performance that we've seen
since prime James Hardener, maybe Joel Embiid. It was the
fact that he was basically icing all of his teammates out.
And this is a Knicks team that has a lot
of collective offensive talent, and they're at their best when
everybody is touching the ball, and especially like kat is
basically constantly working with an advantage because they're guarding him
(36:45):
with Tobias Harris, and he had been so good for
a game and a half and then he just was
not involved in the offense whatsoever. And Brunson had some
really bad turnovers in that game. He wasn't efficient from
the field, and I talked about how it felt like
he wasn't trusting his team. I realized afterwards, like Game
two felt like Brunson thought that he had last year's
(37:07):
roster around him, like his job was to carry every
offensive possession, sometimes to just get shots up on the rim,
because obviously last year there was nobody else who was
healthy for the playoffs who could create a shot. It's
a much more talented team. It's a very different vibe
this time around, and I thought that he got that,
Like there was no hero ball from Jalen Brunson in
(37:28):
this game. He was selfless and when it came time
for him to make some big time shots in the clutch,
he was there and he delivered, but everybody was getting involved.
I also liked that the Knicks were very intentionally playing
with more pace. They have ten more transition points in
this game than they did in Game two, getting more
easy early offense, The ball was moving around better. They
(37:48):
only had three turnovers in the first half against fifteen assists.
That was phenomenal efficiency and selfless basketball. And four of
their starters go for twenty plus points. So I just
think that's really what makes this Knicks team so good.
That's their advantage over the Pistons. It's not just that
I do think brunton Is is the best player on
(38:10):
the floor in this series. It's more so the number
of really reliable, high end offensive contributors that they have.
And the best player in this game was Karl Anthony Towns.
He was absolutely phenomenal. They were getting him the ball
and allowing him to attack mismatches that's including Tobias Harris
as a mismatch, and he was really really good there.
(38:30):
He was under control, he was getting to those floaters
and he was really really good on them. But there
was one possession where like they're even going to switch
Shrewder onto him, and that was just cake for Cat.
Sometimes you can see him when he's trying to attack
smaller players get a little bit flustered, get a little
bit sloppy with the handle. Not in this game, he
(38:51):
was excellent there. I want to see more of them
leaning into him as a mismatch attacker. But then also
he was getting his most efficient offense, which is those
transition threes as a trailer, which he was just stepping
into an absolutely raining So phenomenal offensively, And allow me
to praise Karl Anthony Towns defense logan, because I gotta say,
(39:12):
in this series it's been better than I expected. It's
been better than the level it was at in the
regular season. Now, is he still lacking in some areas? Absolutely,
Still not a good rim protector. Still somebody who obviously
they're bringing up to the level a lot in part
to put some pressure on Cade but also because they're
not comfortable with him as a drop defender. But two
(39:34):
big blocks in the last three minutes of this game.
Through three games of this series, he's got five steals
and he's got six blocks. He's been active with his hands,
he has put some pressure on Kate up at the level.
So great game from him. And then I thought mckel
and og were both excellent on both ends. Og is
such a tough matchup for Cade, But I also thought
(39:54):
that mckel, who we had seen get bullied a little
bit more in that CAD matchup, did a better job
holding up and applying some pressure to him and making
life hard on him, and also just made some plays defensively.
Three steals, two blocks, shot it really well from deep,
shot it well for mid range. Just a really nice, efficient,
good two way performance from him. And then Josh Hart
(40:15):
is still doing Josh Harstutton in this one. He's great
on the glass, He's really good as a passer. So
that's the strength of this Knicks team. It's that their
starting five is sick. You're not going to get a
ton of bench production. But when everybody in their starting
five is at their best and they're playing together, they've
got a lot of really good basketball players and that's
when they're going to get their best results. And that's
(40:37):
what happened in this one.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, And I think the Knicks are just more talented
than Detroit. I think that's the big difference in this series.
But I do want to give Detroit and their in
them credit just for being really physical in this game too.
Like I didn't feel like New York convincingly won that battle.
I thought they played more physical and came out with
a better intensity than they did game because even though
(41:01):
it is kind of cliche like that does determine individual games.
And I thought the Knicks had a better punch in
this one. But I thought Ron Holland in his minutes
was really really good defensively. I thought Paul Reid in
the minutes that he evolved, gave them, you know, really
a big impact defensively and on the glass. Like I
(41:22):
really like Detroit's identity. Man. They're solid, they're not gonna
give up. They're scrappy, man, Detroit's scrappy now, and they're
just a team that you can really easily root for.
And I don't think this is their year. I think
New York's gonna bounce them. But I think Caid's gonna
get more efficient. I think he's gonna get better at
taking care of the ball. I think he's gonna become
(41:43):
more reliable as a scorer. And I think the Pistons
are on their way up. They're just they're they're at
a little bit of a talent disadvantage here. And if
Kat continues playing the way that I know Kat Can
I think the Knicks are gonna run away with this
year is because that's what I've been preaching every game
in this series, is that Cat, to me is the
difference every single game. The Pistons just don't have somebody
(42:06):
that can check Cat. It really is that simple. I
don't think they have a guy that can hold him.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
He was excellent. One of the best playoff games of
his career, for sure. Only one I could think of,
and he does that was Game seven against the Nuggets
last year.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
I don't want to give him props. Man. Cat's becoming
a little bit more steady. You know. I can't say
that completely, but like Game two is disappointing, but Game one,
in Game three, I was really really satisfied with Kat.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
He's one of the most gifted offensive big men we've
ever seen. And if you give him spacing where he's
at the five, just look at his production this year,
look at his efficiency. Do you think about that incredible
offensive talent?
Speaker 1 (42:45):
They went less with the double big lineup in this game.
Do you think that's something they should continue doing.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Like I've said, I like the double big look in
this matchup. I don't think it's going to be viable
against Boston, but I also don't think that they need
to force it, like I think that they're just a
bit better than Detroit, whether they go double big or
whether they go with their starting five. But Mitch has
given them good minutes. He's been phenomenal on the glass,
and he's been good defensively. I do want to give
(43:14):
some shouts to some Pistons who stepped up though you
mentioned Paul Reid eight rebounds in his sixteen minutes, just
so active, playing so hard, and Dennis Shrewder. What a
excellent basketball player he has been over these last two games.
I really like seeing him play at this level because
as a Warriors fan, I thought he was going to
be a significantly more impactful addition for the Dubs than
(43:36):
he was. Obviously, he ends up getting moved, but he
really struggled with the Warriors. But he's shooting the laces
off the ball right now. When you just see his
ability to get by people off the dribble to make
good decisions with the basketball. This team really needs that
in a playoff setting, especially because in the regular season,
after Jay and Ivy gets hurt, like they can ride
(43:58):
cad As really there Loane creator ball handler more so
than they can in a playoff series when it's like, Okay,
we're gonna put two on him every time down and
like he is so far and away our top priority
as a defense and we're scheming for him aggressively. Shrewder's
a guy who can take the pressure off, who can
make shots, who can make decisions, and he's done a
really nice job of that. For Cad, he had to
(44:21):
be better in this one. At the end of the day,
I thought that he was pretty good as a passer,
but as you said, forty percent from the field with
six turnovers, the efficiency is just not good enough. And
there was that stretch in the third quarter where kay
durin pick and roll was just dicing the knicks up
like they're putting two on the ball, and he keeps
on finding during off the roll and Duran is finishing.
(44:43):
He also made a nice read off the short roll.
But overall, Kate just has to get better with the turnovers,
specifically because like some of them are just sloppy. This
has been a thing with him all year, but like
in every game of this series he's had five or
six turnovers. That's just too many. Regardless of the offensive
burden that you're taking on. And again you see the
(45:03):
limitation that he has as a lead offensive creator in
this game, nothing comes easy for Cad. Like he has
to work hard for all of his buckets. There's so
many tough mid range pull ups just because he doesn't
have that high level rim pressure and rim finishing. As
logan is now being raised by the Dark, Is everything
(45:24):
okay over there, It's all right, we're wrapping this show
up in a couple of minutes. Anyways. Only bummers that
I can't see your beautiful smiling face quite as well.
But again, like he's not really capable of getting easy
offense when he's matched up with Og. He's ten of
thirty two when guarded by og Ananobi in this series,
he's done such a great job on him. He's so strong,
(45:45):
he's impressibly good at navigating screens for his size, and
so he's been a really, really big challenge for Cad.
And then last game I praised Kid for getting a
lot of easy transition offense for involving Brunson and so
the actions for hunting the mismatches, so he didn't have
to go right at Og as much and in this game,
(46:06):
he just wasn't able to do as much of any
of those things. Like when he did try to go
at mcel as a smaller wing, mckel held up a
lot better than he did last game. Jalen Brunson had
a possession where he was switched on to him late
and did a decent job, and then they sent a
late double and they forced a tough shot on kid
late in the shot clocks. So those are really the
(46:27):
limitations for him right Just where is that easy offense
coming from? Can he get the efficiency up? Those are
the couple of reasons that I'm not as high on
Cad as some people are right now. And I do
think that you've seen those in this series. Be a
bit of a limitation.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Still an awesome basketball player, to be clear, And it's
not easy to be going to continue playoff run no
matter what Kid's is sending.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah, Kay's going to continue to get better specifically in
this series, though I don't know. I think it would
take the Knicks having another really off offensive night from
one of their guys, like I think Kat would have
to have a bad night Og Bridges. I don't really
think Detroit can disrupt those guys all that much. Like,
(47:15):
I think they can disrupt Brunson, but Brunton's still always
gonna get his It's like, I don't know. I'm also
debating if Detroit can shoot better, man, because it does
feel like if they can get Beasley and Hardaway Junior
on in the same night, They're just so dependent on
those guys, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
They did have that in Game one, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
But it's like you need you need them and Harris
on really to maximize that offense. And it's just hard man.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
They did have that in game one, to be fair,
but Cade wasn't good enough in Game one.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
All those things have to come together for Detroit, and uh,
it's not gonna be easy, though, man. I think that
I think we're in for six or seven.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I'm on the fence between that. I still think this
is a really it's a really competitive series. And again,
the Pistons have been in every single one of these
games and they have tight down to the wire every
single one of them.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Absolutely, I do think the Knicks have more offensive talent,
they have more margin, and that's the reason that I
lean on them. But the Pistons are highly competitive, they're physical,
their intense night after night. You get a couple of clunkers,
obviously from Tobias Harrison Malik Beasley in this game, but
you also do get a couple of really good performances
from Shrewder and Tim Hardaway Junior to off set that
(48:30):
at least to some extent. And I thought Duran was
mostly really good in this one. I think he's been
impressive in this series. A couple of rough possessions that
he cost them batting the shit out of that jump ball.
We saw two instances in games today on big jump
balls where centers with huge size advantages managed to mess
(48:51):
it up in their own ways going up against a
much smaller player. And then I saw some people getting
on him for just like throwing away the inbound decade,
which I get. I mean, you have to complete that pass,
but also there was a half second on the clock,
and it's like Cage's maybe gonna get off a half
court attempt. So like, yes, I would prefer if Duran
didn't mess that up, but I don't know that that
(49:12):
was consequential at all on the outcome of this game. Overall,
I think Duran's played well and the Pistons have been very,
very solid. Man. They're right there with the Knicks. It's
not like there's a big gap between these teams. It's
just there's one team who I trust a little bit
more fun day of basketball. Logan gotta say there was
a moment where I was like, are we gonna have
(49:34):
two stinkers in this late window? No? Man, the Thunder
what a performance.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Don't count them out. Don't count them out, man.
Speaker 2 (49:42):
I never would, Logan. If there's one thing that I'm
gonna do, it's Glades the Oklahoma City Thunder. Something I'm
great at and I take a lot of pride in
Alex Caruso. Unbelievable, unbelievable, what that man is capable of. Logan.
I'm getting word we're gonna be back tomorrow night. Is
that true?
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Sources are telling me. I can't confirm we're gonna be
back tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Sources are telling me it's gonna be a party because
it's a Friday night and everybody's gonna be here with us,
and we're all gonna be having a great time talking
about basketball. We're gonna be turning up and enjoying the
libations that are offered to us.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
I don't know what that word means, bro.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Look it up, crack open at the saurus and enjoy.
Appreciate you guys tuning in. Hope you all enjoyed this one.
If you did, then we have plenty more of our content.
You can find it all on our YouTube channel. You
can see all of the full episodes of the pot
of course, you can catch all of our post game
live streams in the moment or you can watch them after.
(50:39):
And you can listen to all of these shows, of course,
across all audio platforms. You can also follow us across
social TikTok, Instagram at nerd, sessh, Twitter at nerd Underscore, sesh.
Just see clips from the show, graphics from the show,
and all of our short form trivia content, and you
can see Logan's smiling face. You're just giggling over there.
What are you giggling about? Man? You crack open that
the saurus. You got one on you.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
I did find out what libationis meant.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Good one, bro, you know, just a good time. That's ridiculous, Friday.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
That's a little convoluted, but kudos.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Alright, Well, on that note, appreciate you guys tuning in
as always, I've been Carson Braber, i've been Logan Camden
and this was nerd Sash
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