REACTION to Thunder clinching playoffs after chaotic ending vs. Knicks | The Hoop Collective

REACTION to Thunder clinching playoffs after chaotic ending vs. Knicks | The Hoop Collective

This was uh a big- Time game in which the Thunder clinched the playoffs after three years out of them in uh as part of their rebuild what was it like at the Garden on Sunday night well I was thought you were going to bring up a different stat uh which I’m going to

Bring up which is that sh Alexander has made six go-ahead shots in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter in overtime over the last two years and no other player has made more than three uh which is both a sign of how good he is in those situations it’s also a reminder

That despite the fact that the Thunder or basically in NBA terms a team in diapers when you look at how young they are across the board they are a team that when we get into L late and cold situations and games they feel very confident they’re going to be able to

Execute and get stuff done and I don’t know if George saw this game I knew you were at a game Brian final five minutes of this game was a circus Jaylen Brunson missed three free throws himself the Knicks missed five Josh giddy had a truly horrible turnover the Knicks had

Multiple Josh Hart did several crazy things it was really kind of a car crash ending but when he got down to it Jen Brunson hits a circus layup of 4 seconds to go put the Knicks up by one the Thunder inbound the ball run a perfect play nearly get Jaylen Williams wide

Open for a dunk on a lob the other part of the action was Shay Gill Alexander curls to the corner and gets the ball and just cool as a cucumber Rises up and buries a jumper and ultimately Jaylen Brunson kind of fumbled the inbounds pass and Dante D venzo with the other

End and the Knicks lose a second straight Heartbreaker after losing to the Spurs on Friday night but to me this was yet another example with Jaylen Williams going over 30 points having a fantastic game Josh giddy who we’ve talked about a lot on this podcast plenty of issues still with him but he’s

In the best stretch of his career playing really well the past few weeks hit several big shots especially at the start of the fourth quarter with a thunder immediately erased to 10 deficit this for a second straight game with Jaylen Brunson on the bench for a few

Minutes to start the fourth quarter game goes sideways for the Knicks winds up costing them dearly um might end up cting him the three seed ultimately down the road and for a Thunder team that’s now in first place in the Western Conference half game ahead of the

Nuggets full game ahead of the Wolves after the Wolves blew one to the to the Chicago Bulls Sunday night this Thunder team I’m so excited to see them in the playoffs because they are a super young team we know they have some issues with interior size we have to see how they

Handle being in the playoffs for the first time they officially clitch the playoff burst Sunday night but I really can’t wait to see how this group handles those situations and how they do in this first playoff run because this looks like a group I think we’d all agree

Based off their age at the talent level of their three guys with Shay Jaylen Williams and Chad hren that should we should be talking about the top of the western conference for the rest of this decade and I’m really excited to see what this first run through the

Postseason for them looks like I I would say this though just to backtrack before I give the Thunder all their flowers um I actually think a car crash at the end of the game makes it a little more interesting if people are just hitting shots yeah that’s great too but when you

Have the car crash it kind of raises the anxiety level like oh what’s really gonna happen here because everything is going you know sideways basically so I actually don’t mind a good car crash which is why I didn’t mind the end of this game oh it was super fun it was a

Great atmosphere at Garden it just it was just not you know with when you see when you have a Jaylen Brunson and CH Gill Alexander going back and forth you kind of expect it to be one great play after another and really it was just both sides kind of frenetically flying

Around just trying to see who could survive to the finish and Oklahoma City made one more play at the end and then ultimately with them I’ve only had them unfortunately once uh live and it was in Phoenix earlier this year and it was kind of a strange game where they jumped

Out early and then Phoenix kind of made a run late in the game like late third quarter early fourth but then to your point they did what I’ve seen them do a million times on TV but to see it in person I think is a little different uh

As you saw tonight just the way they act whether it’s in the Huddle whether it’s on the floor the way they interact with each other it really feels like a veteran Squad and I know everyone’s seen the post on ESPN’s Instagram where the North Carolina Tarheels who just got

Eliminated uh in the sweet 16 have a higher average age than this particular group but it it it’s wild to see how good they are in person at the end of games and they did it to a phoenix team that night um who had all their guys uh

All their Stars basically at that point so it it it is something to behold if you haven’t watched them live if you get a chance here at the end of the season or if you’re if they’re going to play your team go watch them um because they’re much better than you think they

Are I was with the Knicks on Friday night here in San anonio it was a very frustrating weekend for them uh Jaylen Brunson puts up 61 points only the third 60-point game in the history of the Knicks franchise and he was dejected about the overtime loss where Victor

Wanyama had 40 points and 20 rebounds um they had that one and just weren’t able to close it um and the lock room was really down after that game and so they knew they were coming back for a tough one on Sunday obviously had an opportunity at home couldn’t close

Either and they will wake up on Monday in fourth place um Cleveland got beat by 30 in Denver and are at the beginning of a five-game western trip because they’re using the Cleveland arena for the women’s final four um and I would be stunned if the Cavs were able to stay

Ahead of them but the Knicks feel like and I know that they were frustrated with some fouls tibs danced around getting fined um um Friday night there was a 20 um 20 free throw dis disparity in the favor of the Spurs uh Victor took as many free throws himself as the uh as

The Knicks guy as a team uh Brunson took 47 shots and got six free throws 47 shots it was the most since Kobe in the in the final game when he took 50 yeah uh in 16 want to interject really quick because Jaylen there were several times

In the fourth quarter where jayen got hit and frankly could have gotten technicals one time he literally jumped up in the air twice screamed at the refs threw his hands up in the air and sprinted down the court after him I think most other guys in the league

Would have got teed up in that spot I I don’t think the refs saw him but he was very demonstrative about calls down the stretch and after the game after he didn’t get this call on this drive when it look like Chad hren or I think it was

Chad hren somebody bumped him on the way to the rim top Tibido said I think five different times write what you see when he was asked about it over multiple questions and before the game said we’ve sent a lot of tape to the league on this

And it hasn’t seemed to do anything so this has been a long-standing source of frustration for the Knicks so they’re just frustrated at this point um and I think after the game bontemps uh Josh Hart said something about their injuries that was interesting yeah I mean this was sort of

The the the subplot of the whole thing obviously it’s this great game the Knicks are a half game as you said behind the Cavs they blow these two lose heartbreaking game in overtime to San Antonio a game like you said for a team that’s trying to get into the top three

You really don’t want to kick that game away then they’re up 10 at the start of the fourth quarter they let this game get away very frustrating weekend for them then Josh Hart gets asked about playing like this without three starters because oan and Obi and Julius Randle

Been out for an extended period of time and Mitchell Robinson missed today’s game as he is recovering from the ankle surgery he had in December he just came back last week and Josh Hart said basically this is the group we expect to have and if we get back ogan and Obi and

Julius Randall that will be a pleasant surprise but I’m preparing and I think we should prepare like this is who our team is going to be and certainly for the Knicks who I believe are 15 and two when OG and Obi plays um you know the the thought was when they made that

Trade and they had that incred January is like hey maybe the Knicks can be you know I don’t think anybody even then thought they were going to be able to go toe-to-toe really with Boston but maybe they could be the second best team in the East this year and now if you don’t

Have let’s even say they can get OG back if they can’t get both of those guys back and particularly they can’t get back Julius Randall who as we’ve talked about before is deal with his separated shoulder which is a really tricky injury and there and really no update we were

Expecting to have an update there has been no update so bake of that what you will he’s been in the same basically his rehab has progressed it’s basically been two months since he got hurt and he’s gone along in the same place for about a month now where he’s been in controlled

Contact practice and workouts where it’s like a coach with a pad or something and they like know exactly what the the rhythm is going to be and it’s not hey go scrimmage with somebody or play three on three or play five on five so it’s all been very deliberate stuff that he’s

Been doing he’s working out before every game you guys have been around Julius he he’s a maniacal worker but he hasn’t progressed and you if you watch the end of this game it’s sort of shows What’s going to be I think a real problem for the Knicks in the playoffs which is yes

Dante D venzo has had a great year and Jaylen brunson’s had a phenomenal year and they’ve got du McBride out there and they could get a lot of Threes up but when they get down the stretch of the game it’s just very hard for them to get

Clean looks in the paint and to really attack the rim and it’s just all on Jaylen Brunson to do [Applause] NBA is

Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps and Jorge Sedano join The Hoop Collective to discuss the Oklahoma City Thunder clinching the playoffs despite a chaotic OT ending against the New York Knicks.

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