Thunder Win 5th Straight, Beat Pelicans 107-83

Thunder Win 5th Straight, Beat Pelicans 107-83

Yeah there’s guildas Alexander the colum staying with him spins gets inside left handed off the glass oh what a sweet move gidy tough spot back door what a pass what a play and Jada picks the pocket at Trey young he’ll take it himself this is Art you listening to the UN Conted what is up thunder fans and welcome to the uncontested postgame Edition uh second time is the charm has some tech technical difficulties uh I am joined by my co-host Jacob nithan and him and I are just so efficient we both hit the record button at the same time I

Forgot to do the the countdown to lead us into the intro and that led to us having to fire up a new stream but you all jumped back in here so quickly we’re really really appreciate it Jacob how’s it going thank you for joining me even though yeah a rainy Friday night in

Oklahoma City it was a bad Friday night for Pelicans fans and a great night for broadcast television in the greater Oklahoma area it’s exactly right it is raining here in OKC but it certainly was not raining shots in New Orleans as it was a pretty poor shooting performance

On both really from both teams we’ll get into that before we get any further we are a proud part of the blue R podcast Network and we are on all social media platforms especially YouTube we’re really hyping that up putting out a lot of great content starting to get the Tik

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Support and what a fun game that we have to support and cheer for and cover here Jacob the Thunder Wind their fifth straight and at second straight in dominating fashion as the Thunder win 107 to 83 against the New Orleans Pelicans no Zion tonight for the Pelicans I’m going to be completely

Honest even if he scores 20 plus I’m not sure it really mattered tonight I thought the Thunder would just fantastic another really fun game to to get to break this one down just maybe some initial thoughts before we get into some big overall themes yeah uh great game very different

From the Spurs game in the sense that Thunder didn’t score 140 points the three ball specifically wasn’t going in the Pelicans are a good team Taylor I think it was Brett Dawson of the sellout crowd Brett does a wonderful job with sellout crowd if you guys don’t read

Brett I would encourage you to do so read all local writers Brett had a stat that the Pelicans last five games I think they were on like a five game win streak as well they’ve been scoring like an insane amount of points they had like maybe 140 against Utah the other night

They’ve been scoring over 130 regularly and the thunder come out tonight and hold them to 83 points on 39% shooting 25% from three Pelicans only took 14 free throws the Thunder also took 14 free throws and I just thought they were incredibly locked in defensively and in

A game where the Thunder struggled to get the offense going from deep it didn’t really matter because the impact they had on the other end was just so profound at spot on and I think the St that SS out to me the most I actually heard this on the radio towards

The end of the game is Matt Pinto who mentioned that the Thunder or sorry the Pelicans uh season low on points was 89 the Thunder held them to a no a new season low on points at 83 that’s phenomenal probably just kind of leads us into our first big theme here Jacob

On both ends of the floor maybe not so much the first quarter but like towards the latter part of the first quarter and onward the Thunder defense was just absolutely locked in which is really refreshing to see as you mentioned before we uh before we jumped on our

First iteration of this post game and had our technical difficulties this is the last away game for the thunder in the month of January second to last they got the trit on Sunday ah dang it good point Thank you still absolute Gauntlet of a of a schedule we talked so much

About that throughout the month of January and the Thunder show up defensively when they really haven’t been as good defensively which is kind of saying something because they’re still like I think top 10 in defensive net rating that being said they hold the Pelicans to 39% from the floor on 32 of

82 shooting held them to 9 of 36 from three only 25% uh only I guess each team had 14 free throws but only 14 free throws which honestly given recent games uh seems like a really big thing for the Thunder they also had uh let’s see 20

They forced 20 turnovers had 22 points off those turnovers and not completely related to defense but they dominated in the paint as well just a lot of refreshing things to see from the Thunder defense and it wasn’t just one player in particular I thought it was a

A team group effort from thunder tonight awesome defensive performance they also outrebounded the Pelicans who had the biggest guy in the court in yonas Valen chunis lots of guys chipped in defensively the turnovers you mentioned were huge but not there wasn’t a game where or part of this game where he took

Over but I thought Chad holgren was just absolutely instrumental and had his fingerprints on every single part every single part of this basketball game tonight battled with valent chunis St protected the rim he ends up with two blocks I thought he had four um statistician is cooking the books for

One for rookie of the year uh I will put on my my conspiracy theory hat for that one but no I just the the rim protection he had like a two-handed block on herb Jones there in like that fourth quarter um he he was just I thought foundational in everything they did

Tonight mov the ball well I thought it was his he he tied a season high in rebounding at 133 um I believe CH ended 20 13us 16 from the floor two of six from three obviously isn’t super efficient but the the nine of 16 from the Flor and

Two your point the rebounds was significant you mentioned the two blocks one still from Chad I mean again this is all over Twitter and the Thunder Twitter Community I feel like he had so much more in that one that comes specifically to mind I can’t remember Jacob who it

Was who had the layup at The Rim Chad blocks it they called a goal tending and like I think if Mark challenged that he probably would have won I’m not saying Mark should have necessarily yeah he was out of challenges cuz he lost it in the

First in the first half but good point I mean just the rim protection the switch ability the the ability to show and recover this to me is like the ideal check game 20 and 13 two blocks did some really nice stuff offensively but never had to like cook never had to be

That guy never had to take over a part of the game he just filled his role and he did it super efficiently and it was awesome to see I thought he had a an absolutely wonderful basketball game tonight we talked about this with Chad through the month of January we’ve

Talked about it with Josh giddy throughout the majority of the season a couple a handful of different Thunder players but the assertiveness is what really stood out to me tonight and I tweeted this out like kind of half jokingly but I think there’s something there’s some Merit to it right uh I

Tweeted out like thank you Victor wiama for waking up the Rookie of the Year again uh and like I said like the month of January has kind of been tough for jet in regards to all those games back to back to back and a condensed uh condensed schedule that really seemed

Like he was much more assertive and and that’s exactly what we want to see from Chad to your point on both ends of the floor anchoring that defense I think it’s no coincidence that the Thunder played a better defensive game like talked about earlier when you have Chad

Performing so well on the defensive end of the floor especially going ahead head with a big and balunas right I think he kind of took that challenge a little personally after the women Yama matchup but it really does seem like ever since that fourth quarter when Wy you know

Early in the fourth he at two what was it two nights ago he you know kind of throws that shoulder in the chat for the bucket and just seems like it kind of woke ched up and to your point I think this was the perfect check game yeah it

Wasck game but it was a great check game yeah and you kind of talked about the month of January and how we knew it was going to be very loaded very strenuous after tonight they’re 10 and four they’re 10 and four after tonight they’ve got Detroit coming up and then

They close the month with two difficult games but they’re both at home against Minnesota and against Denver two teams that the Thunder are combined four- two against so we’re going to look back in hindsight January is nothing but a massive success for this team a massive

Success With that being said I want to get back to this game tonight I’ve seen a lot of comments in the chat already um I thought another guy we’re kind of bearing the lead we’ll get to Shay we definitely will but another guy that I thought was just incredible for

The thunder tonight was Cas Wallace 21 minutes 12 points on five of 10 shooting uh he shot 50% from the floor 40% from three two rebounds and assist and four Steals and he was just kind of everywhere Taylor I tweeted this out during the game and it’s kind of hard to

Like convey what you’re seeing in a tweet because you’re limited and context gets lost because by the time you tweet it the play’s already gone but I want to talk about a play in this game real quick that I thought was instrumental in showing kase’s impact maybe you remember

This beginning of the second quarter no so it was sometime in the third I who was it um Dyson Daniels was in the corner whoever was guarding Dyson at the time closed out hard he was on the right corner closed out hard and so Dyson drove past him whoever the Thunder

Defender was kind of stayed on his hip Chad was guarding yonas on the other side of the of the lane Chad rotates to meet Dyson Daniels and cut off his driving lane and so Dyson Daniels goes and he drops kind of like a baseline bounce pass to

The other side of the lane to Jonas who should have an open dunk KAS was in the other corner and he sees all this happening he sees Dyson Drive Chad rotate the pass go to the the new open man in yonas valent chunis and KAS just sunk down early in that

Possession because he knew what was coming and as soon as the pass came he stepped in front of yonas ripped the ball from him and took off running the other way and it’s that type of thing that gets me really excited about what we’re seeing from case Wallace the

Effort is great right the instincts are are awesome the physicality but it’s that IQ stuff seeing what’s going to develop and getting in there and stealing the ball on a baseline pass that should be a dunk that is the stuff that is rare for a rookie that takes guys a long time to

Figure out especially the speed of the game in the league and for to be sniffing that stuff out already I thought it was just a perfect capsulation of not only is he physical and tough and plays with great energy and effort and does all the things you

Want a Defender to do but his brain is there already and that’s just that’s massive the IQ on both ends of the floor just absolutely phenomenal Jacob maybe that was a different play that was extremely similar but I’m thinking of the play that was very similar you

Actually tweeted about it uh he knew Chet was going to rotate to help on the Baseline he knew Daniels was going to try and drop it off to vuna so he rotates inside he Stills a pass and that’s where we saw the Highlight play on the other end the floor not only did

He def May did it twice then I was tweeting in during the third quarter okay so but D was in the second quarter right so that’s what I’m thinking very similar plays the one I’m talking about yeah is there in the second quarter where he deflects not only deflects the

Pass from uh Marshall but also ends up with it takes it Coast to Coast as a nice little Euros gather step and and then goes up for the two-handed slam on the other end of the floor yeah like I think that just kind of shows to your

Point the impact that that K is having on both ends of the floor pretty incredible uh had a like to your point just an incredible defensive game tonight which kind of led to him being a little more aggressive offensively I thought tonight was one of his most aggressive offensive games taking 10

Shots specifically the shots at The Rim putting the ball in the deck driving he had one floater in the lane kissed it off the glass he had the dunk he had some other driving uh I mean he took five threes and 5 tws and that is not

Normal of him I I loved what I saw from him tonight now the challenge for him though Taylor is to find that consistently because some games he’s great and some games he doesn’t really impact much on the offensive end at all and it’s kind of up and

Down kid just turned 20 it’s gonna take him some time and that’s fine but what we’re seeing right now it’s just great stuff he’s been awesome only one personal foul to playing so aggressively playing against guys like Bron Ingram who he was switched on to and so many different versatile players offensive

Players for the Pelicans I think just kind of goes to your point like not only is he an incredibly aggressive player but he’s also just so fundamentally sound and he’s not bouling during that time either again 10 shot attempts 50% from the floor I like that he took five

Three-point attempts but just like this team as a whole I think what really gets KAS going especially offensively is when they’re playing in transition and getting those stops and stills pushing the pace uh on the starting with the defensive side of the ball and I think

That’s why we saw case and be so effective tonight uh totally agree I’m trying to look up a St we should we should move on and stop bearing the lead and probably talk about sheay Gil just Alexander um and just the night that he had very stereotypical just another

Night for Shay and the association um I’m trying to pull up the stats here real quick so I didn’t think that Shay was necess so one thing that really stands out to me here that kind of leads into Shay the Thunder were only 30 only

Shot 30% from three they were 10 of 33 from the floor and like we talked about they still end up blowing out the Pelicans which is pretty phenomenal and says a lot about this team and the defensive impact that we’ve talked so much about tonight but Shay had eight of

Those three-point attempts which is super uncharacteristic of him yeah yeah and those three that he hit were phenomenal back was gross oh man and if he’s a little more on I’m probably not even bringing this up but a lot of those felt forced and that’s kind

Of been a theme that we’ve seen from Shay throughout the month of January I wish he would and I get it like when the Pelicans are a little bigger when they’re packing the paint I get him not wanting to just try and drive to the rim every single possession when he’s

Getting beat up and only getting you know so many of the calls and I know the Pelicans fans and every every fandom that plays against SGA thinks that Shay’s getting all the calls and all the free throws that again wasn’t the case tonight but I think he

Kind of settle for a lot of those Threes And even some mid-range jumpers I thought were a little forced early in the shot clock yeah but I also think he attacked the basket really well and he doesn’t grift he gets a good whistle but he does not grift he does not jump

Backwards into guys do a bunch of ridiculous stuff he’s great at drawing fouls because he leads the league in attacking the basket and I thought he did a good job of kind of forcing his will going right into guys like herb Jones and overall I mean Shay plays how

Many minutes tonight 31 yeah 31 minutes he scores 31 points he’s pretty efficient right four rebounds five assists two steals a block that’s thing wow I thought defensively he was really really good the whole team was great defensively no I yeah no I agree completely four rebounds five assist is

Like you can’t say I think the only reason I’m like even harping on Shay a little bit is because I see all these Advanced you know metrics and see all these different stats and like I I firmly believe this season that Shay is the second best player in the league

When you’re considering this season specifically and also the MVP race you think estimated plus minus all the different stat Darko LeBron like I mean I sound like I’m being funny but you actually look into the stats and I think Shay hands down has been the second best

Player in the league behind Joel embiid I would like to see him be a little more I don’t want to say assertive that’s not the right term little more efficient like we saw maybe throughout the month of December uh again some of those are for are forced also he had four turn

Turnovers I cannot remember off the top of my head if that ties his season High turnovers or had six but again I mean just an incredibly that it’s so hard to complain about SGA I’m only bringing these things up because sh has just been absolutely phenomenal and I really kind

Of hope with some more rested legs the knee starts to feel a little better that we see him getting back to things that he’s best at and a little more efficient like we saw again through the month of December which is absolutely as to nine from

SGA I mean I think he was fine tonight I mean the efficiency wasn’t like through the roof like at San Antonio game it was also some comments in the chat Shay is third in the league in free throw attempts a game he leads the league and

Drives per game by a long he’s actually tied for third with Luca donic at 9.1 a game but like all you got to do is watch the games bro like Shay is not trying to get a foul and not trying to get a basket like he’s playing through contact and getting

Fouled but watch Trey Young play basketball and watch Shay gilis Alexander play basketball and tell me who’s foul baiting and grifting because it’s two very very different things to watch could not agree more he was awesome uh Jay will or sorry not Jay will we we can talk about Jay will but

Jay dub 15 points seven to 14 from the field so another 50 % night for him four rebounds another seven assists fourth quarter Dub’s a real thing he’s awesome insane yeah the first six minutes of the fourth quarter they just blew this thing wide open and that’s the benefit of

Having three of those guys on your team so maybe a quick aside one thing I tweeted out early in the game we were about six minutes 30 seconds left in the first quarter so not even quite halfway through the first quarter Chets pulled uh I did think giddy was necessar

Necessarily playing well at that point I I just found it really interesting he’s being extremely effective he’s pulled kener Williams comes in and Mark decides to go with small ball well lo and behold I tweeted way too soon and obviously Mark digal had a plan because we saw

Chad coming back in with about two minutes left in the first and that was a theme kind of to what you were just mentioning Jacob throughout the rest of the game he was playing more with that second unit they were kind of Staggering those minutes with Chet and that’s where

We saw like in the fourth quarter him playing with jdub K that fourth quarter unit another aside or unit yeah that fourth quarter rotation it was um jdub K Wallace Aaron Wiggins Chad and mijic and they all F like all five of them were extremely impactful to start that fourth

Quarter went on that huge run even though the Thunder were already up pretty big which just kind of helped them sustain that 20 essentially the 20-point win like I I just find that interesting that Mark’s putting him in different positions in terms of rotations and how effective that been uh and then

Obviously Jay dub he kind of was quiet there early in the game it’s kind of been theme over the last couple of games fourth quarter dub takes over he’s facilitating he’s doing the ridiculous mid-range pull-ups over multiple Defenders like there’s not enough that can be said about how awesome Jay dub

And Chad both have been especially when they’re playing with one another yeah another guy that played great again was Aaron Wiggins continues to get minutes off the bench but Taylor we we’ve kind of zoomed in really close to players to zoom back out and look at this thing as as a big

Picture first of all just really cool that it was on broadcast television I know the signal was or this signal was fine the quality wasn’t great um my friend John Ham tweeted at me this game was being broadcast in like 1080i not even 1080p when we’re used to like

4K so production value wasn’t the best but there were people in the area that watched their first game on TV tonight because they don’t have any other way to watch I think that’s really really cool I love that the Thunder beat the breaks off New Orleans in that game that people

Got to watch for the first time and just again going back to the defense uh you you got to spread love across the entire board they all played great great defense I thought Josh giddy was solid on that end Dort was just an absolute Menace to Society on that

End really great game by a lot of guys and in a game where you don’t have your offensive fastball where you’re not killing guys with your number one number two offense in the NBA you can rely on that defense and that defense is really really good I know especially for you

I’m not picking on you Taylor I’m I’m calling you up not calling you out I appreciate that there are times where you’ve been very frustrated with the defense especially this month and I think that’s totally fair but I think you look across the League this is the biggest offensive

Output the NBA has ever seen ever sometimes the Thunder are going to give up 125 130 points it’s just kind of the nature of the beast in this in this current NBA Luca had 73 tonight Booker had 62 and be had 70 a couple nights ago

And Luka had 73 tonight the Pelicans had 83 right I mean that’s a great point there are times when the defense does look frustrating and slow and and they’re not rotating but when they’re bought in guys hit tough shots all the time this Thunder team is really really good good

Defensively we flip-flop so much after tonight I’m like dude just ride it out this team’s like a second round Western Conference Finals team now if they lose to both the Timberwolves and the Nuggets I’ll say well it’s time to talk more trade or they lose to Detroit on on

Sunday like you I’m about to kick you off the show I just they’re getting contributions all over the board and they’re just a really fun team Taylor like did you watch the the postgame walk-off interview with kase there was another one tonight no I missed the one tonight they all they all

Mobbed him they’re barking in the in the microphone they’re just being obnoxious to Nick Gallow just like they were with wigin two nights ago that’s so fun they’re a bunch of kids they’re having a blast um I mean Jay dub and Jay will posting the Tik Tok video of them

Dancing like they’re just a really fun group of kids who are playing basketball bball the right way who are talented beyond their wildest dreams and it’s just so much fun and they love playing together I I really love what you brought up uh yeah again I’m

Continue to just hype you up and say good point good point good point the entire podcast that’s what I do but I mean yeah that’s what you do exactly that’s exactly right I love that you brought up like some of these people and again obviously some of the nationally

Televised games that we’ve seen here over the past months these uh people who don’t have balet or aren’t subscribed to balet have gotten West team maybe and in those situations but for those who were able to tune in maybe for the first time tonight maybe the perfect example in a

Nutshell the Thunder team this season incredible defense you see dub taking over in the fourth quarter you see Chad having a great game on both ends of the floor Shay still gets 31 points an extremely exciting rookie coming off the bench and case Wallace playing so well

Like we talked about and obviously Aaron Wiggins even if it wasn’t as big of a game as the last two have been for WIS still playing at a high level like that’s just kind of like all the big things that we touched on so much over this past month and really the entirety

Of the Season all in one game for these people to be able to see maybe that’s kind of the perfect CH on top for this postgame podcast where we get into some comments and questions yeah no I think you’re uh I think you’re right it’s just

A fun team I’m glad more people are getting to see him I’m getting prepped for a long playoff R Taylor I’ve been I’ve been having those thoughts I can’t lie uh I think Smo called me out for you know some of the the you know being a little

Down the defense some of my Josh gidy thoughts um I’ve even been a little down on Shay like we talked about um I’m normally known as the sunshine P pump on this podcast kind of getting back to that I’ve been having some thoughts over the past couple of days Jacob like to

Your point what if they don’t I’ve said that so much I need to find a new new term there to what you were saying earlier what if the Thunder don’t make a trade or they just make a small trade it’s nothing significant like I could still see this team going into the

Western Conference Finals the way that they’ve been playing especially through all all this adversity in the month of January March is another really tough month we’ll see how they respond to that as well but man they come out on March first second in the west like there is a

Real honestly I don’t think we’re being homers there’s a real chance that we’re talking about this team we’re podcasting about this team we’re at the games we’re doing live podcasts in OKC during the Western Conference Finals it’s a legit possibility dude they’re just huge Asis asterisk I don’t know

What I said that first time no Zion which makes a world of difference for the Pelicans but man they were just they were great tonight they were just great um we about 30 minutes uh you ready to call it Taylor think we’ve given the people what they want agreed I’m trying

To see like any big comments that stick out to you really quick before we get out of here I think we kind of touched on a lot of them while we while we talked the Stream um the upside the how fun comments all thatp stuff yeah no I agree completely so

Thank you all for tuning in for the second time after I messed up the the first Stream So Thunder when they’re fifth straight being the Pelicans 107 to 83 hold the Pelicans to their lowest scoring output of the Season like we mentioned we’ll be back with you all

Sunday for our our weekly group podcast but also be a bit of a post game as the Thunder will be taking on the Detroit Pistons again that’s an afternoon game it got moved because the Detroit Lions are playing in the playoffs my Chase will also be playing in the playoffs I

Don’t feel incredibly great about this one uh it’ll be a big game for your boy so tune in we’ll have you all covered for that and again we’ll have two really big ones next week with both the nuggets and the Timberwolves at home for the Thunder to round out a big month of

January so thank you all again for tuning in and as always Thunder up

Thunder Win 5th Straight, Beat Pelicans 107-83