Do I think Shai gets some serious home cooking inside of the Pay.Com Arena?
Yes, I do, but that’s not the reason Minnesota is down 2-0 back home hoping they can win Game 3 in what should be a more friendly zebra arena where Shai won’t be on the line every time he’s bumped or slightly jostled.
The reason the TWolves are down 2-0 in this series is because they have not been able to control their live ball turnovers, and the fact they’ve at times really played some stupid basketball in this series. The manner in which Minnesota has ended the first halves in both of the games in OKC is a clinic on HOW NOT TO FINISH A HALF ON THE ROAD.
Stupid teams are like dogs who play in the street… in that you don’t see them around very long. Plus, of course the pylon-slug Rody Gobert did virtually nothing in either of the first two games in OKC. How he scored 27 points in a game versus the Lakers is still beyond me.
Of course..in OKC with the Thunder in their building you know run fueled live ball turnovers are coming…so you as a team and a coaching staff have to better react when the Thunder are in one of their Forty Minutes of Hell runs in the second half or whenever during the 48 minutes of play.
OKC plays like a college team. This is not standard NBA Playoff basketball. This is Jerry Tarkaninan-Nolan Richardson hoops. Without the live ball turnovers the Thunder can literally offensively stall at times if you force them to beat you from behind the arc. But if you’re fueling a run of Thunder 2 on 1 layups via turnovers…you have little chance of beating these guys once…let’s alone four times.
If we see an OKC-Indiana Finals…we’re going to something very different as far as NBA Finals pace. Because Indiana in my my mind is the team in the league best suited to run with the Thunder, plus the Pacers like the Thunder have impressive length and athleticism on their roster.
But back to Shai’s 29 free throw attempts in the first two games in OKC. This means in the irst two games Shai has been on the line 14.5 times a game, while Anthony Edwards has been on the line 17 times for an average of 8.5 attempts in the two games.
So I looked up a few players and here’s what I found:
Michael Jordan over his career averaged 8.2 free throw attempts per game.
Kobe over his career averaged 7.4 free throw attempts per game.
Larry Bird over his career averaged 4.4 free throw attempts per game.
So…to Jaden McDaniels comment on the push in the back to Shai,”I wanted to at least get called for a foul when I fouled him.”
I don’t disagree with that assessment, but you guys gotta be smarter as a group if you don’t want this series to not end in four or five games.
Hope we see better games in Minnesota on Saturday and Monday.
Mike J
I liked seeing Draymond do commentary. My elf on the shelf has a future!
He’s actually a very articulate guy when he’s not on a basketball court. Draymond has worn me out with his on court antics these past two seasons. His self destructive behavior and team destructive effect these past two seasons has in my mind somewhat diminshed his legacy since the championship season of ’22.
Johnny Kuminga needs to show he can be a dude this coming season to justify the Warriors’ drafting him at such a lofty position in the draft after the bust of James Wiseman.
Believe it or not…the Warriors’ beat writer is a guy named Anthony Slater. Anthony and I have two mutual friends who I respect so I’ve always had a built in respect for Anthony’s work as an NBA beat writer. Plus…he seems like a nice young man. Tramel did a good job with him. Anthony at one time was the Thunder beat writer for a couple of seasons.
Draymond’s basketball IQ is high. He’s an extremely smart player when he can control his worst behavioral impulses. But yeah, he’s definitely a guy who can bring some interesting narratives to a broadcast postgame show.
Look at Perk. Look at what he’s done with his career after basketball. Shit…he’s going head to head with future presidential candidate Steven A Smith on a nightly basis…and ironically Bob Myers who drafted both James Wiseman and Johnny Kuminga.
I like Draymond’s commercial with his daughter. Somebody’s going to write an intersting book on Draymond at some point. The second round pick from Michigan State who’s always kept that chip on his shoulder. But sometimes…the chip doesn’tneed to be so large it knocks you over and hurts your teammates.
Looking forward to the San Diego trip.
Mikey