Why the Thunder Aren't Too Young & Untested with Locked On Thunder

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On today's show, let's talk about the Oklahoma City Thunder ORG. It's a Mavs Thunder crossover where we hear from Rylan Stiles PERSON about why this thunder team is actually not as young and untested as everyone is saying that they are. We'll talk about all that and more on In today's Locked on Mavis WORK_OF_ART.

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I'm Luca Lentich, and this is Lockdown Mavericks ORG. Mavisks ORG. NBA ORG champion. He hit it. Bye! It's good.And the Mavericks ORG have won the game. Thank you, my Rasmuch PERSON! If you don't believe, you shouldn't be here.

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Loyalty never fades away. And welcome.

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You are locked on to the Dallas Mavericks ORG. My name is Nick Engstead PERSON, Medium Member and TV channel manager for the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks for being part of the show making Lockdown Maps your first listen today, where the best way you can help us grow the show is to listen every day on any podcast platform, leave a five-star review, like the video on YouTube ORG, and comment anything below.Let me know. Give me a question you have about the Oklahoma City Thunder in the comment section here. And yeah, go comment on Locked on Thunder. Go Mabs PRODUCT. Just go Mabs PRODUCT.Let's start simple. Let's start simple over there. Just go Mabs PRODUCT. Let's start simple. Game off. We've got to talk more about Monopoly Go PRODUCT.This fast-paced game lets you team up with your friends for tournaments and unique trading cards, things like that, cool playing pieces, hilarious emojis for taunting your friends.So download Monopoly PRODUCT, go get it free on the Google Play or the app store game on. All right, bringing in Rylan Styles from Lockdown Thunder to talk about Mavs Thunder ORG.Let's get into it with him now. All right, welcome in the Lockdown Mavs PRODUCT, Lockdown Thunder ORG crossover. Nick Engstead here, Ryland Stiles PERSON with me. And let's talk about the Derek PERSON lively, Case and Wallace PERSON draft trade bowlthat has now started between these two teams. I'm just going to start right off the bat. People are saying that the Thunder ORG are not a tested team. They're the youngest teams ever making the second round. They haven't been tested. They only trailed for 33 minutes and 20 seconds in the Pelican ORG series. What do you say aboutthat? That this Thunder ORG team is young and untested. Yeah, I think that that's kind of missing the mark

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a little bit whenever you consider the body of work that this team's been through. They've been a very healthy team, so they've experienced everything together through the 82 games. And I think it's unfair to preseason speculate that this is the best Western Conference we've ever seen. And then when the team goes and wins 57 games in the Western

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Conference, including some really tough, tight games to say, actually those games don't matter,

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but you know, the gritty mabs that really run on a run after the deadline, those games matter a ton more. So this team has been through a lot together this season. And I think that it can get a little bit deceiving of the Pelican ORG sweep. They did sweep them. But those games, even, you know, the game three blowout and the game four where you got control of it late, like those games were tight. And the thunder still have not had their fastball yet in these games and they still were good enough to sweep.I think that the biggest testament to this young team is the ways that they can win. They can get you out and they can just dominate the game by splashing in threes and playing harassing defense or they can win a game 94 to 92 in the playoffs and go ahead and go up in the Series 1-0. So the ways that they can win and the different facets that they've been put into throughout the season, I think does matter.

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And I think that it's also a little tricky to talk about inexperience and youth because typically young teams are terrible. Like they just don't even have a chance in the playoffs.

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They're not in the playoffs. And so we don't really have that big of a sample size of young teams who are this good and through 82 games with the top five offense, top five defense. So at that point, you've really got to treat this team independent of their birth certificate.

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You mentioned that they didn't have their fastball in the first round series. I don't think they didn't, they obviously didn't need it. They only trailed for 33 out of 192 minutes TIME. That stat was insane to me. I went back. They trailed for like three minutes in two of the games and they won.It was wild. Why didn't they have the fastball? What is the fastball that you say that they didn't have that they could have in this next round?

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I think you look at game one, especially in that series, 94, 92 win. The Thunder held the Pelicans at 92 or fewer points every single game that series. The defense was electric in round one. I think that the defense will travel against Dallas ORG, but statistically it'll obviously look different. You're not going to hold Luca and Kyrie PERSON to under 100 points ever, much less

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for four straight teams. Clippers ORG just did it

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a couple times.

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That's right. But I think

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that it'll be very tough to do again for this next series. But I think that offensively, you saw the Thunder ORG miss a lot of open threes that they typically hit. They're the best three-point shooting team in the NBA ORG.And in that game one, especially, you saw multiple open-threes missed. In game four, when things were a little bit dicey and competitive before they grew a 10-point lead with two minutes left, Chewom-Hen-Miss PERSON an open-3,Kaysman-Wallis PERSON who missed open-3, Wiggins missed two open-threes. Those things typically go in for the best three-point shooting team in the NBA ORG. And so that can help the scoreboard and help the plus-minuses look different if they just simply make their open shots, which we have a much larger sample size than four games of

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them hitting their open shots and being able to swell leads on the scoreboard. You mentioned how healthy they were. That was something that diabolically, all of us over here on Longtime Mavs used to try and push SGA ORG's MVP candidacy down for sure. But that starting five played the most games together of any five in the NBA, 63 games.The next closest was 55. That distance to me is huge. And they played almost 800 minutes TIME together. That was second in the NBA in like five-man units that had played together.So do you look at that as a positive or do you look at that as a, all right, well, what if one of these guys gets played off or what if one of these guys is a bad matchup for themand all of a sudden they have to play with different guys? Do you look at that as a positive? They've been all together. Do you look at that as something to be concerned about?

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I look at it as a positive just because of the way that Mark PERSON has conducted this team this entire season. So they've been fully healthy and that's been awesome. But they've also played 12 guys per game. So like everyone who is going to be live in this series has played a ton of minutes as well. It's not as though they stayed to a rigid eight-man rotation and relied on their starting five to get them from point A to point B. There's been many games where Josh Gade PERSON doesn't close.There's been many games where you want to play smaller and have Kinnrich-Wilms with a five and not Chet Holmgren PERSON. There's been many games where Shea was not in the closing moments of like a game is tight entering the fourth quarter. And it's actually J-dub who goes and sweeps the leg and gets a blowout win. And She never even returns in the fourth quarter, and it's actually Jdub who goes and sweeps the leg and gets a blowout win, and Shane never even returns in the fourth quarter. So the fact that they've already been playing 10, 11, 12 guys, you feel really confident in all their abilities to impact this series.And they're all accustomed to entering the game and having different lineups thrown at them. So there's been stretches where Wiggins, for example, has had like three D&Ps in a row, followed up by three games, replays 20 minutes. And like that's nothing due to health. That's everything due to the Thunder ORG keeping their players on their toes. And that can be huge in the playoffs.Whenever you're going to have to make adjustments. And now you're already used to going in cold. You're used to the unpredictability of it. I think that that's been a great job from the Thunder ORG to prepare their guys for that. And so it would have worried me had the Thunder ORG not already been playing a lot of it. I think that that's been a great job from the Thunder to prepare their guys for that. And so it would have worried me had the Thunder not already been playing a lot of guysand they just kind of all came in with relatively no experience.

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Yeah, there's sort of like a niceness of being young and dumb in a sense that like, hey, we don't know any different. Like I'll play, I'll come in, it's whatever. Like the pressure kind of rolls off your back at times. You saw that during the season, I feel like, where this Thunder ORG team was like, hey, they took the moniker of Russell Westbrook PERSON to why not, and they actually applied it to basketball instead of applying it to Mountain Dew PRODUCT commercials. And he was like, hey, why not us?Why can't we do this? Why can't we beat this team? Why can't we be the number one team in the West LOC? And like, everything just seemed to like roll off their back, much like a dog where they would, and this team has even taken that on as they're, as they're like slogan where they bark where dogs. Just barking.

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Anything can happen to a dog. He's barking in the crowd.

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And they'll bounce back and the dog will love you every day.

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It doesn't matter. I think that that's been a big key for them too, is there, uh, their naivness. And I think that that will loom its head in this series whereit could not have worked out better for the Thunder to have only one consecutive off days stretch in this series between games five and six because they're going to lose games this series. Spoiler alert, they're not going to sweep the Mavericks ORG. And they're going to have to handle

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that emotional gap of losing a game and having it all feel like it's kind of compounding on you through a long series. But you're not going to have the time off to overthink. Whereas in round one, where there's so many off days, a young team can really get two in their head about a single loss. Right here, it's you just got to go play. Before you can even register what happened in game one,you're playing game two. Same thing for the whole series. So I think that that helps the thunder not spiral whenever they eventually do lose a playoff game.

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What's the biggest reason OKC jumped 17 wins this year? Like you brought in Chet, Homegren, he played about 30 minutes. Kason Wallace, the former Mavs Great, played 20 minutes a game. They weren't on the team last year. So you kind of replaced some of those like Jeremiah Robinson Earl PERSON minutes. You replaced some of that with these two new guys.But what's the biggest reason they made the jump?

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Yeah, I think that defensively Chet just unlocked so many different things of like last year, they did not have a single rim protector on the roster.

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Jay Will was trying to fill that role as a charge merchant, if you will,

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but he could really only defend the rim on the ground, whereas now you have a legit,

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not only a legit rim protector in the sense of, uh,

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that's the funniest thing I ever.

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That's the funniest way to say that my guy can't jump.

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Yes, it was not a pretty sight to have that as a center.

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You got no hops.

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No, no, he was not going to go out there and soar. Although this year he's getting more blocks than he did last year. But not only does check just to race shots is like a highlight real blocker, but he just outright deters them. I'm like, you get into the lane, you see them there. You try to dish off a pass, it's fumbled away.Everyone is so active and engaged defensively, which is rare through an 82 game season in the modern NBA ORG, but getting the deflections, leading the league in deflections and loose balls and diving on the floor, like those things matter. And it starts at the head of the snake too of SGA ORG, taking another step defensively in terms of his level of engagement on top of what you already have in Lou Doort, what you have in Jadub, what you haven't shed back there to anchor the defense.And so I think that it's been a combination of Shea's gotten better, which every year, he surprises us with how much better he can still get. He finished fifth and MVP voting last year and as much better as a playmaker and a defender this year than he was last year. Jdub has just been ready for the moment. Like we mentioned,there's been many games where in the third quarter, the Thunder going to run to come back, and now they're up by two or maybe down by five, and you're thinking, all right, this is Shea PERSON's rotational pattern to sit on the bench and for the next four minutes. What happens here, this can go either way for the Thunder, and J. Dub just goes in and ends the game in a positive way for O'KC ORG. Having that level of a score next to Shea PERSON has made all the difference in the world. And then you have Casein-Rollison PERSON and Wiggins playing instead of Jeremiah Robertson-Earl PERSON and, you know,Poku PERSON, for example. So it's been all these things stacking on top of each other all in one fluid motion, if you will, for the team building towards hopefully a title run.

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Took us like almost 11 minutes for a Poku Stray PRODUCT. Which is a new record. It wasn't that long. Coming up, what's the matchup that OKC ORG fears the most when it comes to the Dallas Mavericks to talk about all that and more coming up.Today's episode is brought to you by Monopoly Go PRODUCT. All right, game off. We've got to pause. We can talk about Monopoly Go PRODUCT. You already heard us talk about it. But there's just so much stuff going on in this game.Monopoly Go PRODUCT, you can team up with friends for time tournaments where you work together and build up each other's boards. Ryland PERSON and I can work together, or I can go and smash his buildings because I'm mad that the Thunder ORG win a game in this series. I can heist his vaults if we want to do that.We want to play Monopoly Go PRODUCT together. It feels new and exciting every day because there's constantly challenging tournaments, challenges, things like that, a ton of new, unique mini games and things like that. There's always new timed events to help you win big,like massive multipliers for everything you win or rent frenzies. Just try it out. Download it on Google Play ORG or the app store. Download Monopoly Go PRODUCT. Again, there's always something fun to discover in Monopoly Go PRODUCT. So get off the bench and go download it now free on Google Play ORG or the app store.Game on. Also want to tell you about Fanduel. FanDuel Sportsbook ORG has all kinds of props and odds that you can use to get in on the action. New customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.You can go to the NBA ORG tab right here. Game one, Mabbs, Thunder ORG. Three and a half point favorite in that one. So they get the slight edge. Usually get like three points for being at home and so they get like a half point for that first game.So that's pretty interesting. And then if you want to go over to the series odds, Thunder are minus 120, Mab's minus 102, which is like very, very close. This is like, Thunder ORG are like a little bit more of a favorite than the Mavericks ORG in this for the series.So really interesting stuff on Fanduel. Go check it out, fanduel.com, and make every moment, make every playoff shot count fanduel.com slash lockdown FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

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My first shot, my first mate. Thanks everybody for hang out of us on Lockdown Mavs PRODUCT.

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Locked on Thunder ORG crossover edition, being part of this show. Part of the Raccoon Squad ORG. If you listen every day on Lockdown Mabs ORG, do you have a name for the lockdown? The Thunder Buddies?

Speaker 3865.16s - 871.94s

Yeah, we don't have a name yet, but maybe we should come up with one because I do like seeing the Raccoon Squad ORG flood the comments right now.

Speaker 2872.94s - 881.02s

Oh, man, they're still going at Darien Viziri of Lockdown Thunder ORG. And I think they're probably still going at Cyrus Sautz of Lockdown Warriors from three years ago.

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And Brennan Clean of Lockdown Sons ORG.

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Oh my God, Brendan can't get away from him. So shout out to everybody. Itnan Clean of Lockdown signs. Oh my God, Brennan PERSON can't get away from him. Brennan PERSON can't get away from him. So shout out to everybody. It's already on Locked on Thunder. Subscribe to Locked on Thunder for all the, for all the playoff coverage.If you want to hear more about the Thunder ORG, Rylan PERSON knows more about them than probably anybody except for maybe Mark Dignal PERSON. I think I'll put coach ahead of you and then it's you.

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Yeah, that's fair.

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What's the matchup that OKC ORG is most concerned about? When you look across the board, you go, all right, this is the Mavs team, this is our Thunder ORG team. What's the matchup where you go, ooh, man, I'm really worried about that.

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I think the biggest thing is just the star power of Luke and Kyrie PERSON and the pick and roll specifically, because I think that the, the, the, the complementary pieces around those two guys are going to have to be just spoon-fed buckets, either from the attention you give them and you kick out to the corner threes, then you have a good three-point shooting night, or most importantly, where I think that the Mavs ORG can thrive is in the pick-and-roll. Those two guys are elite in the pick-and-roll, 93rd percentile for Luca PERSON,84th percentile for Kyrie PERSON. And what makes them so difficult is it puts any center, even, you know, Chet Homgren PERSON or whoever else, in a tough position because you're naturally wanting to shade toward the ball handler and give them the attention that they deserve coming off the screen, which puts you a step slow and out of position against a solid rolling option in Derek lively and Daniel Gadford PERSON, who of course can take advantage of that.So their ability to just abuse the pick and roll with really a pick-your-poison style of either you're going to have to have Lou Doer PERSON or whoever fight through a good screen and try their best to make a difficult shot for Luca and Kyrie PERSON, which they're both capable of hitting difficult shots, or give them more attention and thus give up an easy two points for Godford or lively and just hope that maybe a couple times in there that Chet PERSON can use his length and timing to get a block from behind, which he's capable of doing. So the pick and roll aspect of it, I think is the biggest threatto OKC because everything else, every other continental piece than those two stars, they're going to have to just, it's going to take some variance, if you will, of just PJ Washington can, he can't generate his own shot. He can only really knock it down from the corner when he's open, if that. So I think that you're really worried about that pick and roll.

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Damn, PJ PERSON can. This man, this man may be able to shoot. I don't think he can't think he can, but he may be able to shoot. He can get a little floater too. He attacks closeouts and goes to the rim and hits a little floater here or there. But yeah, no, I'm totally with you on this. Thisis going to be the stars. How the four stars match up. And if Luca and Kyrie PERSON outplay SGA and Jaila Williams PERSON, I think it could be really hard for the Thunder ORG to figure out ways to win games. I think that they'll have to get at leastone of those guys to outplay one of Luca and Kyrie PERSON. And Luca PERSON coming into this, he's got the knee that's been bothering him forever, and it goes in and out and things like that. The knee doesn't go in and out, but the pain and all that goes in and out.And it's changed the way that he plays a little bit. He can't get to the basket as quickly as he was. And so one of the things that I've talked about between, the difference between Luca PERSON and SGA is that when Luca has the ball and he's coming off a screen or he's doing something or whatever, he's just driving with the ball,he's got literally every option in front of him. There's like very few players in the NBA ORG that can do this where you've got every pass. And then he can drive, he can pull mid-range, he can do fade away, he can post, he can step back three, all that.SGA ORG has every single option in front of him, except for there's some passes he can't, he can't back three, all that. SGA has every single option in front of him, except for there's some passes he can't, he can't make that Luca PERSON can. That's not even a knock on SGA ORG. It's literally just Luca and Yokic PERSON and maybe that's it are just able to make passes that some guys just literally cannot.But right now Luca PERSON can't make the kind of drives and usually can't make the kind of drives that SGA ORG can make. And so I think that's a real difference between the two stars that I think is going to be interesting. Can the Mavericks contain or at least limit SGA ORG in a way on his drives? And can the Thunder limit Luca PERSON on these passes to, like you said,spoon feed some of these role players around them? Yeah, the matchup that I'm really interested in is the Mavs ORG centers because he got this Maxi Klieba PERSON injury. He's going to be out for the whole series. That was a real, that really hurts the Mavericks because it takes away some of your versatility,takes away a shooter that had been good in the first round. The Mavericks ORG are lacking shooters right now. It takes away a really, really positive defender. He has been really great the last couple of months. Don't listen to Mavs ORG fans. He has been very great the last couple of months.

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They were really down on him for a while, but as a defender, he's been amazing. And so now I look at the matchup of Gafford and Lively versus Chet PERSON. And I'm just really fascinated to see. If Chet can match the production of those two guys, then that's really bad for the Mavericks ORG.

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Yeah, I think that he'll be able to do that in the sense of, just as a talented player being defended by them. My question would be in that category, how will the Mavericks defend Josh Giddy? Because I go back to the regular season is very tough because the regular season does not matter at all between these two teams. They played four times and none of it means anything.

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But one thing that they did do in their last year, not even the February one Where the Mavs ORG dominated that game That one doesn't agree.

Speaker 31185.98s - 1192.18s

Right, that game, Mads ORG fans are going to love But I don't think that any reasonable Mazz ORG fan thinks that they're 35 points better than OKC ORG. I don't know.

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It's the only one where everybody was pretty much healthy. Lively PERSON didn't even play that game. So maybe they're 45.

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Yeah, I think that when you look at one of these games,

Speaker 21199.88s - 1237.02s

it was the third of the four. And Josh Giddy actually plays a really good first half of the Thunder ORG. He was a impact player. But still, the best option for Jason Kidd and the big of the four. And Josh Giddy actually plays a really good first half of the Thunder ORG. He was a impact player. But still, the best option for Jason Kidd PERSON, and the big adjustment he made was in the second half. He just parks the center in the restricted area and leaves Josh Giddy alone,which even though Josh played really well in the first half, it's unfair to him to make him this corner shooter from three. And so that clogs the lane. That hurts the Thunder ORG's drive and cut abilities. And so you will then go to Wiggins, go to Wallace PERSON in his spot. And at that point, whenever you then get the Mavericks to start defending Chet PERSON with a big, how do they hold up against Chet,

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who can dominate you as a screener, both as a pop and a roller, who can dominate catch and shoot threes, you can step into them as a trailer if you're not picking him up high enough in transition or even off of made baskets as the inbounder and who can put the ball in the duck and just pull off this spin-move, Dirk fade that everyone in Oklahoma City GPE loves and will be reminiscent for Mass fans to see throughout this series. I don't think that either one of them can defend Chet PERSON on the perimeter.On the other hand, though, how many of those easy buckets and lobs do they get from those pick and rolls that the Mavericks ORG should lean into a lot?

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The center matchup is going to be really interesting.

Speaker 31271.52s - 1275.08s

It's the four stars matchup and then it's the center matchup.

Speaker 21275.14s - 1345.52s

I feel like that is a really big thing. And you touched on Josh Giddy. So coming up, I want to talk about Josh Giddy, his role in all this because I think he could be one of those swing players that really changes how this series really looks. And so coming up, let's talk about Josh Gatty PERSON and his role in all this because I think he could be one of those swing players that really changes how this series really looks. And so coming up, let's talk about Josh Gating PERSON his role in all this. Today's episode is brought to you by DoorDash ORG. You know you got Mother's Day coming up.Like it's in a week. Like you're running out of time right now. And so go check out DoorDash ORG and see what you got. See what's available for you right now. You can go and you can, it's not just meals anymore. You don't have to just go get, you don't have to go get like a burrito sent to your mom. You can get flowers. You can go and you can, it's not just meals anymore. You don't have to just go get, uh, you don't have to go get, uh, you don't have to go get like a burrito sent to your mom.You can get, you can get flowers, you can get chocolates. You can get stuff from retail stores, all kinds of stuff if you want to get. My mom doesn't live in the city that I live in. And so I, probably going to use DoorDash to go get something for her for Mother's Day. So whatever she likes, whatever she wants, you can go and get that for her at a store using DoorDash ORG. So get all your mother's day gifts all in one place. Get 50% off your next order up to $15 when you spend 15 or more on your next flower, convenience, grocery or retail order. Now with DoorDash ORG, use that codelocked on NBA. That's Locked on NBA using the code on DoorDash order using DoorDash today. Terms apply again. Check it out. DoorDash, use that code. Locked on NBA ORG.

Speaker 11347.28s - 1412.56s

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Speaker 21413.78s - 1457.14s

Shut it down. Let's go home. All right, Ryland PERSON, we're talking about some of the matchups in this series. We're talking about what the Thunder ORG have looked like. And you mentioned Josh Giddy. And one of my questions about Josh Giddy was, in their matchups before, Dallas ORG just, like you said, they either stuck a center on him and just let him alone in the corner.But in the first, in the matchup in February that were pretty much everybody was healthy, they just put Luca PERSON on him to start the game. And Luca PERSON just, like, left him. And then Luca PERSON was able to be a help defender and kind of roam around. And he's been, he's led the Mavericks and deflections this year. He's just a smart, you know, guy on defense to be able to find those seams and thingslike that. Since Josh Giddy is not playing in New Orleans in this series, will Josh Giddy become a problem or how do you envision that playing out for the maps?

Speaker 31457.54s - 1490.78s

And for, this is the total, full glass half empty conversation with Josh Giddy of, he's been a playoff riser to this point. Every playoff game's been against the New Orleans Pelicans. Even last year's play in tournament whenever he went in New Orleans GPE and scored 31 points, it was also New Orleans. So technically speaking, he's been very good in the postseason. Also, every postseason games came against the Pelicans ORG. And you're not playing the Pelicans anymore. I think that there's nodebating. He's admitted as such that the lowest point of his basketball life was that afternoon in Dallas. And conveniently enough, another Saturday afternoon

Speaker 01490.78s - 1534.64s

in Dallas is on deck this week. But that low point also serves as a turning point for Josh because he got into a little bit of rhythm against Sacramento ORG and got to the All-Star break, you know, limped his way there. After March 1, he's put up 15.6 board, seven, you know, seven board six assists a game, uh, one point one stocks a game if you're into the stocks, uh, aspect of things and shot the ball extremely well. I mean, he shot the ball over 50% from the floor. He shot like 37% from three, a career high,69% at the rim, which has been the biggest swing for him. It's been a very nice trip for Josh in the lane as a 68, arguably 6.9 guard, uh, as he claims he is. That has been the biggest swing for him. It's been a very nice trip for Josh in the lane as a 6-8, arguably 6-9 guard as he claims he is. That's been the biggest swing is that he can finish inside now. We have to respect him a little bit more and let him let them play on the

Speaker 31534.64s - 1568s

ball more. But at the same time, if you give him so much space, there's only so much you can do if you're just driving straight into the teeth of a center. So the Thunder's ability to play Josh PERSON, I think is severely in question because we mentioned that game on TNT where that was kids' big adjustment was just to leave him alone to the center. You mentioned on that Saturday game whenever it was Luca PERSON, the Thunder ORG, I think, leaning into a more five-out offenseand bringing Josh to the ball if Luca PERSON's on him and getting a switch between him and Shay PERSON, while Luca PERSON is a better defender than he gets credit for, and it was more engaged defensively in that Clipper series and this season that we've seen

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before.

Speaker 31568.9s - 1598.42s

We also saw in that Clipper series that a couple fouls on Luca PERSON, and he has no choice but to stop playing defense. And it's no, it's no disservice to Luca PERSON, but he's so valuable offensively that you'd rather give up James Harvin Floaters after James Hardin Floaters PERSON to keep him in the basketball game versus him picking up some more fouls. And so Shea PERSON can really take advantage of that as another guy who crafts his way to the line.And so I think that if they put Luca on Giddy, that's a much better aspect and Avenue for the Thunder ORG keeping him on the floor than if they put a center on him in the lane.

Speaker 21598.94s - 1612.06s

Crafts this way to line is a good is a good way to say that his whistle is wild. So it's a wet whistle. Did I just, did I just make everybody at Oklahoma City GPE mad? Oh, yeah, that's for sure. Luca PERSON gets a whistle too.

Speaker 31613.24s - 1663.08s

I'm really interested in the transition offense of the thunder. The thunder, according to Synergy ORG, spent the most time in transition, over 20% of their offense in transition. That was number one. Cleaning the glass does the numbers a little differentlyand they were 16%. And in the Pelican ORG series, they spent 14%, 16%, 19% and 17% in transition over those four games. And so I'm curious if some of that dries up, if they don't get some of those easy buckets in transition,it's kind of the same for the Mavs ORG too now, this new team. But what happens when that dries up, do you think? Well, they're still one of the best half-court offenses as well. They just dominate in transition throughout this season. I think that part of the difference between synergies and cleaning the glass is that the Thunder ORG, unlike most teams,even in a blowout, will still enjoy getting steals and easy buckets. Like, they never quit trying for those easy buckets.

Speaker 21663.3s - 1664.74s

We remember the last game of the season.

Speaker 31669.8s - 1673.74s

Oh, yeah, that was. We were very aware of how that game was. Hey, if there's still time on the clock, they're still going to rock. So I think that that's been really good for the Thunderdog ORG gain experience

Speaker 21673.74s - 1679.14s

through all 48 minutes of all 82 games. But half court wise, like they're still really, really, really

Speaker 31679.14s - 1684.4s

good. And I think that it can it can look differently, of course, because as you get deeper in the

Speaker 21684.4s - 1688.54s

playoffs, you're going to see teams stop turning the ball over, stop being so careless, and especially

Speaker 31688.54s - 1694.2s

when you have two guys who are built for this moment. Luca PERSON is undoubtedly built for the playoffs

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and built to steal your heart out at the end of games. Kyrie Irving PERSON is no stranger to big moments,

Speaker 31698.26s - 1735.96s

including in the NBA finals. So, like, I trust those two guys with my life at the end of games. And so as the turnover stop and the transition stops, I think where the thunder can still benefit, though, is the deflections I don't think will go away. And maybe it doesn't result in raw turnovers and raw fast break points. But if you get two deflections under possession and now you're throwing up a grenade shotwith like two seconds left, that's the best you can hope for against teams like the Mavericks who have such great star power. And the Mavericks ORG will make some of those shots, obviously. But you'd much prefer that than just letting Luke PERSON go to work. So I think that maybe it looks differently, but still the roots of transition that still plays for OKC ORG.

Speaker 21736.3s - 1781.76s

Yeah, it's been a weird thing where the Mavericks ORG have really tried to play a little faster this year, and it's helped them a lot in a lot of key areas. But in the last three games against the clippers, they really found something offensively. All their transition possessions went down. They completely went down.In game six, they only had 9% of their plays in transition. The Mavericks ORG have historically been a team that just is last in transition all the time. And so they've learned how to play, Luca PERSON has learned how to play in the half court and all that. And so I'm curious if that angle of it, if the Thunder don't get the same kind of transition possessions've learned how to play, Luca PERSON has learned how to play in the half court and all that. And so I'm just, I'm curious if that angle of it,if the Thunder ORG don't get the same kind of transition possessions, what happens to them? We know what will happen if the Mavericks ORG don't get it. They don't rely on it. They try to get it to make it easier for them, but we know what can happen if they don't get it. Answer these two, or finish these two statements. The Thunder ORG win this series if.

Speaker 31783.12s - 1796.42s

The Thunder win this series if none of the role players for the Mavericks ORG go off. If you just have Luca and Kyrie PERSON dominate this game, I think that the Thunder ORG have enough play finishers and enough from their two leading co-stars to get it done.

Speaker 21797.26s - 1799.06s

The Thunder ORG lose this series if.

Speaker 31800.08s - 1824.62s

Thunder will lose this series if Chet Holmgren PERSON does not dominate offensively. Like if he is not shooting open threes, if he's not going three for six from three, I think that then you lose the battle of the bigs because we know for a fact that those two bigs in Gafford PERSON and lively will just have easy points. And that takes away your third best scoring option if he's not hitting from three. So I think that that Chet has to be hitting from three in this series.

Speaker 21824.96s - 1826.58s

The maps have struggled with shooting centers.

Speaker 31826.78s - 1828.56s

They had a real hard time with Miles Turner PERSON.

Speaker 21828.82s - 1887.2s

When they played the Pacers, they had a hard time with Yokic PERSON, obviously, but they have a hard time with these centers that can shoot. And so I'm really fascinated to see if Dengal PERSON tries to, like, pull him out of the paint a little more and, like, make him a spot-up shooter a little more because the Mavericks ORG have, their defense has been great the last couple of months. in the Clipper series EVENT they had some really great games too and it relies on those centers being in those spots to help everybody else now guys canstay in front of their man PJ Washington has been great defender Derek Jones Jr. PERSON has been a great defender you mentioned Luca had played really great defense. Kyrie PERSON has too but those centers really help a lot of that stuff and finish plays by getting rebounds and things like that. And so that center, these center matchups, I think are really, really interesting for this series. And I think that with Maxie out, it's going to be a 48 minutes of Mavs ORG, of Mavs centers,have seven footers out there, right? Jason Kidd PERSON said, it's next man up. And he mentioned Marquif Morris's PERSON name. And I was like, you know, man, like, I don't think that that's where you want to go, but as we know.

Speaker 01887.28s - 1888.74s

I don't always tell you guys the truth.

Speaker 21888.86s - 1890.06s

So we'll see.

Speaker 31891.62s - 1896.22s

For Moush fans' sake, I hope that he was lying about Markke Fawkes and Dwight Fow PERSON being the answer.

Speaker 21897.02s - 1903.94s

He just likes to name that he likes to name every name. When someone asks him like, oh, who could do this? He's like, I will name every player or else someone will get mad at me.

Speaker 31904.42s - 1908.4s

And that's it, that's a former player right there. That's the value of it. He knows what it's like in the locker

Speaker 21908.4s - 1918.48s

whenever the head coach doesn't vouch for you. Last question, quickly that I didn't get to earlier. How was Chet so effective against Jonas Valchunis PERSON? Because that was a key thing, I think, in the Pelican ORG series.

Speaker 31919.5s - 1995.88s

I think that with Jonas PERSON, you look at now a huge sample size of like the regular season games, and now the regular season games, now the postseason games where go ahead. And the best example quickly is in game number two with a Thunder 1 in a blowout. Jonas ripped off 11 straight points. That's very cool that you ripped off 11 straight points. The Thunder scored 12 in that same stent before the first time out.Because sure, you can take your time dumping inside your big man and let him barreless chest into chet and see if you can score at the rim with enough touch as chet's still going to go and contest the shot but you know who's not getting shot attempts at that point c j mccallum brennan ingram you know even tray murphy the third from way out from way downtown and generating threes so go ahead and do that and a few times chet's going to block you, a few times your big, bumbling big man's going to miss.And then other times, you're going to score two. And guess what? If it gets into a matchup of tough twos versus tough twos, the Thunder have number two who's going to make a living and has made a living in his career of hitting tough mid range, mid range twos and helping you keep pace offensively.So I think that people look at that and their eyes get wide of, oh my goodness, just go through Chet PERSON's chest. Okay, he's still gonna block you a few times. And I'd much rather you just go to Gafford PERSON and lively than have Luca PERSON hit step back three after step back three and take over a game.

Speaker 21995.88s - 1997.74s

The problem is what happens when the point guard

Speaker 31997.74s - 1999.42s

is the one going through the center's chest

Speaker 21999.42s - 2001.56s

and the one going right at the rim and finishing.

Speaker 32001.56s - 2003.4s

Like that I think it's gonna be interesting,

Speaker 22003.4s - 2011.06s

bringing, you know, in that pick and roll stuff that you talked about earlier. Like what happens if Chet gets switched onto Luka PERSON? You think they'll give up that matchup of Chet guarding Loco PERSON?

Speaker 32011.96s - 2025s

Yeah, I'd be very curious to see where Mark PERSON wants to go with it. I think you can make a very strong argument, as we're going to get into in my show, of just leave Luka and Lue PERSON there. Like, Luca's crown Lue as a top three defender in this league.

Speaker 22025.18s - 2026.44s

It can't get much better than that.

Speaker 02026.86s - 2066.12s

And no matter who you put on him, God himself, Luca PERSON would knock down very difficult shots. So just let those two play. Don't switch anything. Don't overhelp. Don't overcorrect because where the thunder fall into a trap is,when Luca PERSON hits the paint, guys collapse and they try to stop Luca, well, then that leaves the sprayout ability to PJ Washington. And sure, sometimes he'll miss, but what if he's hitting that night? Then you've really compounded the problem for no real benefit because there's no such thing as stopping Luca PERSON. There's no such thing to stopping Kyrie PERSON. So I wonder if you just let those two guys dominate and just stay tight on PJ PERSON, stay tight onlively, stay tight on Gaffert PERSON, stay tight on all these other guys and just say, name your score for Don Chichin Irving PERSON. Let's see if we can outscore those two guys.

Speaker 22067.24s - 2103.1s

It's going to be a really fascinating matchup. This matchup of two elite podcasters will continue on our other episode. We're going to do the question about the Mavericks in the next one, so go check out. Wherever you're listening or watching this,there will be another episode in your feed tomorrow. So go check out that. And continue to subscribe Locked on Mavs and Locked on Thunder all throughout the postseason as we do this series. I'm excited for it. The Jason Gallagher Bowl EVENT.I'm ready for it. There you go. There you go. Hope you enjoyed the crossover. We got another episode with it coming tomorrow. I'll also do an episode with Regiata Tula tomorrow talking about this series.So there you go. Enjoy it. Locked on Mavs WORK_OF_ART. Guys, thanks much for listening to Locked on Mavs WORK_OF_ART. Peace out.

Speaker 32103.52s - 2103.94s

Boom!

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