The Mavs Biggest Concerns Against the Thunder with Locked On Thunder

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On today's show, part two of our locked on crossover series where we ask questions about the Dallas Mavericks ORG. Let's talk about the Maverick ORG side of things. What are they concerned about in this series? We're talking about all that and more on today's Locktown Mavs ORG.

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I'm looking at least, and this is Lockdown Maverick PRODUCT The Navy Champion. He hit it. Bye! It's good! And the Mavericks ORG have won the game! Thank you, Mr.We don't believe you shouldn't be here.

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Loyalty never fades away.

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And welcome.

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You're locked on to the Dallas Mavericks ORG. My name is Nick Engstead PERSON, media member, and NBA channel manager for the Lockdown Podcast Network ORG, your team every day. Thanks for being part of the show, making Lockdown Maps your first listen today.The best way you can help us grow the show is to listen every day, leave a five-star review, like the video on YouTube ORG, and comment anything below. Let it know what is the one thing you're concerned abouton the Mavericks ORG side in this series? What are you concerned about? Let me know on that. Game off. We've got to talk more about Monopoly Go PRODUCT. This fast-paid game lets you play with your friendsand team up for unique tournaments. Unlock awesome prizes. Unique stickers for trading, things like that. Cool playing pieces and hilarious emojis to taunt your friends with. So download Monopoly Go now free on the Google Play ORG or the app store. Game on.All right. This is part two where Rylan asks me Mavericks questions about the Mavrex ORG side of this series. Let's get into it.

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And now we welcome in Nick Engstead, host of Lockdown Mavs, to discuss this epic second around series. I think the best series on the board in the NBA playoffs, Thunder Mavericks ORG.

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Nick PERSON, how are you feeling as we get this series started soon?

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I'm feeling good, feeling nervous, but I'm excited that it's the real close team that I get

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to just drive up to these games instead of trying to travel all the way to somewhere.

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But yeah, I'm excited for these two teams, and I'm really excited for some of these matchups

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that we talked about in the first part of this. So, yeah, let's talk about the math side of it.

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This is part two. Checkout part one already posted. Get ready to learn an I-35, PRODUCT buddy. It's going to be a fast drive up and down for these games. But first of all, what's the temperature check for Mavericks ORG fans? As you close out the Clippers and six, like, what are the vibes?

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Oh, I wish I still had the vibes are immaculate drop from Jalen Brunson PERSON, but I retired it when Jalen Brunson left for the Knicks ORG. But the vibes are close to immaculate. People love this team. They love what they see from this team. I've been hanging out with Mabbs PERSON fans at gamesand just hearing them talk about how they love the physicality of this team. Like a Mabbs PERSON crowd loves a good offensive rebound. They love a good fight for a rebound, fight for a loose ball. And this team is getting that. And Karee PERSON, who was brought in and was kind of like a risk for a lot of different reasons,has been anything but he's been amazing. And he was the best player in the first round series, Luca PERSON included. And it's been awesome to see at the beginning of the, at the beginning of the playoffs, we asked Luca PERSON, you know, what's different about this time matching up against the clippers compared to the first two times he matched up against the clippers in the playoffs. And he goes, we have Kai PERSON now.And he could not have been any more right in that sense because Kyrie PERSON showed up in big ways in that series. And having him, having Luca PERSON, having a defense now, having centers now, it's like all the things Mab fans have wanted for such a long time. The three-point shooting has taken a hit for sure. But people are really, really excited about this teamand excited to see what they could possibly do because I think expectations were really low at the beginning of the season.

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The expectations certainly have changed. I think for both sides compared to the start of the season, which we're going to dive into in a second. But among the celebration of the first round, you also lost Maxi Kleba PERSON for basically the entire postseason, at least for sure, this series, it seems like, from all the verbiage that's being used byeverybody involved. How big of a loss is Maxi as a guy who, from the outside of the can again, to most people just be viewed as a bench big? Yeah, Maxi is, he looked at his

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production and look at his numbers and you'd go, why are you guys making such a big deal about this guy? But he unlocks a lot of different looks. And I think the playoffs are a lot about the types of looks that you can throw out there, the different lineup combinations, the way that Maxi was their small ball five,in the way that if they ever wanted to go small and try to match up, Maxi was a guy that can guard guards, he can guard wings, really good defensive, big man, and he's 610,but he also, for some reason, shoots really well in the playoffs and does not shoot well in the regular season. So he shot 10 of 18 from 3 in round 1, was a really big reason why they won that series and was a big reason why they won in 2022 as well. And so now you take him off the boardand you take off a lot of the different looks that they can go to. The Mavericks have not gone to PJ Washington at the 5 very much at all this season. They've gone to it maybe two or three times in games. And so if they need to go small for whatever reason, the Thunder try to do that or Mavs ORG have to match them or whatever, that's not something that they've been really used to playing. And so I'm really fascinated to see what kid decides to do if it comes to that. But they take away some of that versatility. You also take away,he could play with the Biggs too. He could play as the five. He could also play with Lively or with Gafford PERSON, and you don't lose a ton either. And so that's another look. There's a huge lineup where they would play like Luca PERSON, Derek Jones, Jr., PJ, Washington, Maxie, and Lively or Gafford PERSON.That's a massive lineup that now you can't really go to anymore because he's not there. They also lose a three-point shooter, which is massive for this team now because you do have a bunch of shaky shooters. PJ Washington shot like 31% from three the first round. Derek Jones Jr. shot decently well in the first round, but only took like 13 threes. And you look at the rest of the guys, you're like, man, there's just not, XM missed all six of his threes after shooting 56% in the regular season. So you lose a piece that makes you more versatile.You also lose a shooter and you lose a defender. And like that hurts you in a lot of different ways. Even though he only played 19 minutes, you lose all of that with Maxie PERSON. Yeah,

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and I think that the playoffs, like you said, are about looks. I mean, even to the minute ability of, you go back a few years to Rick Carlisle,putting Bobon out there for a segment of a game playing zone,

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which you were reaching to things.

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Started him three games, Ryland PERSON.

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I just need everyone to remember that.

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And that threw a wrenching to things.

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And it really just was a little bit of a wrinkle that catches you off guard. And in a playoff series and a sprint to four wins, any portion of minutes that you can win is a massive deal. And now there's a tool at your toolbox that would have been more valuable, I think, against the Thunder versus almost any other matchup of playing Maxie at the five. Yeah. Yeah, that would have,

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it would have been really nice to have him. It would have been, and I still go back to the play where he got hurt. Like, why did he take off from a foot inside the free throw line? Why did he jump? He could have just taken a Euro step around him. I mean, he's from Germany GPE. Take the Eurostep, Max. He was there for you. But he's out. He's not going to be in the series at all. And so Jason Kidd PERSON said, Next Man Up, which apparently means Markief Morris PERSON, which I don't think it does.What I think it means for the Mavericks ORG, actually, is that Next Man Up ORG is, all right, Exum, you have to be able to play. I think you have to be playable because you are the next kind of defender up. They need one more guy to defend on the perimeter.They need one more guy to fill in or offense and things like that. I think Exam PERSON will fill in some of those minutes. I think Josh Green PERSON maybe has to fill in some of those minutes. And then it's 48 minutes of the perimeter. They need one more guy to fill in for offense and things like that. I think Exum will fill in some of those minutes. I think Josh Green maybe has to fill in some of those minutes. And then it's 48 minutes of the two centers.This is a matchup that I think will be good for both of them. This last matchup was not good for Gafford. Zubots PERSON heard him really badly. First like four plays of the whole Mavs Clipper series. Zubots went right at Gafford PERSON and scored right over him three times in a row. That was so wide eye-opening for Gafford and for all of us that had been watching him this season. And I knew that Gafford PERSON struggles against really big physical centers.But he does not struggle against a center like Chet PERSON. I think he'll be better in this series than he was in the last one. And so we just have to, the Mavs just have to have both those centers be playable and to be effective in this series. We talked about the matchups with Chet PERSON in the last episode, but I also think that they'll need some of those other guys to kind of step up and fill some of the shooting void that Maxi leaves as well. I think that, you know, we talk about Bobon,

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and it's kind of a little bit of a joke. But now with Jason Kidd PERSON, you've also seen some of the adjustments that he's made and he's gotten this team to a Western Conference Finals EVENT. That's what's on the line in this series. Is there a wrinkle that maybe has not been deployed yet for this team that you think could show its head in round two?

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Yeah, the small, like the real small lineup of PJ PERSON, like of Luca, Kyrie, PJ, Washonet, the Five ORG, and then whoever else, Derek Jones Jr., XM, Josh Green PERSON, maybe Tim Hardaway PERSON, like, fill in the blank for whoever. Like, we have just not seen those lineups very often at all. And so if they decide to go to that, it would be a brand new look that really the Mavshaven't really done that much, but then the Thunder ORG wouldn't be ready for it either because they wouldn't know what to expect with it. And so that's a look that I think they could go to. This Thunder ORG team has not really seen this version. They've seen this version of the Mavericks team once in February, and that was the one where the Mavs ORG dominated.It was like an afternoon game where the Mavs ORG just got a bunch of stops early, and Thunder ORG were just missing a bunch of shots, and it was a real, like, just one of those games. There's a ton of energy behind the Mavs because it was the first game that they played with Gafford and P.J. PERSON, and so they've seen that version of Mavericks ORG,but Maxie PERSON started that game, if you remember, because Lively was out, and Gafford and PJ PERSON weren't going to get the start just yet. And so, yeah, I'm interested to see how that works between the two teams. And if there's anything new in that sense.

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I think that that's a good call because I think that coaches oftentimes get baited into trying to play as small as a thunder, which usually doesn't work. Usually if you try to out small ball, a thunder team that's designed for small ball, it has detrimental results to the series. And you saw Willie Green go to that a little bit and we'll see if Jason Kidd PERSON ends up that way as well. Staying on the rotations for just a quick second. What's the deal with Dante Xum? Nick PERSON,

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like, is he going to get back in the rotation? X going to give and X going take it away from you, apparently, because in the regular season, he was so good. He came back from EuroLeague ORG. He had spent some time over there. He had become a good shooter. He had shot like 40% in EuroLeague ORG.It was a really good story. He came to the Mavericks ORG. He's shooting 50% from three. He literally won the Mavericks four games. If he does not exist on the Mavericks ORG, they are four wins worse than they are right now, which is really a weird thing to say about a role player. Buthe hit like five threes against Lakers in one game. He averaged 20 points a game when Kyrie PERSON was out for a stretch. I mean, he was just very, very good. He adds another ball handler. He added another shooter and it added like a big guard defender. And in the Clipper EVENT series, he just looked, it looked like he had never played basketball before. I mean, he looked like he was deer in the headlights in that sense. And so I'm really hoping that he shook off some of the rust,shook off some of the nerves, and goes into this series and is more effective because they're definitely going to need him. They're going to need that other ball handler. I don't think they'll get away with just Luca PERSON and Kyrie creating for themselves and creating for others and that's it.I think they'll need one more guy to, like you said, in the first episode, go off in order for the Mabbs PERSON to win. And I don't think XM's not going to fill it up, score 20 or whatever. But just that extra, give them 10 points and like three or four assists, like something like that. That's what they need out of just one more guy because they don't have another really ball handler other than that.Like Jaden Hardy PERSON is not really panned out as that kind of ball handler. Tim Hardaway, Jr. PERSON, if he plays, it's not that guy at all to handle the ball. You do not want Tim Hardway Jr. PERSON to handle the ball. That's a thing that we have learned. His dad? Yes, him, no.And so now with Exum, it was just a really weird thing to see Exum kind of shrink in that moment in the first round.

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How are the Mavericks ORG different from the trade deadline? What are their biggest advantages and what worries the Mavericks ORG the most about this Thunder ORG team all coming up? But first, Nick, let's talk about Monopoly Go PRODUCT because they're awesome. And it gives you such a variety of ways to play Monopoly PRODUCT, which is the mobile hit twists on the classic Monopoly PRODUCT board game.We can team up and have time tournaments and work together to build out each other's boards. But what I like to do the most is go out there and just wreck my friends, boards, pulling off bank heist, bulldozing buildings. And while we can win together, it's also fun to see your city collapse at the expense of my mayorship.So go play Monopoly Go PRODUCT. It's a new exciting way to play every single day with constantly changing tournaments and challenges so it can always keep you engaged. I'm a level 1,000 on Monopoly Go PRODUCT. I feel like I'm blowing every lockdown host out of the water

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We're back on the Lockdown Thunder podcast and the Lockdown Maverx ORG podcast with this crossover episode. What is this? A crossover episode, Nick PERSON? It's going to be fun to see how this series plays out. But right now, whenever you look at this series, before we dive into the ball being tippedoff on game one, just your gut check of the biggest advantages that the Mavericks have over the Thunder ORG.

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I'm fascinated to see who guards Kyrie and who sticks with Kyrie because he is, Reggie PERSON had a tool on my show. We've joked all year that Kyrie PERSON clocks in.At some point during the game, he will clock in. And then all of a sudden, like in game six against the clippers. He had two points in the first half. Two. Two points. And no one was concerned at all in any way. the clippers, he had two points in the first half. Two. Two points.And no one was concerned at all in any way. Like no one was concerned about Kyrie PERSON at all. If your star has two points in the first half, normally it'd be like, man, this is terrible, this is awful. He can't buy a bucket. Two points, finished with 30. He goes off at some point during the game, and he just decides.I think he's playing his best basketball. And so I think that is an advantage where if Lou Dord PERSON is tied up on, if Ludo is tied up on Luca PERSON, then do you throw SGA on him and try and chase him around? Do you throw J. LaLew Williams PERSON on him? Who do you decide to, do you let Kays and Wallace PERSON just figure that out? I think that is a big advantage of the Mavericks ORG have.It's just that Kyrie PERSON has been so good and can turn it on at any given moment. I've compared them, you know, it was a, Zach Lowe PERSON was complaining aboutthe Batman and Robin PERSON comparison is like all played out. I've compared Luca PERSON and Kyrie to Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch. Kyrie PERSON is the human torch. He can flame on whenever he wants,turn it on. Luca PERSON is Mr. Fantastic because he can give you literally anything that you need in a game. You need a bunch of assists. He can give you that. If you need in a game. You need a bunch of assists, he can give you that. If you need post-ups, if you need mid-range, he can do that.And so I think that Kyrie PERSON is a massive advantage in this series.

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I think that with this series, it's going to fall a lot defensively on Ludo PERSON and J. The Williams. Those two guys, I think, will be tasked with defending Luca and Kyrie PERSON, but also, Rookie Casey and Wallace PERSON will have to get the job done. We've seen Wiggins get thrown at those two guys as well. So the Thunder ORG do have a compliment of lengthy defenders who can hold their own the best you can.You're never going to stop either one of those guys. You just hope that you can provide a speed bump to their offensive road. But Shea PERSON's also been locked in defensively. It's a guy that's a chicken or the egg of like how often do you want to use him defensively on Luke and Kyrie PERSON when it's not the waning moments because you're going to demand so much of him offensively. But in those tight moments down the stretch of games, he can certainly get the job done, especially with how goodhe is, you know, just playing the passing lanes and blocking shots from behind. But I would imagine that the majority of this contest and the majority of this series will be Luca PERSON, getting defended by Lou and J-dub defending Kyrie PERSON.

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Yeah, the star matchups, and I'm sure we'll see a lot of switches. I mean, we saw that in the Clipper EVENT series. Luca guarded James Harden PERSON a ton. He had to. He guarded Kauai LOC when he was playing.Kyrie PERSON had to guard those guys too. I mean, we'll see that too. Where they'll do that. And the Mavericks ORG have more favorable matchups than the Thunder ORG do when it comes to, all right, we got to switch somebody on him.All right, if the Mavs ORG want to switch somebody onto Luca and Kyrie, it's probably Giddy or Chet PERSON. And that's not as good for the Mavericks ORG as, all right, let's put Luca or Kyrie PERSON on one of the stars if you're the Thunder ORG. And so I'm really interested to see how that works out.But yeah, Kyrie PERSON is a big advantage. I do think that the center matchup is an advantage for the Mavericks ORG, because you've got two guys versus the Thunders NORP won. And you're not going to play Chet 48 minutes. And so there will be times when there is like a non-Cet ORG centerwhere there will be Jalen Williams PERSON, the other one. I hate that he's the other one. Every time I tell him.

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I know, but no one knows what I say what that means

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outside of Oklahoma City who J. Will or J. Tubb PERSON is.

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But yeah, the other one, the grounded one.

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And so I think that there will be moments where it's like, the pick and roll is just running with either lively or Gafford when Chet PERSON is not on the floor. And I think that that is a big advantage too. And I also think that the age and experience is a huge advantage for the Mavericks ORG. I mean, I think that this series could look like the Mabbs PERSON.A couple years ago, they played the Sons ORG in that series, what, seven games, every game was a blowout. And I think that it could look like that where just all of a sudden the Thunder ORG's age just catches up to them or the Mab's age catches up to them with their injuries. I mean, they've got Maxi out,they've got Luca PERSON has been dealing with knee injuries and all that. And so either way, I think the age and the experience could catch up to one of these teams. Yeah, we'll see how it goes.

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I think that the Luca PERSON knee thing is interesting because there's no consecutive days off

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except for between games five and six. So once the series tips,

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you're going to be playing every other day with not a lot of time to regroup and rejuvenate that knee, which I don't think is going to get much better. It's just that you're going to have to

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gut through it, which Luca PERSON has been able to play through pain and through various injuries before. So I'm not too concerned about it, but who knows? This is still going to have to take seven games or six games, I think, to get a conclusion for this series. I think that this series will be played, you know, within 10 points, which at that point, do you lean toward the experience of Luca closing out playoff games in Kyrie PERSON, certainly closing out big games versus the Thunder ORG?Or do you lean toward the Thunder being able to outlast the Mavericks ORG? I'd be curious to see which direction is that actually ends up landing. But what worries you the most about OKC whenever you're looking at it from a Mavericks ORG perspective? What does the Thunder do well that is really counteractive to Dallas ORG?

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Yeah, I mentioned in the first part about transition offense. And if that gets limited for the Thunder ORG, what happens for them? But I am worried if it doesn't get limited at all if the thunder are spending 20% of their time in transition or 16% or whatever in transition i think that's bad for the mavericks the mavericks defense has struggled this season when you move the ball a lot you make them play catch up on defense and you throw them around you throw likethe ball around and all of a sudden the math have to just make decisions because their defense is all predicated on these these switches these rotations and everybody covering for somebody else in communication and effort and all that, which a lot of defense is, but this Maverick ORG team really, really relies on that. And so if you start making them move and start making them have to make second choice decisions, this Maverick ORG team's not have a lot of continuity in it at all. They've played really well. Their defense has been really awesome the last couple months of the season.But we mentioned the number one lineup for the Thunder has played like 1,700 minutes TIME together. The Mavs has played like 300 minutes TIME together. It's very, very different in terms of continuity and playing together. And that, I think, affects the defense in really tough moments. They had some of those moments. So I think they're tested against, I think this team has tested a little bit against that Clippers ORG team.Where the Clippers had a couple of games. They shot the three ball insanely well, made 18 threes, and then they only won those two games. But I'm curious about that. I'm nervous about that for the Mavericks ORG. If the Thunder get the Mavericks moving and if they start pushing in transition a lot, getting easy ones. And then all of a sudden, the ISO game versus the ISO game on either side is a wash because the Thunder ORG have built up all these points in transition.

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Yeah, that's where the Thunder can really come into this thing with a, with a different perspective of technically, you know, Shea PERSON is an isolation player, but there's so much going on besides Shea PERSON on the ball. Whenever you're having guys cut back door, when you're having guard-to-guard screens for Shea PERSON in isolation, like you can do so many different things than just, hey, get out of his way and let him go cook. That's actually not how the Thunder ORG play overly often, which benefits them in the long run. With this Mavericks team, they are way more dissected than the Thunder ORG Team is.I think that we had the opportunity in the podcast, number one, to dispel some of the lazy narratives around OKC GPE because whenever you see the commentary on this team, it's more generous, just leaning on some crutch buzzwords of inexperience and size. So we put some of those to bed. But even for us dissect it as this Mavericks ORG team is,what are some of the things that people miss from the outside looking at?

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Yeah, I think that they miss the defense, how good the defense has been. This is a real, real playoff defense. They played really well against the Clippers ORG. And I think that people miss that. I think that there's some lazy narratives where, oh, this Mavericks ORG team, they rely on the three. They don't anymore. That has completely changed. This Mavericks ORG team has won multiple games against really good teams. They shot under 30% from three. And so I think those two narratives,the Mavericks ORG can't play defense, or they're not like an elite defense, which they have become, or the Mavericks ORG need it. They have to rely on the three in order to win. That's not the case anymore for them either.

Speaker 61395.98s - 1475.08s

So how can you defend Luca and Kyrie PERSON? And is there going to be an aspect of the crowd that plays a big part in this series with these two emotional players. We'll talk about that coming up. But the first one's here right now.But I got friends over at DoorDash ORG. Check them out today because DoorDash ORG is so much more than you might realize. Of course, we know that they can bring you out maybe a late night snack or just make sure that you can avoid cooking dinner for the night and bring you out a meal. But as you know that they can also help you out in a pinch. For example, Mother's Day is right around the corner. You can get Mother's Day gifts all in one place onDoorDash. You can get 50% off of your next order up to $15 when you spend $15 or more on your next flower arrangement or convenience store, grocery or retail order. So they can do all those things for you. They can bring you out a gift. They can help you in a pinch. Maybe, Nick PERSON, you forgot that Mother's Day is next week. And you get huddled up at her house with all of your family members. And you realize, oh, crap, forgot a gift. You hop on DoorDash ORG, order a gift. It gets strapped off at the house. And you can just go, well, the mailman came through. I thought it was going to be a delayed package.I knew this all along. This is my plan to have your gift mailed to you. And here it is right on queue. They can help you out in a pinch at DoorDash ORG go there right now. Use code locked in MBA. That's locked in MBA with DoorDash, terms and conditions of course applied to get 50% off your next order up to $15 when you spend

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We're back on the Lockdown Thinner podcast and the Lockdown Maherx WORK_OF_ART podcast,

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crashing over to preview this series. Nick, how do you defend Luca and Kyrie PERSON? There is no perfect answer, but we've seen

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various Hall of Fame ORG scores have certain kryptonites about them. Is there anything you can do

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to slow down these two guys? Yeah, against Luca PERSON, you play really physical, especially with his knee right now. I mean, it's the classic Jordan PERSON rules thing where you just play real physical with him, get him frustrated, get him frustrated if he does that he's that he's not getting the body fouls that he always wants.

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Lou Dord PERSON is a very physical player.

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Very. And that's why Ludoort has been very good against Luca PERSON in his career. And Luca PERSON has been very complimentary of him. But I think that Luca spends the first five minutes of every game trying to see if the referee crew is going to give him the body foul, where he drives in.And there's not necessarily a foul there, but he bumps bodies with the defender and then he throws up a shot and he spends that time trying to figure that out he's done less of that in the playoffs but all that to say he can get in his head stilland he can get in his head about the referees and he can get in his head about physical play. Terrance Man PERSON was really annoying to Luca or he was just always constantly in his face and always constantly there and always like pushing and shoving and a little bit just like right in in his grill. And I think that that's howyou have to defend Luca PERSON. Other than that, you really can't. I mean, there's just really like not a lot of options. These stars have become so good in the NBA ORG that you try any, he's seen every single coverage. You try doubles against him. You try hard traps. You try things like that. And the maps have figured out ways to not only just score in those, but also to get Luca PERSON back involved in those plays after they happen. Because you can't trap and then you throw the ball to Derek lively in the middle of the floor,and he finds the right shooter. And then all of a sudden, the two guys that are on Luca PERSON have to go recover to a shooter. Then Luca gets one-on-one coverage if you get the ball back to him. So there's just ways that you can get him back involved. For Karee PERSON, it's harder because, man, his, like, it's kind of on him. Like, when he decides.I mentioned the human torch thing. It's on him when he decides when he wants to start scoring. He can float through games, too, where if you have just a defender stick with him and there are better shots somewhere else. He'll go with those and allow his teammates to try and take over for a little bit. But at some point, like, he's inevitable. It just happens where he'll, like, throw insane dribble moves at you and just start getting his shot whenever he wants.He's playing at such a high level right now. And so they're both inevitable at a certain point, but there are things that you can do against them.

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I think that the biggest thing for Luca defending him would be just having Lou be very physical. And for Kyrie PERSON, having a guy like J-Dub who has the size and length to make life tough on Kyrie, and understand for a young player like J PERSON-Dub, understand that you can play picture perfect defense and Carrie's going to hit the shot eight times out of 10, seven times out of 10, whatever it is, don't let that disway you or get you out of your element when defending him or get you too aggressive and bait you into fouls whenever he's going to hit very, very, very tough shots against absolute textbook defense.And I think that that's going to be a testament to the whole young Thunder ORG team of not getting discouraged whenever these guys go off because they will. You can play 100 possession straight of hard-nosed defense and they're going to score 30 points each. And just living with that, I think would be a big deal for this team.

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That's the thing about youth and experience. When we talk about that, when we bring that up, it's like, have you been tested? Have you had moments you had to come back? The Mavericks are down 31 points to the Clippers in one of the games. And they came back and took the lead with two minutes left. Now they lost that game but you still like that that is a moment where this team came together. They had to fight throughsomething. They had to fight through adversity. This team has fought through a ton of different injuries throughout the year. I mean they didn't have any lineups that played over 100 minutes until like game like 70 basically. It was wild to see that. But this team has fought through some of that so I think that could be a big difference where if something starts going wrong for the thunder then how did they overcome that we just haven't seen those things necessarily yet and soI think that's something to really watch for when you talk about experience on both sides

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we haven't seen it yet on the playoff stage you know the thunder did of course suffer through a 30-0 Dallas ORG run earlier this regular season and still won that game, which was brutal for the Mavericks ORG. They've also came back in various other games, but just as a one-to-one example.

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Just, Carrie PERSON did not play in that game. I just want to.

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I think that the regular season series for both sides is just meaningless, but it was half the

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rotation was out for the math. Like, Kyrie, Maxie Green, Exum, Tim Harrow is like half of them as a while.

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Yeah, it was just the Luca PERSON show. And they were able to withstand tough Luca PERSON buckets for sure during that stretch. They definitely did. But you've seen various times with the Thunder this year have mounted comebacks or have nearly blown something and then tightened back up. They've won games in a variety of ways.So I think it'll be very fun to watch them handle their first playoff loss, though, because they did have to gut out a few of these wins. I mean, games one, three, and four were very tough on the Thunder ORG. And at certain points, we're teetering in either direction. But they've never actually lost and had to sit with a playoff loss before. And the first time you do that, it can really read varying results.To this point, we've seen the Thunder ORG be uncommonly mature, as they put it. This is their tagline they've ran with in the press conferences and their slogan internally. It's a different ballgame, though, being uncommon mature in the playoffs after a big loss. I want to get your temperature check on this. I look at Kyrie and Luca PERSON and how much of this is still the true perception of like, they've got a little bit of that Westbrook PERSON in them where you can almost bait them into being too emotional and playing out of this is still the true perception of like, they've got a little bit of that Westbrook in themwhere you can almost bait them into being too emotional and playing out of sorts. Whereas we saw in that third game between these two teams where Kyrie's going back and forth with fans in the crowd in OKC GPE, which that crowd was nothing compared to what you're going to see in the playoff crowd as we saw for the two Pelicans ORG games.And then Luca PERSON, like you mentioned, you let ludor get up under him and play physical and and not get any calls does he get a tea here and there and in games that i think you know from my side of things i think will be played within 10 points you give away a couple points uh that can really dispel things and really hurt you in that aspect and if you give a technical foul of luca and then and then Shea hooks them and gets two morefouls on them, it's a whole new ballgame. So like how, how emotionally mature have those two guys

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been down the stretch of this season? Yeah, the Kyrie PERSON example, that's the only time we've seen that this entire year, him getting distracted by fans or the crowd or something. And so I don't know, whatever that guy said, say it again. I guess, like, if you want the advantage, because we have not seen that from Kyrie PERSON at all. He has been the, like, quietest, lead-by-example type guy this season that you just know, that maybe a lot of people didn't expect at all. Another thing on Luca PERSON with guarding him is get him in early foul trouble. I mean, you kind of mentioned thatearlier where if you can get Luca PERSON in early foul trouble, that really hurt him down the stretch, where they need his defense, they need him to not be a weak link in that defensive scheme. And so, yeah, if he gets in his head a little bit, he can. But I do think that the crowd stuff fires him up. And I think it makes him play better as the game goes on. And so I don't think that it definitely doesn't affect him as much as Westbrook PERSON.I watch Westbrook in game six, go at it with a fan.

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And then everybody, everybody, like in that section around there, starts chanting Westbrook in game six go at it with a fan and then everybody everybody are like in that section around there starts chanting Westbrook PERSON at him and then he just turns down like gives him a little fist pump like yeah thanks guys and I was like I don't think he thought I think he knew what they were chanting at him but I mean he was a mess that that whole series sorry to say and that's been the tale of his whole playoff career as much as you love him in okay C I mean he he was baited into beef with

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Ricky Rubio and a rookie Donovan Mitchell PERSON just dominates him in the playoffs.

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Like Damian Lillard PERSON, of course, baited him into beef during those two runs without coming to Rance PERSON. So, like, that's been a tale as old as time for Russell Westbrook PERSON. It'll be an interesting series.

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I'm interested to see how the Mavs ORG, the Mavs ORG shooting, I think, is a very big concern. That is something I am concerned about. The Thunder give up the most corner threes in the NBA in the regular season. It was like 12% of team shots against them were from corner threes. And so now all of a sudden you're relying on the PJ Washington, Derek Jones Jr., Dante X, him, Josh Green PERSON,and Luca and Kyrie sometimes, or Tim Hardaway PERSON, if he plays. And that is a very tall order for those guys to hit some shots like that. But if they do, the Mabbs may dominate this series, honestly, like if the Mavericks ORG get those kind of shots, because they just have not gotten them in a lot of these games down the stretch.

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You mentioned that Luca PERSON gets fired up by the crowd. How personally does he take matchups like a Shea matchup where between game one and two, the NBA will announce who finished one, two, and three

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in MVP WORK_OF_ART, the award chase, which could have Luke a third or second. I think that Yokic PERSON is probably going to win the award, but the battle between these two guys for two and three, how personally does he take that sort of thing or is it just Luke PERSON is awesome no matter what?

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Yeah, this is the MVP WORK_OF_ART runner-up bowl, isn't it?

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It's like both of these guys are fighting for second and third.

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I think he'll take that. I think he'll take that personally.

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But I think he takes more of the match-up thing

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personally. One of the things I've learned about Luca PERSON is a couple years ago, we did our media day interviews, and it's me and Isaac and we sit down with some of the players and we ask him these random questions.And we asked, what's something you learned about Luca PERSON? We asked the Spencer Dinwiddie PERSON. And Dinwiddie PERSON goes, Luca PERSON will look at a matchup. They'll show him a matchup on paper, and analytics will go,you score like 1.5 points per 100 possessions against this player, and you score 0.8 points per 100 possessions against this player. So you want to attack player A and not player B. And Luca PERSON will go, I am attacking player B. I will attack player B every single time. And we think that that was Mike Conley and Rudy player B. And Luca PERSON will go, I am attacking player B. I will attack player B every single time.And we think that that was Mike Conley and Rudy Goberra PERSON. I cannot confirm that, but it was right after the 2022 playoffs. So I think that it probably was. But that is what Luca PERSON will do. And Luca PERSON will look at the harder matchup.And with his knee stuff, it's been a little different. He hasn't had that same kind of drive and fight that he normally has because he just not at the peak of his powers. But he does look at matchups that way. So he will attack those, he'll attack whoever'sin front of him. Chet doesn't matter. Jay doesn't matter. Jalen Williams PERSON doesn't matter. The other Jalen Williams PERSON doesn't matter. Like he will attack any of those matchups. But, um, but sometimes that can be used against him where he'll attack Kauai LOC over and over again. You're like, okay, can you, can we just attack Norman Powell instead of, instead of James Hardin PERSON is doing a a good job on you, attack somebody else. So, yeah, that can

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be used against him for sure. Well, in this the same way we ended part one. The Mavericks ORG win

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this series if? The Mavericks win this series. If Luca and Kyrie outplay, the Thunder ORG's two stars and the centers for the Mavericks outplay, Chet Hongren. The Mavericks lose this series if... The Mavericks lose the series if they don't get any threes to fall, if Luca PERSON is not 100% with his injury and if the centers get outplayed. Nick PERSON, this was awesome. Thanks for

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joining us to break down this series on all angles. Happy to have you in OKC GPE this week back in Dallas over the weekend. It'll be a lot of fun. Until next time, be good and be good to one another. And there you go.

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That's two-part crossover with Rylan Stiles, Locked on Thunder. We got more stuff. I'll do an episode with Reggie Atula PERSON as well. Breaking down this series, Slightly PERSON and I will have you covered for all the games in this series.I'm going up to OKC GPE, so I'm super excited to go and see that arena and to cover these games. I'm excited for the Mavericks ORG. I feel like this is going to be a tightly contested series, so we'll break it all down.Thanks for listening to Locked On Mabs. Peace out. Boom!

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Hey, Prime members. You can listen to this Locked-on podcast ad free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today. The NBA ORG playoffs

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