05-08-2024, 01:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-08-2024, 02:13 PM by HoosierDaddyKid.)
(05-08-2024, 01:34 PM)surfpuckmd Wrote: There's a lot of discussion of the refs and Luka's knee but there's not a lot of acknowledgement of the main reason we lost- The Thunder are an excellent basketball team.
The pundits have speculated that the Thunder are too young to be an actual contender. They won 57 games though in the loaded Western Conference and finished first in the West. They had a top-5 offense and a top-5 defense. There isn't a lot of precedent to young teams succeeding in the playoffs because there isn't much history of such young teams being so successful in the regular season. The Thunder are the favorites in this series because they were a better team than the Mavs in the regular season.
Their top 3 players- SGA, J-Dub and Holmgren are all outstanding defenders. They have elite shooters off the bench with Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace. Even Kenrich Williams hits almost 40 percent from 3. Our two superstars are not good defensive players and our top bench shooter, Hardaway Jr, no longer hits his 3s.
The Thunder may be young but they play very high-IQ basketball both on offense and defense. They have smart players and very importantly, one of the league's best coaches with Mark Daigneault. He had his team prepared last night. JKidd did not.
I think we're clearly the underdog at this point. The Thunder are faster than us, more coordinated as a team and shoot much better from 3. For us to have a chance to win this series, we'll obviously need better performances from our superstars. We'll also need to take advantage of our superior size on the court. It's absolutely pathetic that the Thunder dominated on the boards.
I'm pessimistic about this series though. That Jason Kidd extension may look unfortunate in a couple of weeks.
Great post. I've been beating the same drum for weeks that OKC is not your average, young, inexperienced team. SGA is the head of the snake, just like Luka. They're well coached, and they were at or near the top of the West all year with Minnesota. They have a better bench, and although they don't have bigs with girth, they all are good defensively, fast, and athletic and surprisingly they won the rebound battle. It doesn't help that Luka is hobbled for sure. Dallas is still in this thing, but if they don't get more help from other than Ky and Luka, this could be a short series.