Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points and was named Western Conference Finals MVP as the Thunder clinch and NBA Finals berth and Western Conference title. Dave DuFour and Zena Keita react to the Thunder continuing their incredible season and react to some SGA stats. Then, Jon Krawczynski joins the show to give his thoughts on the Wolves disappointing performance, lessons for Anthony Edwards, and whether the Thunder have any weakness.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita & Jon KrawczynskiExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are the highlights of the Thunder's victory?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for May 29th, 2025. Coming up, the Thunder are in the finals, so John Krasinski's here to talk about that. Zena Kate and I are going to talk a little bit about how ridiculous Shea Gildress Alexander's been. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena. How's it going? It's going well. Doubling up. Yeah, going great. We're going to OKC. Oh, wait.
Some of us are going to OKC. The Thunder have made the finals. The best team all year long. 68 wins. They checked every single box. They beat Jokic. They've done it. They've made the finals. Are you surprised at all, Zena?
Not even in a little bit. Like the fact that you didn't even mention Memphis is hilarious, but yes. Yeah. I was thinking of the basketball team. Took care of Jokic. Now they took care of Ant-Man and they're on their way to the finals. Good for them.
Yeah. Shea Gildas Alexander was named the conference finals MVP, which is got to say we've got too many awards. The Oscar Robertson Oscar Robertson Western Conference Finals trophy is for the team. The Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP goes to Shea Gildas Alexander. Got to say, by the way, shout out to Clay Bennett. owner of the thunder.
He, you know, they always award these things to the owner. He immediately just turns and kind of pushes it up to the guys. Like that's how you're supposed to do it. Although I got to say the Florida Panthers made the Stanley cup finals. And I like the hockey tradition of not touching the, the conference finals trophy as like, well, we don't want that. That's not the one we want to touch.
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Chapter 2: How impressive has Shea Gildress Alexander been this season?
You got to wait for the Stanley cup. Where do you side on that? Is it good? Should you celebrate every trophy or, or should you celebrate the one?
No, I like I like the thought of it in the sense of it makes me think of the Kobe quote, right? Like business isn't finished yet. That's cute, but that's not the goal. You don't want to get too happy with that, like that hardware. It doesn't mean anything when the real championship is coming. So that's right.
So she gives us Alexander. You're still a scrub until you get that finals MVP, right? Yeah. Honestly, I'm just kidding. I mean, we did it to Steph. We got to do it to Shea. Okay. So Shea, he goes, I mean, 34 points, eight assists, seven rebounds. Another just, you know, this is run of the mill for Shea at this point. Yeah. I mean...
how else can we talk about Shea's game?
I mean, we're at the point where it's about historical comparisons and precedents.
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Chapter 3: What awards has Shea Gildress Alexander won?
Yes. Okay, okay. No, listen, Dave. Literally, all I was doing right after the win, because let's just be real. Shea It's like watching music. On offense, he's smooth. It's beautiful the way that he yo-yos with the ball. He makes basketball look easy. It almost is a mockery of the game and how good he can be with the ball in his hands, but then also how good he is in setting up his teammates.
So that's cool. We've watched it. We've seen it all season. He's the scoring champ. He's the MVP. He's now this conference finals MVP that I didn't even realize existed. I forgot, I guess. But he's done all these things. So I'm scouring X, Blue Sky, all the social media platforms, just curious, how are other people trying to summarize Shea's game?
And it's funny because everyone else is also out of words. So all they've done now is try to compare him to other players in history. So I have like at least 20 different tweets and blue sky, whatever you call them, of different ways that he measures up. I'll take you. I'll give you one.
First, Shea is the first player to win MVP in the regular season and then go on to win the conference finals MVP. Interesting. Didn't know that.
I think it's a new award.
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Chapter 4: How does Shea compare to other historical players?
New award. Yeah, relatively new award. First player to win the MVP and then go on to the NBA finals since Steph Curry in 2016. Players to win MVP and reach the NBA finals in the last 20 years. So Steph Curry did that two times. LeBron James did that two times. Kobe Bryant, right? Steph, LeBron, Kobe, now Shea. Okay, that's another one.
Only players to record 70 points, 15 rebounds, and 15 assists over any two-game span in the conference finals. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James four times, Shea Gildress Alexander. Wow. just keeps going don't worry Shea Gildas Alexander first player to have four 30 point or more games in a series closeout games so four series closeout games he had 30 points or more
Since Steph Curry in 2017, this is all people are tweeting. They're just like trying to gather. How can we explain Steph? Oh, let's just keep talking about all of the greats that have been completely taking over the finals and the conference finals in the last 25 years and just put them in those categories because that's the conversation we're talking about now. All he's missing, Dave, is a ring.
Yeah. And an NBA Cup. Let's not forget that they lost the NBA Cup this year. You're right. The Thunder are looking to actually become the first NBA Cup final loser to win a title. How about that? I mean, hang your hat on that. Let's see these stats and info nerds look that one up.
Exactly, exactly. But he has won. He got MVP, first team all NBA. He's done everything. Western Conference MVP, scoring title, all-star, and literally it's not done yet.
Going to be the first player to make $80 million a year in the NBA.
Okay, I got a question for you, Dave.
He's a star.
Dave, this is real. This is real now. Are you ready?
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Chapter 5: What challenges did the Timberwolves face in the finals?
May have to shake it up a little bit. But we talked about that a little bit. And this team, incredibly young, well built for the future, flexible. I mean, it's just people are going to be they're going to be the villains probably by next year if they're not already, you know, already the tides are turning. Speaking of the other side of the coin, the Timberwolves had a rough night.
Stick around after the break. We got John Krasinski here to remember their season. Game five of the Western Conference Finals. It sometimes looked like the Thunder were taking a test that they knew all the answers to. And now the Minnesota Timberwolves are walking away with a bunch of questions here to join us. John Krasinski, you cover the Wolves for us. Probably a tough night.
Just give me your impressions of the game and how you felt about the Wolves performance.
Yeah, Dave, I mean, I was really surprised, to be honest, not certainly not that the Thunder won on their home floor and are going to the finals. But the Timberwolves typically this season have been a team that when their backs are against the wall, when the Nobody believes in them. That is when they offer their best performances.
And tonight was, I think, their worst performance of the entire season. They did not look prepared. They did not look ready to play. They didn't look like they had any answers for what the Thunder were throwing at them. And I do think it was more than just the Thunder being a great team, which they are. It just seemed like the Wolves... were not ready for this moment.
And so for them to get blown out so completely, for them to be never in the game from the very start, I think it's profoundly disappointing to have a performance like this in your most important game of the season.
I'm thinking about the leader of this team, the person that was supposed to take them to the promised land, had been in this situation last year, came up short, felt as if he had all of the chips possible and the queso and the guac on his shoulder to get them past this point. Anthony Edwards comes up short, 19 points in this loss, one for seven from three.
It was just not the performance you needed when you have your back up against the wall. Post game, John, he says, no one's going to work harder this summer than me. What's the lesson and the takeaway for Ant Edwards? Yeah.
Yes. You know, I think it's a couple of things. I remember last year when they lost to Dallas in the Western Conference finals. Ant said that one of his priorities was he's going to get in the best shape of his life because he wore down as those playoffs went along. And he was a little surprised at the grueling nature and the physical toll it takes to go that deep into the playoffs. Um,
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Chapter 6: What is the future outlook for the Thunder team?
I think that going into this offseason, he will work even more on that part of his game and be more physically prepared to play the big minutes and shoulder the big burden that he does on both ends of the floor. But the other part of it, Zena, is I think that the Wolves have to do a better job of making it easier for Ant. It was way, way, way too hard in this series.
You saw what the Thunder were able to do with Shea in getting him two spots and getting him good looks against a very good defense. The Thunder are a great defense, there's no question, but I thought that Chris Finch probably didn't do a good enough job of scheming things to get Ant clean looks, but also Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, Nikhil Alexander-Walker, all these guys who were very,
pretty darn good in game four were nowhere to be found in game five, like absolute no shows for the first half. And it was five on, it was one on five for Ant and just no one's going to beat that Thunder team that way.
Yeah, well, you know, the narrative after game four was that Ant somehow wasn't aggressive enough. But the truth is, I mean, they were throwing three bodies at him sometimes. And this is where Randall has to step up. And this is why Nas Reed got the big contract, you know, and and Randall. Frankly, like Nikhil Alexander-Walker kind of was keeping them in that game.
That's three guys that the Wolves and they kind of had decisions to make this summer. I mean, you know, it feels like a team that is, to a certain extent, running out of time because Rudy Gobert obviously is getting older and centers just don't typically age all that well. I mean, you know, do you feel like this is a solution that –
is an in-house solution or you feel like this is a team that's probably going to be looking at some structural changes this summer?
Yeah. I mean, I do think that there is room for internal improvement. I mean, with Jade McDaniels, Nas Reed, you know, those guys are really young guys that I think will improve upon, uh, this experience and, and figure things out. Jaden was, I thought very good for most of the series, but today was obviously not very good from a shooting standpoint. Um,
But I do think that also what we have seen from this front office with Tim Connolly is he's aggressive. He will make big trades. He will he will tinker. He will do more than tinker. And I do think that going forward, one of the biggest priorities that they have in this summer is to find another ball handler that can break a defense down.
Ant was really the only one that had any chance of doing that against the Thunder. It seemed like Nasri, Julius Randle, Nikio, they forgot how to dribble sometimes. And so I think they need to somehow, some way, I don't know how they do it, but they have to prioritize getting someone who can get their own shot and really make that happen.
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