The Thunder get a big win in Denver to put the series at 2-2 heading back to OKC, and Dave DuFour, Zena Keita and Es Baraheni are here to break it down. They discuss how the Thunder finally closed a game in the clutch, and what adjustments the Nuggets can make going back to OKC. They also discuss the Pacers pushing the Cavs to brink and if the Cavs have any hope in this series. Then they preview Warriors/Wolves and Celtics/Knicks and make their picks. Finally, they preview the NBA Draft lottery that will take place tonight.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita and Es BaraheniExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What is the current state of the NBA playoffs and injuries affecting teams?
Second round has been a bit of a letdown, I think, just because of the injuries.
You know, you think of the Wolves-Warriors series and Steph being taken out of that one. And then, obviously, with this Cavs-Pacer series, the injuries looming big for Cleveland. It's just – it's kind of taken the life out of the second round a little bit. But at the same time, the hoops have been good. Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
But that's what I – To your point, as I feel as if I almost expected it because of how hard the first round went. Right. And how hard everyone went. You think about that Denver Clipper series was crazy. And now you're seeing them look so tired against OKC. And it's a direct result of that first series. Right. So I agree. Injuries have been tough, but yeah, second round has been a little bit meh.
Well, speaking of a little bit, the Cavs, guys, second round going a little not great for them. They're now down three games to one after just getting wrecked on Sunday by the Pacers. You know, they bounced back in game three. Had a huge win, and it looked like, hey, okay, they got their guys back, they're healthy, and you think, okay, maybe we got ourselves a series.
But, you know, even people like me who thought the Pacers would give them a hard time didn't see what happened on Sunday coming. I mean, they just absolutely just blew the doors off of them.
Yeah, the 3-2 zone that Cleveland threw out in Game 3 with Mobley in the middle was such a massive point to how they stopped Indiana. And zone has been a big part of the playoffs in general. I'm sure you guys have noticed this. Like every team is throwing out a zone defense at some point in time in the series just to muck things up for the other team offensively. Cleveland did it in Game 3.
And then in Game 4, I thought Indiana really countered well, running some slip action, like really basically slipping out of screens. Who knows? You can see. can screen against the zone. You can screen against the zone and get some openings. But yeah, Indiana did that and just it opened up so many opportunities for their bigs.
So Siakam, Miles Turner, Obi Toppin just absolutely destroyed Cleveland in this game.
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Chapter 2: Why are the Cleveland Cavaliers struggling in their series against the Pacers?
On the point of zones, we saw that in both games, in both teams in both games, trying to find a way to utilize zone. And I was talking about this last night with Chris Mullen and Bonte and Festus on the Warriors show, like how much zone we've seen this season than any other before.
But one of the reasons that some of these teams are really struggling against the zone, it's like, one, you're expecting a man, so you're not really prepping for it as much. But two... This level, this basketball today is more oriented to the pick and roll, to the man defense. And in a zone, it requires good execution. You need good passing. You need ball movement. You need ball fakes.
You need fundamentals. And this era of basketball isn't as attuned to that sort of ball. So you're seeing teams when they first see the zone, they don't know what to do. Like Indiana looked dazed last game. when they saw Cavs zone. But what happens is they're now told, hey, screen in the zone. Hey, these are the angles. Here's the geometry you got to start to take advantage of.
And so literally, I feel like the coaches from the older era are like, hey, we barely, rarely saw zone, but that's because we could pass well. And here's what you got to do to be able to beat it.
Yeah, it helps quite a bit that playoff defense is geared toward finding the weakness. Right. So it's like we're going to leave, for instance, like Lou Dort being left open. Right. And you look at the Cavs. Right. Who are they leaving open? I think you pick your spots in the way that they've set up the zone to just completely cut off getting into the paint for Donovan Mitchell.
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Chapter 3: How is zone defense impacting playoff games and team strategies?
I mean, it's massive there. The other thing is that the Pacers offense is.
crazy high power they put up 80 points uh on the Cavs in the first half of the game um and it's it's look a lot of it is they hit some shots they hit some tough shots but they were generating easy looks they were creating turnovers I mean this again this Pacers team is built to be in the playoffs Aaron Neesmith continues to just dominate uh Andrew Nembhardt picking up I mean Donovan Mitchell looks dejected by the time he gets to half court because Andrew Nembhardt is all over him uh
You know, again, like the Pacers, they made the conference finals last year. A lot of people, including me, chalked it up a little bit as a fluke. Hey, they got some great injury luck. There were signs there that they had this sort of defense. Again, we saw them win that Knicks series because they had just elite ball pressure.
But what we've seen out of them so far, I didn't even think they had this level. This is a team that could make the finals.
I will say, though, I want to give us a little bit of credit because I think we both we all kind of said Indiana could win this series. Now, granted.
Oh, by the time we get to the playoffs, we were all on. We were on Indy.
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's give us credit for being on the Andrew Demhar train early, though. Very true. We've been talking about him since the beginning of the season.
We can do the credit podcast. This could be very horrible.
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Chapter 4: What factors contributed to the Pacers' dominant performance over the Cavs?
Yes, it is. You talked about that high octane offense. At least in this game, don't look at just the scores that were after the final box score, folks. Like, yes, the bench looks like 58 to 53, but that was not the case for the majority of the game. The difference in this game to me was,
OB Toppin, TJ McConnell coming off the bench and, I mean, literally lighting it up, playing defense, running in transition. And you compare their performances with just the two of them to Ty Jerome, DeAndre Hunter, Sam Merrill, Wade, like Okoro. Those two outdid those five. And that bench play completely changed the pace of everything that was going on for Indiana. Yeah.
I mean, Benedict Matherin got ejected from the game, and it wasn't even a point on the radar for the Pacers.
It didn't matter at all.
All right. You know what? The first half of Thunder Nuggets was awful to watch. Terrible. The Nuggets scored 36 points.
in the first half of the game guys uh they had a short turnaround between games they had you know the overtime game on friday night had to play sunday and it was the early game for some reason even though it's the western conference i'm not sure what the schedule makers were thinking maybe they wanted uh folks in europe to be able to watch nicola yokich i'm not sure but it showed on the court um yeah i thought that the thunder
at halftime, should have had a bigger lead. They had to have felt like they almost let this game go. They win it. It's a close win, 92-87, and it goes down to the wire. But the Thunder, I think, have to look at this game a little bit disappointed in how they came out, guys, because they're the younger team. And I know, look, it's in Denver. It's at elevation.
you know, whatever the turnaround was being extremely short, but you are the youthful team and you were the better team and the deeper team. Like this is a game where I actually felt like the thunder should have come out and kind of stepped on their neck a little bit and, and demonstrated, Hey, look, we're, we're the young guns here and you're going to have to deal with our energy.
Yeah. Not being able to put them away was bad. Sorry. Go ahead. You know? No, no, go ahead. Yeah, I just think like you have a team in Oklahoma City that what is the one thing we've talked about all year with OKC? The depth, playing nine, ten guys.
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Chapter 5: How did the Oklahoma City Thunder manage to secure a crucial win against the Denver Nuggets?
I'm now concerned because throughout this season, the two lowest offensive rating games that they've had have come at the hands of OKC. One was earlier this season. The other one was last night. The three of the worst games that Jokic has had this season have come at the hands of OKC. So they're going back.
They're going back into their locker room and they're going back into their bus and they're like, we can do this. Yes, Joker walks in with his suit every day, looking fresh, you know, a little bit of intimidation with the colors and such. Of course, we know what he's referencing, but we can do this. We have held this team and we have stopped this team and we have stopped their best player.
And they really should pull from this game and get even more confident that they can do it again.
I mean, again, back to the depth, you know, Lou Dort not playing in the fourth makes me question how playable he is going forward in the series. Right. Like, do they stick with him? Chet Holmgren not having a great series, you know, looks small. Because it's more than just being tall. So I think the Thunder have some questions there. But you're right.
Look, the Nuggets, we already know that they don't have any bench depth, right? Like, we're not really learning a lot of new stuff. I thought Michael Porter Jr., in spite of the injury, was really good for them. He had nine rebounds. The activity was there. You know, in the game, they're plus 15. In his minutes with him on the court, I think his size really helped.
Again, even against him, Chet felt kind of small when he would crash the glass. Where do we go for the Nuggets? Every playoff series is about adjustments, and we've seen this now swing back and forth. Where do the Nuggets go? Where do they find extra offense? Again, Michael Porter Jr., he had three points. Two points from Peyton Watson, six points from Russell Westbrook.
I don't think that the Nuggets go anywhere else. They tried it. They know what they had. They've been trying Watson. If anything, I'm more focused on getting sleep. Go get your neurotech, right? Get the melatonin, get the little legs on where you can get some recovery to your legs like that is more important for anything or to anything that Denver wants to do.
They have to believe in Russell Westbrook not ending up. I mean, what was he one of? 10 or something from the floor? Two of 12, which is just as bad. You got to believe that he won't go two of 12. You got to believe that Michael Porter Jr., even with the activity and the effort that he showed last night, that he'll go more than one for seven. That's all I think Denver has.
They got to believe in the personnel that they have, which we've seen be capable of showing up.
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Chapter 6: What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the Thunder and Nuggets going forward in the series?
Und die Zeit und das Geld, das ich dadurch spare, kann ich anderweitig investieren. Vor allem in Wachstum.
All right, Monday night sees a couple of game fours, and that takes us to our BetMGM picks of the day. Guys, we're going to start with Celtic Knicks. The Knicks were up 2-0. They drop a game to the Celtics in MSG. Looks more like the Celtics that we're used to seeing. How are you guys looking at game four for the Celtics and Knicks?
I'm thinking Boston.
Yeah.
I think Boston's back in form. I think those two games at the start were feeling weird. I feel like they're going to tie it on up.
They were really weird. Those were really weird games.
Boston's having historic poor shooting, and the Knicks win by one. Yeah.
Right. That's what I'm saying. Right. Exactly. And Jason Tatum's Superman commercial came out. So we got to, you know...
That should be worth a loss.
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Chapter 7: Who could be the X factor for the Denver Nuggets to turn the series around?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they've got back to that. And also it was just about closing out games. And, you know, game one and game two was like in the third quarter and fourth quarter. New York had a run and they weren't able to kind of withstand those runs in game three. You saw them withstand a run and just kind of deal with it because of the shooting.
Seems like it's going to be the case in game four, too. So I got Boston as well. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I think we're all on the same page. OK. Warriors, Wolves. Now, this one, I think we're all probably there's no Steph Curry. Yeah. And and try as they might. That offense is pitiful without Steph Curry on the court. And, you know, we saw that in game three where this team just struggled to put the ball in the basket. They almost won the game. Like, they really had a good shot at it.
Jonathan Kamingo was excellent. But I don't know, guys. Steve Kerr, I think he's doing a pretty good job considering, you know, the makeup of the team coaching. I don't know what miracle there is for him to work. For them to make it to a potential game six so that Steph can come back. Come on, give me something, guys. I need one more Steph game this year.
I think it definitely will require a miracle. But first, tangibly, Jimmy, JK have to repeat their performances. The miracle is going to have to be one more person. Pods, Buddy, Moses, those are the miracles that are going to have to happen. They need a Buddy Heald game. They need a Buddy Heald game. And we saw the 33-point game at the end of Houston. We know what he's capable of.
But what they really need is a point guard. And say what you want. People have thoughts about this. But I think they could benefit from having Pat Spencer out there and knowing Steve Kerr and how these lineups have changed literally every game. Why not? Why not? Why not? You have to lose at this point. Give yourself a point guard and organize yourself out there.
Also, how about more than 29 minutes of Draymond Green? Need Draymond Green to stay on the court. You know, listen, I'm not even saying that the foul out is all his fault. Look, when you play defense like that, sometimes you're going to foul out, especially against a bigger team.
The offense was rolling a little bit. when he was not out on the floor. So I'm not saying it's like, of course you are better with Draymond Green. Don't get me wrong. But when things get a little bit ISO, you need a little bit more spacing. And so sometimes the breaks from Draymond can be a positive. But that being said, I'm going to go with And I know you guys are going to be like, really?
I'm going to go with the Warriors. Really?
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