The final officially started last Thursday, and we were able to give our live reactions to game one and game two. We now have a Todd series with Oklahoma City going on the road for games three and four in Indiana. What's one thing you notice about each team that could help them win this pivotal game three? Shelton.
Man, it's going to start with execution on the offensive end and half course it. Indiana has to do a better job of figuring out who, and I know it's late to be trying to figure out who's going to be the go-to guy, but it depends on who has a hard hand with this team, but they have to be able to find that person and take advantage of the weak spots in Oklahoma City, which it ain't mean. But for them to win, they're going to have to do that. Okay, so you got to do what's keeping doing what they do and keep putting pressure on the ball, putting pressure on the haliburton, and making the game scrambled in Indiana can't do much.
So that's what you want to do. That's how you want to start. But Indiana has to figure it out in half course, because they're going to have to play half course at some point and get out in transition whenever they can. Spike, I know you know how much, so what do you got?
Somebody got to get 20 points for the plexus. Like somebody got to be able to go, when they need a bucket to get them a bucket. Pascal, see, I can seem like he was going to be that person in the Nick series, but he hasn't been a show. Like I don't think they got anybody that's in over 20 points in either of the two games.
So they need somebody to go get their own basket. All right. Nick. LaVar Burton, nephew got a score at least 30.
And I would say for OKC, SGA is really that Nick and I'm going to put a lot of pressure on him by saying this. And I'm only saying this because this is who he's been, if you look at the stats, if you look at their playoff runs, if you look at how the regular season went, he's balling like he's that Nick again, 40, he's getting about 30 to 40 tomorrow night. And I'm basically saying whoever drops most points between those two is going to win that game because I think this game is that people where it's like everybody has to be like, fuck it. Or the Mr.
Nick is going to show up with this game. Whoever going to win this game is going to be like, I'm Mr. Nick and I'm putting my stamp on the series. Is it going to be Halliburton?
It's going to be, yes, that's my main points for that. I don't think everything is just so even based off of the team. I think asking another player for Indiana to score 20 is nuts because it's not going to happen because you don't know where it's coming from. So you can say it's going to happen.
And then for the Thunder, you can say the same thing. I think I'm done waiting on Jaylen Williams to show up. I think I'm done on Wayne, Chet, home Grays to show up. They young, they figured out somehow some way, but it's a thing.
I'm three games away from winning it all. Free for. Okay. See, their mindset needs to be controlled to pace, win the race.
If they control the pace of the game, they will win the entire series because they play better. They play a better half court game than Indy does and they can run with Indy. So they control the pace and they'll win the game. And for Indiana, they got to play with purpose.
And what I mean by that is that oftentimes they've looked lost even in that comeback winning game one, like it was what everybody's saying is like, okay, where the points coming from? And what I mean by that is that you have to play with purpose and it doesn't always mean that you have to be overly aggressive or you have to play out of character. But the moves that you make, the passes that you make need to lead to the buckets. They need to get back to getting easy buckets.
So if they play with purpose, they have a chance. Nim Wit needs to stop acting like, you know, he the guy. I mean, he was initially game two, bro. I don't know what he's out there doing.
He had one good moment and then he just tried to replicate that for four quarters. It didn't work. Look for Indy is simple. Like, Halliburton.
He has to have an impact on the game someplace some way. Because Rick Carlisle, we know, will find an adjustment somewhere. He's the coach. I don't know where he's going to find it.
But Halliburton still has to find a way to, when his team is struggling, he has to go get buckets now. He's not a scorer like that, but you can't be stat padding at the end of the game to make it look like you're still at you. For people that didn't watch it. That was the same point.
Yeah. This computer is busted, man. I might have to switch to probably a lot more. But anyway, but yeah, man, even though they won game one, okay, CS look like the dominant team in both of these games.
And if this continues, Andy might not get another one, but they gotta figure out a way to unlock everybody. Cause with them it's death by 1000 cuts. But right now it's a lot of calls out on the court. You know, they're saying they working bro.
So yeah, man, I think we'll get to see they got everything under control. You know, they're scrambling all over the place. They pretty much got Indiana a lot. Nick SGA gonna get his.
Yeah. I believe that, I believe that. But the fact that Rick, like Rick Carlisle says something that sounds like it's a compliment, but it sounds like I've been working on something and I got to pull it off again three when he was like, you could, you could talk up what he's a fee for 30, 34 points off, off, coming off the plane. And it's like when a head coach say that it's like that, they don't sound good for you to allow that to happen.
You know what I'm saying? It's like, it sounds like, okay, I'm aware that he could get busy and he's been getting busy. So I got to slow that down. Cause all the mother niggas ain't been showing up like how we talked about.
So if you slow down SGA to get 25 instead of 30, 30 plus. That would be tough though. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, I mean, I just want people, he got to throw everything out cause this is this game three is about as big as like, normally they say game five is the big game, but game three is like, who's going to side a series in my game? It is.
This is the most important game. I don't disagree. This is the reason why I was saying in game two, I would have put Siakam in even parts of game one to me. Siakam on our SGA would be part of the game plan.
Obviously not the entire game, but in spots where we need critical stops because the thing is somebody shorter to him, he's going to bump him, you know what I'm saying? You need a guy that's a little bit linkier that can absorb the book and instill contest at a high rate. It's to me, the only play that they have on that roster that can do something like that is that. But then if you do that, obviously we know how he is with the rest, you know, that's your guy, that's stocking they pension.
That's gonna put Siakam in foul trouble. That's gonna put your career, put your player in the early on player two to 20 point look. But listen to the words that I'm using, I said in moments when you need a stop. I'm not saying the entire game, I'm not saying that this is your primary, this is your primary assignment.
I'm not saying that because he will get him in foul trouble. But when you need a stop, you know, saying in crypto out of time out, right? We saw Indiana make a run in the third quarter, right? Okay.
See call the time out with the OKC they came back and had they own run out of that time out. If I recall out I'm putting Tyree's how or I'm putting on a Seattle on SDA and it's like, hey, we have a run. Let's see if we can get an extra stop or two. Let's not let them execute out of that time out and let's continue our run.
You know what I'm saying? So at the end of the day is this. OKC is just a better team. And the people that need to figure it out is Indiana because they don't have the personnel that truly matches up with them.
You know what I'm saying? So they're going to have to play out of their mind and you know, you mentioned I'm not going to be disrespectful. But Nemhart, you know, yeah, he had a really good game one and you asked me, I want to say in game two or it might have been in game one when we were watching it live. Like what was the moment and to me, his three was that moment where it was like, oh, wait, hold on, they're not out of here.
And being a role player can, all you can rely on them to do is one or two games in a series. You got one good game out of Nemhart. Now is it going to be game three, game four. You're going to need at least one more, but they need the others to step up double zero.
You know, I'm bad with names. He needs to have like a more he needs to have a better game beginning to end, not just a spurt. Mouse Turner, mouse Turner needs to have a big game. Oh, we talked about how to get a good game.
We can only expect one more from him in this series, but my turn and he's to have a good game. See, I can mean to have like, Oh, shit, like I was a user, for finals MVP game. Howie's Halliburton needs to have a game. So the Pacers still have life, but that's why they got to play with purpose.
Who's the blame for game two loss? Ricardo or hella burn? Hello, Bert. You know, show up, like 14 to six, when I was really losing, he made a pay of this.
That's like, yeah, yeah, three points on half time, three, three and three half. Yes, that's insane. And I know people say he's not a superstar. And then that's fine.
He ain't got to be a superstar, but you're the best player on the final scene. I mean, I need more than three points in there for 14 at the end. Like this is like, I know he's a traditional point guard and tries to get everybody off of it all, but at some point in time, it has to be a level of aggressiveness as the best player on the team. He wasn't showing that we gave and shit last round for the same thing.
Like when you had this level, you had some player notes. The same role. Still the same thing. Same role.
It's the same role. You talk about those roles are going to require some type of aggressiveness in the sense of you need to be putting points on the board. If that's Aliburton, that's fine. If he really doesn't ask to get into laying and creating better shots for somebody, then do that.
He wasn't doing that. The only reason I brought and because we said the same thing about him last round, aggressiveness may look different if he fell out. I do agree with you there, but still there has to be more aggressiveness in that top spot. When I play off team, you just let you know.
See, and when I was thinking about this topic, right, I didn't want to use the word aggressive. Because aggression looks different depending on the type of player that you are. In Vienna, it's not a lack of aggression in my estimation. It's more it doesn't look purposeful.
It doesn't look like, okay, we're going here to attack there. We're doing this to do that. It feels like it's just up in the air. And that gave one win was essentially like that.
They were just in striking distance. You know, say, as you missed a big shot and Indiana made a bigger shot, but they need to play with purpose. I don't think the right word is aggression because their best player isn't necessarily aggressive by nature. He doesn't have to be aggressive for them to be good.
They have to be purposeful. They have to know when to push the pace, even off a mains, even if pushing the borders or resolve a layup or an one or a foul or something like that, play with purpose. And it's not aggression in my opinion, because aggression means like when I think of aggression, I see Russell Westbrook. That's aggression.
He plays with reckless abandon in Vienna against OKC. You can't play recklessly. You can't play with abandon with them because they will make you pay. You have to play strategically.
You have this has to be a scalpel. Not a butcher knife. Well, really. I was going to say that different types of aggression, just like you bought a Westbrook, I could bring a LeBron.
LeBron could play the same way aggressively. The Halliburton should be able to play as the top player in the team. LeBron plays aggressive, right? What?
I mean, you can't go to somebody. You're right. Halliburton don't fit that mode of Westbrook. He shouldn't be doing that.
We would all be saying he's right there. LeBron did that. That's his new set, though. No, it's fine.
LeBron is 68, 250, chasing down a block guy. I'm going to say he's LeBron before. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that's the same style of play.
Like Chris Paul. There's more Chris Paul. You got to think, look, Chris Paul, we know what he's being aggressive. When he give you in that pick and roll, he's kicking it out to the waist.
We see what he's being aggressive, but it's purposeful. I'll give you the perfect game. It was against Milwaukee, I want to say, and I want to say he went 14 out of 14. 14 out of 14 from the field.
That was purposeful. Every spot that he got to was purposeful. This is my spot. You're not going to sign me from getting to this spot.
You know what I'm saying? We're going to play pick and roll. I want to say he had less than two turnovers that game. And we see Halliburton play multiple games now with zero turnovers and over 15 assists.
That's purposeful basketball. That's not necessarily aggressive. It's purposeful. Again, it's I'm also trying to convey the fact that this needs to be a scalpel.
Like they have to be precise against OKC. Um, Q, we've seen two games. Indeed, we had Halliburton, in game one, Halliburton. Yeah, I'll be in so district.
Excellent. And Halliburton in game two. What's one thing that each team can do to win game three? OKC just got to keep playing in the same type of defense.
I got them there. I think Chat had a great rebound game. I think that finally, you know, on the offensive side because the defense side of Furchett is not in question. SGA, he keeps knowing what he's doing.
He's steady. He's not the reason why they lost game one either, but that's a whole different story. Jalen Williams, they had a much better game too. You know what I'm saying?
And I think that the bench after the first quarter, they got in control. For Indiana, the thing that killed them to me was Thomas Bryan minutes were very brutal. I don't understand why every time he was called for a foul, he kept acting like he didn't have his hands all over, hardenstine or, you know, say, Chet. I feel like his minutes were really bad.
I would have liked to have seen maybe some Tony Bradley minutes and to half of those minutes, honestly, Bradley's not terrible, but those minutes stuck out to me as a big reason why. I think they were a minus 18 or 19 when Halliburton got flur and they put in Thomas Bryan. T.J. McConnell didn't get into his groove.
So if you're Indiana, I think you've got to just kind of hope that role players play better at home. I think that they're going to settle in a little bit. And Halliburton has to be way more aggressive those first three quarters. I think that the coaching staff should get him involved off the ball personally.
A lot of what he does is not ball dominant in the sense that he just kind of rocked. It's not like Jalen Brunson in certain possessions when you have a coach who's just telling you, you'll just make something happen. But it's kind of, it's too much sometimes where I want to see him get looks, cutting to the basket. I want to see him become more of a weapon where he can spot up in the corner or come down off of the pick, something, because I think he has enough range to do that.
And I think that he does train like that as well. So I think he could be a three point shooter in that sense and then open up the game for other guys. Siakum, that's going to be the key for them in terms of the minutes when Halliburton's off the floor. So it's just the transition defense, kill them.
Beyond that, if they can so those things up, it'll be a close game. I think Rick Carlisle, he's kind of a coach that likes to coach these games like Prize fights where everyone's picking the undisputed chance. You've got to get to the last round and be in the position for the judge to make a decision. And by that, Halliburton or SGA, that's got to be a clutch moment.
Who's going to clutch up and send it home? So if you're Indiana, you hope for that. If you're OKC, just keep playing what you did in a game too and be ready for the best point. Q, I got two things for you.
One, I do agree with Rob Costa. You do it like a force goes with your ego's background. You like the first thing that that in the report. Secondly, how the hell is this shot in game one on a SGA?
Because basketball is not about one shot. I gave you one sentence answer. Basketball is not about one shot. We don't simplify like that.
It's just you. That's like that's a casual question. You don't give it a casual response. The game was getting out of hand at that point.
They had a big lead and they gave it up. And at that point, it was like, Nick is going to start making shots first to continue to win this game. The nigga was in it. What people mentioned before he left it, he probably went to go put another do rag on.
He was that's his spot. That's his spot. That's not him. This is not move.
That's his spot. He's the mid-range king right now. He won MVP off of that, right? The game is on the line.
Well, yeah, basically essentially the game was on line because if I make this shot, then we win because even though he's at worst case scenario, Halbern pulls off for three and they tie. So they can do me. And they can still move. But more than likely, he was going to win that game.
That's a lot of his. Because I'm saying I drove him off the 3.9. He took the shot. My thing is if he, like, I'm curious to see if it does get to the point where you're talking about where Indiana can win it, will he show up?
Because this is his first final. So we over here at the, like, these niggas, many of them. So we're seeing a first of a lot of things. So I'm interested if it is like they're up by a lot of points.
I think they played good defense to be up and then Indiana keeps shipping away at it. And then we're back to a game where it comes down to three to four points, two possessions. You would have to lean to Halbern, right? As far as who's more as clutch, which is when it's too right now?
I think that Halbern is just one of those clutch players in the NBA. So yeah, I mean, you said he's more clutch than Sia. You believe that if you had a bit of money. Yeah, if you're if you're giving me a one to one player from what I've seen, yeah, for sure.
All right. So the Sia has a lot to prove in that moment still. I mean, it depends. Depends on the context of the moment.
If it's the final thing, it's the game. I mean, it's all about it's all about game to game. And it's all about how much do they need you to hit the shot? You know what I'm saying?
Like if they need you to hit the shot, bro, and you miss it because of the game you've had all game and they need you to come through now, then it depends. And by that, I mean, like, if you're thinking it up, like Halbern was thinking it up and game one, he redeemed that game one by hitting that shot. And then you see how I'm not saying we overrate clutch. I'm saying that we overstate clutch because clutch is all just an amalgamation of the events that lead up to it.
So when we say that SGA lost the game, so I'm not saying you said this, but I know a lot of casual fans or just, you know, even presumed hardcore NBA fans will say he lost the game for them. I just don't agree with that as a role player. If I have missed all of my shots and coaches, I'm Jamie Williams and coach is running plays for me and I'm sinking it up. I'm not looking at SGA and be like, bro, come on.
Like, no, bro, I'm looking at myself. Man, bro, I fucking miss six easy wide open shots. I missed a layup. I missed two free throws and we lost by two points.
I can't put that on SGA and be like, damn, bro, you got to bail me out. No, bro, that's it's a team game and I got to take accountability, check out to accountability. Everybody. And I'm saying this, we looking at two perspectives of the same coin because you say he didn't lose him a game.
I'm saying he ain't winning. He could have won it. He didn't. And right now, if we going in the game three, a pivotal game, which we probably expected to be close because it's Indiana home is it right?
So it is at home right? So you would think they're gonna come out, you know, at least the role players will come out balling because they know how people of this game is right now. We've already seen in this final series already early in that if it come down to a clutch shot, we know a nigga who made it or who can make it and we know a nigga who can miss it. That does not vote.
That does to me that says, okay, see has to blow him out for them to show the dominance in the series because when they win, they win by a lot. When they lose, they lose in a way that's like, damn, you could have won it. I mean, it's a lot of this in that. And I feel like I could say the same thing that old man SGA his to shot, Halliburton goes down gets fouled and won plus three and now they win on a free throw.
So I can, but that's the whole reason I'm saying. But that wouldn't be on that. That's what I'm saying. I wouldn't be on that.
So it shouldn't be on SGA that he missed the shot when other teammates of his have also been fucking up and also been not converting on turnovers. It's not just one shot. Like I can see it as you had a terrible game and then, all right, redeem yourself. This is one moment.
All right, cool. You didn't come through in a big leverage moment and you didn't perform. But if my teammate, if I'm a role player, if I'm the fourth most important team on OKC and my and my star as 38 and he's killing and then it comes down to the fact that he needs to hit one shot and he misses, the coaches going to call us in the locker room and, yo, touch up bro, appreciate it. But hey, all y'all sit down.
We had 24 turnovers. How many points do we get off of this? You didn't hit your legs. You didn't hit your freethose.
You're not hitting your picks the way you should. You're in your springs properly. You miss two legs. I can't look at my star and then be like, I mean, come on, bro.
It's on you. Nah, but that's bullshit. You know, like it's lost by two points. They didn't move by two points.
Okay, cool. How many other shots could have been those two points? Don't put your star in that position and play Superman. That's all I'm saying.
I know we may have to move on, but you have you equally gray players on a basketball team when it comes to the NBA. You think a starting five has equal responsibility when it comes to that thing in their unit? I think that when you have a number two, like Daniel Williams, you have to then look at him. Also I'll be like, bro, where were you?
Chat, where were you? Where were you? I'm not saying that because at the end of the game, we're putting into our best player's hands. We all recognize that SGA is the best player.
Okay. See what they're starting five. Right. So and then also we scheme up plays that he does the best at, which are mid-range turnaround three or shots or mid-range in general.
Okay. He had a good look in a club. If that play was if he hit that shot, I'm looking at SGA different. I'm not saying that I think he trash.
I think he's not clutch. I'm just not betting on it right now because I've seen him in that situation. And it's like, I thought you would do this because you're MVP, but this nigga who ain't even a superstar did what you just didn't do. I think that's a separate point and that's your point on how you view him after the shot.
Fine. Cool. He might not be as close as you think. But from a basketball perspective, like all 12 guys in the locker room and a coach is breaking down film, nobody in a serious organization is going to be like, come on.
It's you. You like, no, they're going to tell him, hey, bro, you make that shot all the time. You'll hit the next one. More importantly though, hey, you guys, Mr.
Fritos, you guys missing layups, you guys missing an open three in the corner, we shouldn't even have our star in the position where he got to play Batman because we have 24-inch owners. That's why he's not. But no, but then you see game two, they come out and they spank his shit. It's different now.
And now you adjust to what you should have done in game one. You should have closed out. You should have come down to it. That's what I'm saying.
Hey, Nick, I thought it was funny when I wish we were remembered this the night of that conversation because people were talking about, oh, man, you know, always come down to one play. Don't come down to one play. It don't come down to one play. It's the whole game.
But I remember when he lost the Super Bowl, I remember one text he said, who he was like, that fall in the third quarter was gay. That's how I can handle that. Wait a minute, bro. Hey, don't bring football a lot of the basketball game.
You're real simple when you do it. So I have to make this a macro conversation about his clutches because if you want to have me flat out showing that big a lost the game, I'm trying to make it seem like he ain't with the game. When he came down the club, has he made a clutch basket yet though? He hasn't had to because they both when they win, they win.
That's what I'm saying. He hasn't had a moment. That's what I'm thinking. That's something he's going to have.
He's going to have to have a moment. I just think clutch is overstated. It's not overrated, but it's overstated because it's all normally normally if you got to be clutch, either your team is asked or your team be given up crazy leads or your team has always called themselves back from getting beat down and I don't know. What are you just good with the game?
Sometimes but the thing is always that how often of course Jordan hit a lot of clutch shots, but Jordan was also had more games when it was up 30 and up 25 to go into the full quarter than he had to hit the shot though. That's fine. That's fine. But the thing is always that in the moment that we're judging Jordan, even if they didn't even miss the shot, I still would look at him like a great player.
I'm not saying that he lost the game. Like I look at it as in total. Like I'm not just going to put it all on one guy. I don't think anybody and I don't think anybody saying that she is a good player.
Yeah, I'm not saying that you discuss just the moment. But yeah, but we'll be.