Hoops Tonight - How OKC Thunder DEFEATED Indiana Pacers for 1st NBA title

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We're gonna break down a bunch of different elements. I'm gonna talk some big picture stuff, some kind of like narrative stuff surrounding the Oklahoma City Thunder kind of I want to have a moment to just remind Thunder fans that it doesn't really matter what anybody else says about your championship. Your trophy is your trophy and no one can ever take it away from you. Let's talk a little bit about next year and what the future looks

like for the Thunder. After that, I'm gonna kind of go down the eight man playoff rotation for the Thunder and shout out each individual player for their contributions. Along the way, we have a shout out for the Indiana Pacers, and then at the tail end of the show, I want to briefly just take some a couple of minutes to reflect on this playoff run here at Hoops tonight, You guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe

to the Hoops and on YouTube channels. I don't miss any more of our videos, Follow me on Twitter and underscore jcnltcs. You guysn't miss announcements. Don't forget about ourocast feed, where you get your podcast on Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and review on that front. Jackson's doing a great work on our social media feeds, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there. In the last but not least,

keep dropping mail bag questions and the YouTube comments. We can get to them in our mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So first of all, congratulations to the Oklahoma City Thunder. As I talked about with Colin last night, it's not exactly atypical when you look back at the great teams in NBA history for their first title run to be a little bit uneven, a little bit sloppy. Like look

at every team that has won consecutive championships. Let's pretend that, Okay, see wins again next year, and then we look back at it relative to other repeating champions in NBA history. You look at the Warriors in twenty fifteen, they're down to one to the Grizzlies. They're down to one to the Cavs in the second round, and in the finals, very similar to this year's Oklahoma City team the Heat in twenty twelve, they fall down to one to the Pacers,

they fall down three to two to the Celtics. They fall down one oh to the Thunder. That's after a year where they lost in the finals. The Kobe pow Lakers lost in the finals to the Celtics before they won a couple in a row, the first Kobe Shack team in two thousand. They almost lost to Sacramento in the first round. Portland ends up taking them to seven games.

The NBA playoffs are hard for everyone, and that is no exception even for the great teams that especially when they're in these situations earlier in their runs where they don't have a ton of experience. Going into this postseason, I had Oklahoma City second in my contender rankings behind the Boston Celtics, and I did pick the Thunder in all four of their playoff series. But their shortcomings were clear coming into the postseason. They're a really young team

that wasn't very resilient on offense. This was the year to beat them if you were going to upset the Thunder and kick them out, kind of like the Heat did in twenty eleven, or the Lakers in two thousand and eight. This was the year to beat them. This was the year they weren't quite as much of a sure thing, and they got it done anyway. And now

their shortcomings can be pretty easily addressed internally. Shay's inconsistencies as a processor, those will improve in time, and I would argue him always getting it right in the big games when everything was hanging in the balance is a great sign that he gets it and how important that part of his game is. Chet will continue to develop offensively. J Doub will become more consistent. Role players will process better, shoot the ball better. All of that can come in time.

This Thunder team can get way better and has a real chance to join the ranks of the truly great teams in NBA history. I think they have a better chances than even Boston did last year or Denver the year before that. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that concept in a minute. But never ever, ever take this for granted. Enjoy this title for as long as you can. I know there are a lot of

Thunder fans that are annoyed today. Maybe you're annoyed because of the public discourse after Tyree's Tours Achilles and people saying that that just means Indiana would have won if he was healthy because he hit some threes before it happened. Or maybe you're annoyed because you're you feel like your team's not getting enough credit. First and foremost, who the hell cares what anybody else thinks. They are all just

mad because their team didn't win the title. There are cas fans still complaining about Kyrie and Kevin Love getting hurt in twenty fifteen. There are Warriors fans still complaining about Andrew Boget's injury and Draymond Green suspension in twenty sixteen. They are fans saying Denver didn't play any real teams. In twenty twenty three. They are fans saying Boston didn't

play any good teams in twenty twenty four. Alex Crusoe made a joke last night at the podium about the Bubble Championship because of how prevalent that bitching and moaning has been over the course of the years, people complain that's what they do. It literally cannot take the trophy away from you, and it cannot take away your love for your team, even with like me and my complaints

about Shay's foulgrifting. That's a big picture basketball opinion I have about the league, aet large that also includes two guys on my favorite team, guys like Luca and Austin. Austin reeves. You don't think if the Lakers won the title next year, I promise you there would be thousands of people bitching and moaning about the whistle that Luca and Austin get as they should. It's bad television, but I'd be there saying, bring us the damn trophy. The

trophy is sacred. Nobody can ever take that away from you. No amount of complaining, Twitter trolling, stupid media comments on television or time can take that trophy away from you. But at the same time, never delude yourself into thinking it's easy to get there and win another one. I do think this Oklahoma City team, because of their talent and because of their youth, is more well equipped to

repeat than Boston or Denver was. But both of those teams in the moment did feel like teams that could repeat. Let's go back even further, like twenty twenty with the Lakers. You don't think after twenty twenty when Lebron was looking like the best player in the world and Anthony Davis was looking like a top five player, and they still had good years ahead of them, that you know that they wouldn't have a really good chance to repeat the next year. But no, Lebron turns his ankle, ad has

a groin injury. By the time they recovered, they make a stupid trade. All of a sudden, they're not as good the twenty twenty three Nuggets. Oh, Jokic is the best player in the world. All of our starters are in their mid to late twenties. Like, we are set up well to try to make a dynasty out of this, and then it's like, oh, oh, actually, you know, you lose a couple of valuable role players, a couple other teams get better. Suddenly they're losing in the second round

to a bad matchup the twenty twenty four Celtics. You don't think the Celtics last year, five thirty million dollar players, Tatum didn't even play well. Tatum's gonna play better, right, All these different things that could lead to them potentially repeating. We haven't even had a team make the conference finals two years in a row since Kevin Durant left the Warriors.

Game five and in Game seven. Well, Minnesota was red hot coming into that series. I remember when I was talking with Colin right after the matchup got secured, my initial gut feeling I was like man, like Minnesota might be able to do this.

the jaws of defeat. This was an incredible championship. So I just wanted to say congratulations to the thunder in their fans.

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of his efficiency. Now, yeah, it was somewhat uneven in that Shay's decision making did play a role in some of their rough offensive nights. But as I always talk about, the NBA playoffs are about solving puzzles, and every time the thunderseason was really hanging in the balance, he was fantastic.

We talked about it last night with call him. He had just seven assists in the rough games in the finals, in the four games, Game one, Game three, Game four, in game six, he had thirty assists in games two, five and seven. Tennisis per game in every pivotal moment. You lose Game two, you go down two zero, you lose the series. You lose Game five, you go down three to one, you lose a series. You lose Game seven,

you literally lose the series. And he was great in every single one of those games as a processor from start to finish. The in Game four, even though I thought he was rough for most of that game, down the stretch, hitting the big three out of the two man game with Jalen Williams at the top of the key, it's at three off of the right wing, hitting that little jumper on the left base line against Aaron E. Smith, drawing a couple of fouls on Nie Smith and Iso.

He made the plays he needed to make to win the game. To put it very simply, the Thunder needed Sga to be great, to play like a true superstar in order for this team to win the championship, and he did. As a result, He's just logged one of the great shooting guard seasons in the history of the NBA. He's the only player other than Michael Jordan in the history of the NBA to win a scoring title, make First Team All NBA, win the MVP, and win Finals

MVP in the same season. I was asking Colin about this last night in a Microsoft segment like he's seen a lot of greats come through the league, and all I could think is he is admirably filling the shoes of the greats that come through before him. I've you know again, I know you thunderfans have had your frustrations with me, as I've had my frustrations with some of the foul grifting, which is again a big picture NBA tape that even applies to some guys on my favorite team.

I just hate watching the finals on ABC, and you know, seeing some of the grifty stuff that I see, I don't want to see it from anybody. But that doesn't change the fact that Shay Gilga Alexander just put together one of the great start to finish superstar seasons in the history of the league. That doesn't change the type of basketball player that Shay is. If anything, the grifting stuff is part of his competitive advantage and his willingness to take every single thing that he can take to

help his team win a game. I was incredibly impressed by Shaye in this playoff run Jay Dubb, I'll talk about the idea of just making a play right within a game. You have a rough game, but it's you know two point game, five minutes left and you get a big rebound, you hit a big spot up three, you have a big transition defense possession where you get back and you solow them down. Whatever it is, you make a couple of plays, you help your team win. No one's gonna care. JDub had a rough start to

this postseason. He was good against Memphis, Memphis not a good team, but against Denver, in the first six games of the Denver series, he was at just sixteen and a half points per game on thirty four percent from the field twenty one percent from three. From Game seven of the Denver series through the rest of the playoffs, JDub averaged twenty three points per game on forty seven percent from the field in thirty six percent from three. You could really tell that it dawned on him that

nobody can keep him from getting to the rim. The stats were crazy on this front before Game seven against Denver. In those first six games in the series, he averaged just four attempts in the restricted area per game. From Game seven of that series onward, he averaged six point seven restricted area attempts per game, almost doubled his output at the rim. That's him figuring out that he is a downhill forced to be reckoned. With seven restricted area

attempts per game is a big number, guys. That's like encroaching on like the kind of stuff you see from the Lebrons and the Yiannises or like those guys are in like the eight to eleven restricted area attempts per game and JDub was up there at like seven. Truly remarkable stuff from Jay Dubb. There's a ton of pressure on Jadub as a twenty four year old second option on a Big Finals favorite, to come through against some elite defenses. Against some elite defenders, he had three games

in the Finals with at least twenty five points. He had a forty point game in game five. Did his job, and he did it extremely well. Salute to Jalen Williams chet Holmgren. Yes, it was a rough offensive postseason from him on several fronts.

more of them, but like all these teams have great defenders. Boston, Drew Holliday and Jalen Brown were two of the most disruptive perimeter defenders in the league. You go back to previous year, Contavious Calledwell, Contavious Callwell, Pope, Bruce Brown, these are Christian Brown. These are great perimeter defenders twenty twenty two,

Gary Payton Andrew Wiggins. Like there are all sorts of elite perimmeter defenders on champions when you go back their NBA history Drew Holiday in twenty twenty one, Alex Crusoe and KCP in twenty twenty that's kind of a hallmark of championship teams. But the big Guy ends up being the vehicle with which teams can get around that problem. And Chet just presents another big, giant problem at the big like in high, drop in low, drop in switches

protecting the rim and help. He was devastating at every level of Oklahoma City's defense, and even if they happened to get a guard off of them, Chet was so good at sliding his feet and keeping the ball in front and making them take contested shots in the mid range. Countless blocks on drives. He had eight blocks in their last two wins in this series, the most blocks ever in the history of the NBA Finals in a game seven. Unbelievable defensive playoff run from Chet Holmgren, Lou Dorton, Alex

Crusoe wrecking balls in every big moment. Both of them were amazing last night. Alex Crusoe all over the place defensively, Lou dort poke away steals, offensive rebounds. The two guys combined for twenty seven made three pointers in twenty eight steals in the NBA Finals. That's for steels and four to threes made per game. Book it from Dorton Crusoe. Unbelievable performance. Cason Wallace a little bit of a rough offensive series at times, but provided a similar impact on

defense to those other guys. Twelve steals in this series. Consistently held up against post mismatches, forcing turnovers and misses forced turnovers at the point of attack. Great series from Cason Wallace. Aaron Wiggins ten for twenty two from three. That's huge in his series like this. Isaiah Hartenstein nineteen offensive rebounds in the series. Him and Chett did a ton of damage on the offensive glass in the series. There's a big part of how they won Game four.

I'd argue they lose this series if it wasn't for the job that Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein did in the fourth quarter of Game four on the glass. Hartenstein in this series produced at a rate of eleven points and thirteen rebounds per thirty six minutes. Very good production from Isaiah Hartenstein. You got to shout out, Sam Preston, you do not win the title without Alex Crusoe and Isaiah Hartenstein. He came out of that series last year and said, I want to decrease our or I want to increase

our margin for air. I want to give these guys some veteran presences, some guys that can help in some specific areas of need. A legit fifth starter for their small ball look, which they didn't have last year, right, Legit two big look, a more physical big to get to provide an option different from Chet. Isaiah Hartenstein. The job he did both Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso were the only reason like you lose to Denver if you

don't have those two guys. Hartenstein throughout the series playing up on Jokic's right shoulder to force him to spin and drive left into Chet at the rim, which works so effectively that having two big centers on the floor really affected Jokic. Caruso in Game seven fronting the post against Jokich. Cruso was amazing in every big game in this postseason run. Sam Presty did his job to help

his team win the championship. I'm really interested to see what he does this summer, if he runs it back, or if he tries to make some sort of improvement on the margin. Just congratulations again to thunder fans. A really special team, a special playoff run. Now you have the trophy. Tune out the noise, don't worry about all that shit everyone else is saying. Or if I bitch about Shay getting free throws, who cares? He's got a

Finals MVP. Now if as long as you guys enjoy watching him, who cares what I think?

impossible not to root for. Their resilience and commitment to playing forty eight minutes of great basketball every night set an example that honestly every basketball coach in the world should be looking to instill a similar type of basketball character into their teams. The moments man like Tyrese those

four game winners. I remember I saw an Instagram reel shortly after Game one of the finals where all four of them were kind of stacked up on each other, and I was like, just an insane stretch of NBA moments. The Siakam dunk all over JDub in Game six, the TJ McConnell's scoring runs in the finals. There were just so many moments. I'll never forget this Pacers team, and it's just such a huge bummer because of the Tyree's injury. It's just such a gut punch to Pacers fans that

removes most of the excitement from this upcoming season. Similar to the Tatum injury, the sheer timeline of Achilles recovery dictates that will probably see some roster turnover by the next time Tyres Haliburton sees the floor. That's super unfortunate, but that playoff run will be burned into our brains forever. I'm thankful for pace for the Pacers. I can't even imagine for you Pacers fans what it must have been

like rooting for that team. I just imagine it being like the peak of sports fandom, like you guys loving your team and watching the whole world fall in love with your team and like everything. But obviously at the end the Tyree's injury and not getting the trophy, I just imagine that was an incredible experience. And I know that it's hard to see that now after what happened, but that was a special Pacers team and again, I just it's just burned into my brain and I'll never ever forget that.

two and a half months. There is a ton of grueling work behind the scenes with editing for different feeds and for social media. One of our guys, Shane, was doing it all from the East Coast, so you can imagine the kinds of preposterous hours that he was up working for us. Jackson and Shane both did a ton of great work to make this playoff run run as

smoothly as it's ever as it's ever gone. I just wanted to shout those guys out, make sure everyone realizes that this is a team effort, and I want to shout you guys out our fans for all the incredible support along the way. We did just under seven million views in the playoff run, which is a record for this channel. We crossed over one hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube, which was a huge moment for us. We're already about to pass over one hundred and ten thousand subscribers, Like

I had a moment with my wife last night. We went out and sat by the fire pit. This was

the already, it just the time's flying by. This is the fourth time since I started working for the volume that we've crowned a champion in the NBA, And it's just that the years, they just keep piling on top of each other, and like, it's just been such a remarkable experience, and I just can't say enough about how much I appreciate you guys and the support, all the kind words over the years, the incredible experiences that I've gotten to have because of you guys. Like I have

a little bit of news this summer. My wife and

I are actually moving to Denver. It's a long story of some stuff going on in terms of my wife and I've been trying to have a kid for a long time, and it's just been a little bit of a chance challenge, and there are obviously like steps that we could take to try to make that happen quicker, but we're not quite ready for that, and so what we're doing is trying to just take advantage of a little window in time here where we don't have kids and I work remote, so we can go do something

like go up to Denver and I can. My wife and I love to ski. It's like one of our favorite things to do together, so we want to like go up there and ski fifty sixty times and just enjoy the weather and enjoy the mountains, be close to an NBA city, be close to the best player in the world, and Nakola jokicch and it's just such a cool thing that we're going to get to experience, to get to just like pick up our family, our three dogs, and go up to Denver and just live for a

couple of years. Because I happen to work remote, and because you guys have done such an incredible job supporting this, this job, this show over the years, and I just it's I just feel incredibly fortunate. And it's not lost on me that I can't like this entire experience is because of you guys, And I just hope you guys

understand how much I appreciate you guys. And it's been our fourth champion, but we know there's going to be so many more, and I'm just so excited to see where the show goes next.

And again, I just I hope you guys understand how much how much I appreciate you guys, how much I appreciate our team, And I just feel I'm just feeling very blessed and very fortunate today. But no rest for the weary. We are right back into it because of the NBA Draft and free agency in Summer League and trades. And I'm literally recording with Sam Vassini later this afternoon, and I've got a bunch of prep I need. I'm gonna be watching film all afternoon, getting ready for our NBA Draft preview.

to do this summer? Lots of player ranking type stuff, big picture NBA stuff where I plan on doing some like rewatches on playback of like great NBA games and NBA history. Just keep an eye on twitter feed at Underscore Jason LT. I'll keep you guys in the loop. Wrong along the way. Thanks again, another year in the books. I'll see you guys tomorrow for some draft stuff.