Thunder-Mavericks Reaction: Luka Doncic & Mavs SHOCK OKC, advance to WCF | Hoops Tonight

Thunder-Mavericks Reaction: Luka Doncic & Mavs SHOCK OKC, advance to WCF | Hoops Tonight

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basketball Gods looked on us kindly today and finally gave us an entertaining basketball game now it had a kind of a brutal final sequence which we’ll get into uh but the the Dallas Mavericks end up closing out the Oklahoma City Thunder in games are going to advance to the next round to play the winner of that Minnesota Denver game tomorrow which is going to be an exciting one we’re going to get into all the details I’m going to talk a little bit about Shay’s first playoff series as well which I thought was a revelation and then we’re going to talk a little bit about Oklahoma City looking forward as well you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel so you don’t miss any more of our videos follow me on Twitter atore jlt so you guys don’t miss show announcements don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight and then keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the remainder of the postseason all right let’s talk some basketball so I want to kind of start with that final sequence you know a couple things the it was going to be chaos kind of no matter what I’m going to start with the final play first and then we’ll get into some of the other crunchtime details like Luca kind of had his head down and was just bullying his way to the basket right and so that kind of baited Shay into making that Gamble and when he did you know you’re gambling on a player in LCA who obviously has strug struggled with turning the ball over a little bit in this series but he’s a guy that has pretty good floor awareness probably knows what’s going on and he kind of regained control of the basketball just in time to shovel it out there to PJ Washington and then from there Shay has no choice but to go with just a chaotic like hard close out right and so PJ pump fakes and Shay goes for it and from there like if you’re Shay you just have to you’ve broken his rhythm already you broke his rhythm now he’s just jacking the shot up right so it’s not even worth swiping back the way that he did so like there was a risk involved there I didn’t like the call yes by the absolute letter of the law by the book he did come through and hit him on the forarm after hitting the basketball but generally speaking like when you start a block by hitting the basketball first I’m more or less of the opinion that everything else is fair game from there uh obviously I know mavick fans will disagree but at the end of the day like I didn’t really have a I didn’t have a problem with the call standing after review but I’d prefer that that doesn’t get called but even under that circumstance Tyrie hit a little swim move from the elbow and he had the inside angle on that offensive rebound putback and I think he was just going to get the game winner or at least what would have amounted as to the game winner after that and like even if you don’t use the challenge there and you have your time out Kyrie’s putback would have taken considerably more time off the clock and so it would have been Thunderball down by one but like maybe even less than a second left right I I didn’t see exactly how much time would have been left so like it was ugly you hate to see a series end like that but I feel like even if the whistle doesn’t blow there Dallas wins the series and if again if you’re Oklahoma City if you’re Shay and Shay was Inc Shay was unfreaking believable in this game we’re going to talk at length later about how impressed I was by him in his first uh ever playoff run as the number one option on his team but you broke his rhythm make him take that tough uh like kind of break Rhythm pump fake three-point shot in the corner and live with the results as soon as you start swinging back around trying to block the shot that’s when you open the door up for the whistle which is what’s going to give him three chances to make two free throws to win that game and so like ugly don’t like the whistle feel like Dallas wins even if they don’t blow the whistle so it felt to me like the right team won and even if you look get Oklahoma City potentially stealing that game they lost their last two home games against Dallas and didn’t look particularly great in either of them so feels to me like the right team won the series even though that was a very very unfortunate kind of sequence to end the game that’s said down the stretch it kind of felt like right around the mid third quarter on it kind of felt like this Relentless wave from uh from Dallas like Kyrie got it going in that third quarter Luca donic got it going Kyrie went on another run in that fourth quarter stretch then Luca got it going down the stretch of the game there was just unbelievable shot making all over the floor Kyrie hit this like bailout three at the end of the shot clock where he took this I need to go back and look because the footwork on it was so fascinating to me he was like squared up with the defender and he like just threw the ball out to the left and covered like 12 feet with some wild hop step and then rose up and knocked down the three I need to look at the footwork there because that was super fascinating as like a move to go to when you need like emergency separation at the tail end of a shot clock I’m really curious to see what that one looked like uh a little bit closer but like Kyrie and Luca were just amazing and it kind of felt like Shay was just stiff arming them the entire stretch right like they go on that stretch in the middle of the third quarter I think I think Dallas got it to two if I remember correctly and uh Shay hits like that oneel leg bank shot off the glass he hits the short fadea away off the right Baseline he hits the step back three that seven points just kind of like stiff armed that advance from Dallas and then down the stretch of this game Dallas like had zero answers for Shay remember we got earlier in the series that uh uh that uh uh Luca I think in the postgame presser was like asking for the for Dallas to start double teaming Shay because they were having trouble guarding him and they randomly double teamed him on a late possession in the game and Jaylen Williams got wide open for three and knocked it down even on the the lobbed chat that gave Oklahoma City the lead late like Shay kind of turned the corner and Chad’s man stepped up in help and Chad was just wide open on the Baseline it was they were just compromised no matter what they did with Shay they tried running zone that didn’t have a ton of success either and so it just was they just were really struggling with Shay and then on the other end of the floor Oklahoma City was struggling with Luca and Kyrie and it just turned into a shot making contest and and Dallas just made more shots I I thought Derek Lively was unbelievable on the offensive glass in the fourth quarter we saw the tip dunk but he was drawing fouls getting offensive rebounds was really doing some damage to chat underneath the rim just by being physical and beating him to 50-50 balls and we’re going to get into more detail with this with Oklahoma City but you know what was the biggest problem with Oklahoma City All Season the ability to control the defensive glass I think they were 27th or 28th in opponent offensive or in defensive rebound percentage and 14 to7 in offensive rebounds tonight 27-8 in second chance points in favor of Dallas that’s the game that’s the game right there so like the you at the end of the day which is what we’ll get into when we talk a little bit more about Oklahoma City down the line but shout out to Derrik Lively I thought his activity was incredible and then big plays down the stretch PJ Washington got in foul trouble those of you guys who have ever played organized basketball know that like when you get in foul trouble it’s really frustrating because like you’re playing in these short spurts even when you get back into the game it feels weird to be out there because like you’re at a rhythm and everything everyone else has got like a good sweat and is ready to go and you’ve been sitting for a long time like Bou trouble can really be problematic for rhythm and he was struggling to make shots but he hit a couple big ones down the stretch of this game including the uh the foul shots late obviously they were struggling with Shay but he also got some big stops on Shay down the stretch of this game um he struggled you know I was looking at the matchups and I thought PJ Washington would be able to hold up better against Shay and honestly the off the dribble stuff caused more problems like dribble penetration Shay was able to beat him a little bit easier but on the possessions where PJ was actually able to keep him in front his length was a factor and he and he was able to kind of absorb that off arm and get really good contests and force him into some misses Derrik Jones Jr that ridiculous fade away he hit but even then it was like like that was classic Shay like Derrick Jones hits this tough Fade Away over Chad hren goes sliding into the scores table crowd’s going crazy and Shay just dribbles up the Floor Just Hits a hard inout dribble step back on on PJ Washington and gets just barely enough separation and knocks it down and you’re like holy here we are again 115 113 like I can’t say enough about Shay I thought he was unbelievable but Dallas weathered the storm again closeout games are hard like this was kind of a weird game of like ebbing and flowing energy right like Oklahoma City comes out the gates red hot they get up by 10 Dallas scres you know just kind of works really hard gets back into the game and they tied it I think it was like 42 42 in the middle second quarter and then OKC goes on this crazy run to end the second quarter they force Dallas into a bunch of turnovers they’re running out in transition they’re getting dunks and wide open Corner threes all of a sudden they’re up by what were they up at the halftime like 14 15 points right and like then you go on this crazy run and you fight back and then Shay goes on his little 70 run that he goes on right and then in the fourth quarter you’re battling and here comes Shay again and here comes Jaylen Williams like it was just the closeout games are hard you can’t replicate the urgency that comes from actually facing elimination so I thought I thought it was an impressive job from Dallas to just kind of weather that storm and get through it and again like we said at the top like hate to see a series end like that but I every way I look at that possession with the one hinge piece being the whistle even if that doesn’t get blown I still think Dallas wins that game in all likelihood uh so like it’s ugly but it felt like the right team won uh moving on to Dallas in the next round I’ll be picking Minnesota or Denver regardless who comes out I think both of those teams are playing at a little bit of a higher level right now but I think Dallas has a chance against those two teams in a way that Oklahoma City didn’t in terms of Oklahoma City’s lack of size like as we talked about like Dallas isn’t particularly big but they were able to out big Oklahoma City in a lot of different ways like even just Chad struggling with Derrik Lively down the stretch of this game right 27 to eight in Second Chance points like that’s really difficult to weather under any circumstances and we all know what Aaron Gordon and Nicole yic can do on the front line we all know what that super athletic Minnesota Timberwolves team can do on the front line so like I don’t think Oklahoma City would have had any chance in the Conference Finals whereas I think Dallas does have a chance and again with Dallas it’s going to be all about you know both specifically Denver and I do believe Denver will win tomorrow although we’ll see I think Minnesota has a good chance if Denver were to advance Denver is very much a load up type of Defense they like to bring yic up to the level of the screen they like to tag the roller usually the weak side is where the openings are and LCA donic is just one of the very best players in the league at getting the ball across the floor to the week side corner as a matter of fact I actually think that uh Denver is going to have to think long and hard about using more of a low Drop coverage to try to stay out of rotation as much as possible and try to count on on kcp and Aaron Gordon to just get enough stops but it’s going to be really really interesting matchups in the next round a big part of winning tonight is you get yourself three days I think I heard Luca in the postgame interview say that he’s going to the team is going to probably take tomorrow off before they start practicing that’s going to be big just in terms of getting Luca’s knee a chance to have some additional rest going into the next round like this is a you know to quote LeBron James because he says this every year but like every round gets harder no matter what you think no matter how hard you think the matchups are every round just ends up getting harder and like even for Denver if they survive Minnesota like they’re not going to be able to think like oh we’re going into an easier matchup against Dallas no like Dallas just is is just a different basketball team and they have a lot more offensive Firepower than Minnesota had and they’re going to present a whole other different set of challenges and like even for Minnesota like Minnesota uh if they beat Denver tomorrow like you’re gonna sit there and think like oh it’s gonna nope it’s not going to get any easier Dallas is going to present their own set of issues for for Minnesota it’s going to be a challenge under any circumstances we will have a full series preview on Monday morning after so like the schedule as of right now tomorrow is Nick’s Pacers it’s a it’s a 3:30 Eastern start I’ll be going Live on YouTube after that game then the night game is Denver Minnesota I’m gonna be going with Colin that night I’m pretty sure but even if I go with Colin I plan on doing an instant reaction after that game on my feed and then Monday morning we’ll have a series preview so Mavericks fans keep an eye on the feeds for Monday morning moving on to Oklahoma City I want to talk a little bit about Shay’s first playoff series first just kind of focus in on him and then look at Oklahoma City as like a whole you know I I was really curious to see what Shay’s first playoff run would look like as the number one guy he kind of falls into a category of players similar to James Harden Trey young LCA donic that are very heliocentric in the sense that so many possessions involve Shay picking on a matchup dribbling you know 15 to 20 times on a possession before he gets to his spot and I’ve always had this kind of theory that when heliocentric players they face the same perimeter Defenders over and over and over and over again that they have the propensity to get solved sometimes and I thought we saw that in a big way with James Harden and I think we’ve seen that quite a bit with Trey young over the years but specifically with Luca was the first guy that kind of dawned on me where it’s like he’s got some resiliency because he’s just willing to attack from anywhere like yeah he might control all these possessions but like if he needs to go to the mid R he can go to the mid-range if he needs to go to the Post he can go to the post if he needs to work from Beyond the three-point line he can work from Beyond the three-point line if he needs to function more as a playmaker against a loaded up defense he can function more as a playmaker against a loaded up defense whereas with James Harden it was like all live dribble all iceone pick and roll all from the wings all step back threes and layups and then he kind of sorted added a floater towards the tail end of the of the Houston run right so like that was in a lot of ways what I thought led to James Harden having some struggles specifically with with Shay what I was really curious about is he not a guy we really think about as over like a absolute top tier athlete and he doesn’t have the size that Luca has like Luca has like a a really really big frame and so like as long as he can control angles and leverage like he’s just so damn big that he it’s kind of like that final possession like Lou Dort couldn’t stop Luca from getting two feet you know damn near right underneath the basket before Shay came in and helped because luuka is just big as hell and there’s not a whole lot you can do about that right so I was really curious to see a lender not top tier athlete type of player like Shay to see how he look in his first playoff series and he just passed with absolute flying colors no one can guard the guy his hesitation start stop uh movements keep everybody off balance I talked about this at the end of the the uh the last night’s show in the mailbag but he has this move where like he’ll go between the legs kind of slow but then as he goes between the legs kind of slow like he’ll be down in this lungy looking stance where he’s like got all of his like kinetic energy just kind of like uh saved up right and then when the ball gets to that other hand whether it’s right to left or left to right just like somewhere right like a split second after he gets it in his left hand he’ll just take off and he gets like a lot of of Separation with that that first step and gets and and he can beat he can just beat people off the dribble extremely easily like there was a play in the first half where he was I think he was being guarded by Derrick Jones Jr but he got screened and Derrick Lively was in the drop he just went right around Derek Lively so easily got into the paint and I think he ended up uh missing a reverse layup on this play but I I remember sitting there thinking like like he’s so like he has not had any trouble getting to his spots over the course of the series and like one of the unique things about Shay to and you know they what was the phrase that I think I heard Richard Jefferson saying that the Thunder you know staff and players they refer to him as like Mr consistency or Mr consistent or something like that and a big part of that is he’s willing to work close to the basket when you’re taking shots again like I talk about three LEL scoring Shay’s not taking a ton of like 20 Footers right like it’s a lot of like he’ll take the threes like he’ll take 24f Footers but like for the most part his jump shooting is like 15 feet and in and so when you’re taking the majority of your jumpers 15 feet and in those are just higher percentage shots it’s like four level scoring right it’s like there’s there’s threes there’s the rim there’s long twos and then there’s short twos and so because Shay is able to get to his spots against basically anybody and because he can hit you know close to 50% of those shots there’s a resiliency with Shay that I found really impressive like I think his worst game in the series if I remember correctly I think he went 10 for 23 like that’s not that bad of a game right like that that like it there’s a there is a resiliency with Shay that shined through in a big way and you can point a lot of different directions for where things went wrong for Oklahoma City in this series none of them were Shay he he was right there with luuka and Kyrie the entire series and outplayed them in many cases Shay was incredible can’t say enough about how impressed I was by him in his first playoff run he has he has just continued his Ascent on schedule from what we saw a couple years ago when he first started flashing that Superstar potential talking about Oklahoma City looking forward couple of things don’t worry too much about the downsides of what you saw from Oklahoma City this year some of the execution errors some of the drive and kick decision making that was so poor some of the rough nights that like Jaylen Williams had uh where he was struggling to kind of read the floor and see what was happening around him so much of that was young players now I understand that the theme of this playoff run has been young players doing well but the truth of the matter is it’s not the early 20 guys that have been doing well except for Anthony Edwards it’s mostly been the late 20s guys that have been controlling the show here in this postseason run like these these Thunder players are excruciatingly young compared to a lot of these other teams out there and when we’ve seen other young teams make runs like the thunder in 2012 there were a lot of Veteran presences on the roster guys like Kendrick Perkins guys like Derek Fischer they had an an element of experience in their rotation that was uh that was substantial and and something that I think made that team different so like I you’re going to just get several orders of magnitude better next year just by getting another year another offseason of of workouts for all these guys and like Chad unbelievable defensive playoff run but hey man the three-point shots not as consistent as it needs to be so he’s got to get in the gym this summer and turn himself from a shooter into a maker he’s got to be a guy that you can’t just live with the late close out on but a guy that you absolutely have to be there on the catch or he’s going to burn you that’s an opportunity for him to get some work Jaylen Williams I think he learned a little bit about the difference in intensity in these environments and how getting separ for these shots and making reads when you drive into traffic are a little bit tougher another offseason for him in another 82 games or reps will go a long way towards helping right now as far as the Personnel Gap goes we talked about it all season long no matter how many games the Thunder won no matter how many times they beat a really good team at the top of the league I consistently said you can’t win in the NBA Playoffs if you’re that bad at at defensive rebounding and they just do not have a big forward that they can play alongside Chad so that they have a physical profile that allows them to contend on the defensive glass and the and that’s just something that they’re going to have to address this offseason I think that they are like the perfect candidate for a team that I think should be throwing everything on the table for a guy like Lori marinan I think if they can get a big four and specifically a guy who specializes playing off the ball your on ball creators are great Shay is perfect Jaylen Williams is perfect that everything is great about that the guy that you need to find somebody who is is a professional offb player but one that can help you on the defensive glass and can help you in low man possessions I think Lori marinan would be perfect he’s like the absolute like shoe in like cannot conceive of a better basketball fit for that power forward spot next to Chad he’s big he’s strong he’s very good athlete he would be in a role that accentuates what he’s great at I I think that that’s the kind of Direction they need to look to go but everything else is like everything else is the sky’s a limit for this Oklahoma City team you love the depth Lou Dort played Luca into two of the worst playoff games I’ve ever seen him play in game one and game four that’s a credit to Lou Dort I saw Lou Dort make uh Luca lose his composure in a way I’ve never seen him lose his composure before you’ve got one of the best big perimeter defenders in the league now he’s got to work on not fouling as much he’s got to kind of find a happy medium in there but he’s going to you’ve got everything looks everything looks great you just have to upgrade that J giddy position into a Bonafide uh legitimate two-way power forward that can kind of anchor things for you on the front line great season though for Oklahoma City really think they’re going to be a perennial Powerhouse in this league just too young and a little too small and uh a couple of critical weaknesses that did them in this season all right guys that is all I have for tonight as always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show we’re going to be back tomorrow right after the final buzzer of Nicks Pacers with a breakdown of uh with an instant reaction to that game and then again in the evening with Colin and most likely my channel as well to break down Timberwolves nuggets and then all you Mavericks fans don’t forget we’ll have a series preview on Monday morning I appreciate you guys I will see you tomorrow [Music]

Jason Timpf reacts to Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks’ 117-116 Game 6 win over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Jason breaks down the game’s biggest highlights and shares his main takeaways as Dallas advances to the Western Conference Finals.

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