I love this interview just after the game between JDub and Lisa Salter. Evidently, Jalen didn’t realize the Pacers had drawn within two points (95-93) with less than nine minutes left in the fourth period.
I mean, this young man just reeled off a 40 point game on the biggest stage with the brightest lights shining and basically sounded like a CPA just following the biggest victory to date in the 17-year-old history of the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise to date. Not a coincidence both of JDubs’ parents were career military. The discipline and balanced demeanor is seemingly always with this young man.
Anyway, JDub went for 40 points. Shai played Robin and added 31 points with 10 assists. Caruso was Caruso…which means he’s the most annoying player in the NBA if he’s not on your team.
Chet grabbed 11 boards for his second straight strong game on the boards. I wonder if that in any way correlates with he and Isaiah both starting and being on the floor more together since the Cason Wallace starting experiment ended after Game 3 loss. The Thunder have pretty much ruled the boards these past two games…and, yeah, rebounding and setting screens for SGA are important parts of the Thunder master plan. If not, why would Sam Presti have acquired Isaiah in the first place?
Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, and Kenrich in my mind were all solid in their various roles coming off the bench. Mark Daigneault rolled with a nine man rotation 1-9 just like an ‘almost famous’ underground blogger suggested he do after the Game 1 giveaway.
I loved what JDub said in the interview above, ” We basically played pretty much like we did in Game 1 tonight except we as a team learned from those mistakes.”
And BTW…I’m not going to compare JDub to Scottie Pippen. You know why? Because if this young man keeps his head screwed on like it is currently…he’s going to be better than Scottie Pippen. Word.
On the other side…Coach Carlisle in hindsight made a mistake reinserting Tyrese Haliburton back into the game. He should have just rolled with TJ McConnell, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Easmith, and Ben Mathurin.
But in defense of the Coach…both Nemhard and Mathurin were BRUTAL in this game and maybe Rick Carlisle thought an injured Haliburton would be better than both of those guys.
Andrew Nembhard and Ben Mathurin…please step into Coach Jackson’s office and shut the door. “Andrew, Ben, for us as a team to have any chance whatsoever of winning Game 6 …you two guys have to show up on Thursday night and bring your games with you. You both know how much better you need to be from what you showed last night.”
Siakam, TJ, Toppin, Turner, and Bradley were functional enough for the Pacers to have been in this game to the very end. But the simple truth of tha matter is Tyrese was if anything a liablity on the floor. OKC were like sharks circling wounded prey out there with Haliburton. It was painful to watch as the Thunder turned over the Pacers 22 time with many of those being live ball turnovers.
Remember the turnover number I posted before Game 1…14. If the Pacers turn the ball over 14 times or more they most likely will lose the game. Now..of course, Mark Daigneault proved me wrong on that number with his mind numbing performance in Game 1 as the Pacers overcame 25 turnovers. MJ doesn’t see Santa Claus gifting anymore games in this series though.
In closing… this 1-9 rotation was OKC’s best game of the series considering the importance of this Game 5 with the series being tied 2-2. Plus…I witnessed no one 1-9 wearing a Thunder jersey shrink or go invisible. Nine guys did their respective jobs.
Good game, guys.
One more win…and you’ve done what no one ever thought was possible in a college market like Oklahoma City…namely, winning an NBA championship.
And I what I find exceptionally satisfying is that even though MJ became a Denver Nuggets fan during all the dark, draconian tanking…Sam Presti then pretty much followed most of my advice with the rebuild… and in this series after the Game 1 giveaway. So…in a bizarre manner of speaking, MJ somewhat feels okcthunderground.com was a part of this Thunder turnaround.
You know what the total irony in all of this would be though..if Sam Presti resigned from the Thunder after the championship and took the Denver Nugget GM job right before the NBA draft. Denver fired their assistant GM yesterday and still hasn’t replaced Calvin Booth. Just a crazy thought of sorts.
Good luck to both teams in Game 6.
Mike J