Giannis and Lillard deliver an NBA Cup Championship to Milwaukee, how did they do it? Why was OKC so flat on offense, and much more. Dave DuFour, Zena Keita and Es Baraheni discuss the NBA Cup, the vibes in Vegas, and what they can do to change it next year. Then breakfast club breaks and talks about the new format for the All Star Game, and if the Denver Nuggets for trade for Zach LaVine.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita and Es BaraheniExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodySubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What did the Bucks do to win the NBA Cup?
Torian Prince, also undefeated.
All right, guys. Let's jump into it. The Bucs. They win this game kind of running away. And I think I want to get to the Thunder and what their problems were. But let's start with the Bucs. We got to celebrate the champs. And I think when we do that, Zeno, we got to start. You big on bigs. Giannis was huge.
Giannis bulldozed his way to this win. It was surreal watching him just put his head down. We've seen this all season. But tonight... The Jokic came out. And I don't like to, you know, try and compare too much, but the precision passing from Giannis in transition, being able to find his teammates, it was incredibly impressive. And that's how he got the whole team involved.
In the second half, when you talk about, we're going to talk about OKC not being able to make a shot, but... When the Bucs were able to make shots, it's because their passing was unbelievable. They got through the defense of OKC with precision, sharp, fast passes that covered so much ground. And Giannis was the start of all of it.
Yeah, Andre Jackson had what might have been the fastest pass thrown tonight. He threw a pass from the corner out top to Dame. And I remember I said to you guys, wow, there's a lot of zip on that. You know, I thought the Bucs energy in the game was fantastic. And you mentioned it just from the jump. Giannis was dealing. I mean, he nearly had a triple-double in the first half.
I mean, we were calling it in the first quarter. I was like, every single time that OKC threw a second body at him, Giannis knew who was opening.
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Chapter 2: What were the Thunder's offensive struggles?
Chapter 3: How did Giannis perform in the championship game?
Yeah, Andre Jackson had what might have been the fastest pass thrown tonight. He threw a pass from the corner out top to Dame. And I remember I said to you guys, wow, there's a lot of zip on that. You know, I thought the Bucs energy in the game was fantastic. And you mentioned it just from the jump. Giannis was dealing. I mean, he nearly had a triple-double in the first half.
I mean, we were calling it in the first quarter. I was like, every single time that OKC threw a second body at him, Giannis knew who was opening.
He found him. This was the recipe that OKC tried. Well, did pull off against the Mavericks, right?
Right.
sending two to the ball blitzing. But the really great thing here was Giannis was catching it in the post behind the wall. He actually mentioned it post game. He's like, look, I'm not trying to barrage through that wall. I'm actually getting behind it and then making plays through that, which is, I think one of the most key elements for this bucks team.
It's like morphing to what Giannis has been able to do and adapt. He, The evolution of him as a playmaker, the mid-range scoring, you talked about the aggression and just driving the basketball. All of that was on display tonight. Like, it was a true MVP performance from Giannis. Yeah, absolutely. And on the defensive end. Like, they did an incredible job.
They limited OKC to, what, like, under 100, which is... It's hard to do. 97-81 last year.
And OKC certainly helped them out missing shots. But, you know, and as you actually made this point, the Bucs really struggled or the Thunder really struggled around the basket, too, which is not what normally happens with them. But they were blowing bunnies. Brooke and Giannis, man. Too big. Yeah. You know, this was a game where we haven't been worried about OKC's size to a serious degree yet.
You know, of course, they had to play with no centers for a while. Yeah. And I'm not sure if Chet makes much of a difference against the Bucs in a game like this because Chet's not big enough. They almost needed like a second Hardenstein out there at times. Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What changes are needed for the Thunder?
Chapter 5: Are the Bucks back as contenders?
We're seeing Giannis play in the post more often and work off of the advantages that he creates. So Dame was kind of... And like a two minute answer was detailing this whole process.
He actually credited Vin Baker, who's an assistant coach for the Bucs, for getting those guys together before practice to work on some of the stuff that they've been doing, which I think is part of the process that fans don't necessarily see all that often. It's working through that process. And sometimes it just takes time. Yes. Game time.
I thought Doc had a funny line about them, you know, talking about how much they enjoyed Vegas, but staying in Vegas.
He did say that. Going in early, right?
Chapter 6: What is the chemistry between Dame and Giannis?
Chapter 7: How did Andre Jackson impact the game?
Right, right, there you go.
But for the way that they're getting Giannis the ball, And also for the chemistry between Dame and Giannis that we're seeing more and more of every single game, right?
Yeah, I actually asked Dame post-game about that chemistry and how it's evolved over the last two years. It's like people thought me and Giannis were just going to perfectly seem together. And I think we all could have agreed. I think we could have.
It felt like it was going to be perfect once they played together, but it took such a long time to process how Dame would play off of the ball, how Giannis could be aggressive outside of what Dame can do on the pick and roll. They're learning how to do that now. We're seeing Dame play off of the ball more. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago.
We're seeing Giannis play in the post more often and work off of the advantages that he creates. So Dame was kind of... And like a two minute answer was detailing this whole process.
He actually credited Vin Baker, who's an assistant coach for the Bucs, for getting those guys together before practice to work on some of the stuff that they've been doing, which I think is part of the process that fans don't necessarily see all that often. It's working through that process. And sometimes it just takes time. Yes. Game time.
I thought Doc had a funny line about them, you know, talking about how much they enjoyed Vegas, but staying in Vegas.
He did say that. Going in early, right?
And not drinking. And spending time together when you're... Look, Doc Rivers is not a coach who's ever been big on practice, right? And even with a new team, I'm sure they've practiced way more than he's used to doing. But he's got... This thing is a coach where he can get chemistry built. He's a pros coach. Yes, exactly. I mean, he's done it before, right? And the players trust him.
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Chapter 8: What do the Bucks need to maintain their success?
I will say this. I think it was about eight and a half minute mark in the fourth quarter. Let's swing to the thunder. All right. Eight and a half minute mark of the fourth quarter. They're down 17. And, you know, there's a three-shot foul or, you know, they get the ball.
You were thinking about...
And I said, you know what the funniest outcome here is? After shooting, you know, 2% from three is for them to just get hot for the last eight minutes and wind up winning this game. But this is the sort of team that can do that. And I will tell you that my opinion of the Thunder throughout even just this season where I already was high on them, even a game like this, those guys stuck with it.
They didn't lose this game because their offense stunk. They missed open shots.
You know what this reminds me of? Yeah. You guys remember that Cavs-Boston game? Yes. Where the Cavs just couldn't hit anything from behind the arc, and we're all kind of like, hey, this was actually a pretty good loss for the Cavs. Don't want to go that far. Sure. But ultimately, this team shot 14% from three. They're 19th in three-point percentage overall this season.
I believe they're top 10 in attempts. Yeah. So they're letting them fly. I think if you look at them statistically, they should be performing better from behind the arc.
Let me ask you. Okay. More memorable... Now, we're in the building for this, and this is the NBA Cup. It's not an elimination game. But think about this. This 5-for-32, what would you rather do? 5-for-32 in a Cup game or 0-for-27 in an elimination playoff game? So it's not that bad. And again, the offense itself looked pretty good.
Hardenstein was excellent in this game, especially that first quarter. Did he miss a shot? No. And just was active on the glass. Their DHO game out top I mean, really special. He was creating open looks.
He goes to the short roll and now has that teardrop. Or even in the short roll, being able to take a dribble and take his defender. And that is another layer to that offense now. Because even if he's doing a DHO with a guard, if Hartenstein is giving that ball out, he's passing it out away from him, making it so hard for a defender to go and get it. Or if he's doing that, he then rescreens.
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