2024-2025 OKC Thunder Games Thread

[Dadouv47]

game one was the real killer

[Dadouv47]

jdub too scared to take big shots late in game

[Thabo Sefolosha]

We're cooked

[Dadouv47]

the biggest lesson from those POs is that our bench isn't deep at all.

Wiggins was great in the regular seaosn. Isaiah Joe was fine. You just can't rely on those guys in the postseason (yeah I know Wiggins had ONE good game).

I can complain a lot about JDub not taking open shots and being more aggressive but ultimately he's not a guy we can afford to trade so gotta improve the bench.

Cason/Caruso were terrible tonight. Caruso made some stupid turnovers.

Credits to Indiana for defending so well on Shai.

[Kizz Fastfists]

As much as I don't want to say this the problem is NOT the roster. Presti put together a team that would win this series with a competent coach. How did OKC get knocked out last year? They were up against a bigger team. How are they losing in the Finals? Indiana is playing bigger than OKC because Mark is coaching like he has as little interest in winning this series as my 3 month old grandson!!!!!

[Dadouv47]

As much as I don't want to say this the problem is NOT the roster. Presti put together a team that would win this series with a competent coach. How did OKC get knocked out last year? They were up against a bigger team. How are they losing in the Finals? Indiana is playing bigger than OKC because Mark is coaching like he has as little interest in winning this series as my 3 month old grandson!!!!!

I don't think our coach made mistakes tonight. Game 1 from coach D was terrible, game 2 was great and tonight it's on our players. I know you want the two big line up but Chet was already way too tired to play the 5 so there's no way you can play him at the 4. Also can't blame Daigneault if JDub has the ball the entire 4th quarter but is unable to take shots.

[Dadouv47]

13 assists in game 1 and 16 tonight. 27 in game 2 if I'm not mistaken.

17 turnovers is the most absurd of all.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I don't think our coach made mistakes tonight. Game 1 from coach D was terrible, game 2 was great and tonight it's on our players. I know you want the two big line up but Chet was already way too tired to play the 5 so there's no way you can play him at the 4.

They gave IH a significant contract to come in and give them a two big lineup. We saw it all season when they were both healthy and in the playoffs until the Finals. Tonight Chet plays 35 minutes, after averaging 27 in the regular season and 29 so far in the playoffs, and IH only played 18 after playing 28 in the regular season. You could cut Chet down to 30 minutes giving him more rest while bumping IH to 28 that would be 58 total minutes giving you 10 minutes of overlap which has been effective in it's limited use this series. Instead you have them out there for a total of 53 minutes in game 3, 41 minutes in game 1 and 50 in game 2 with both on the bench the final 3 minutes because it was already put away.

The Knicks were down 0-2 before making the adjustment to go big. OKC did it in game 2 and it led to breaking the game wide open. They did it in game 3 in the 3rd when OKC was trailing and they finish the 3rd strong and take a lead into the 4th. Give Jaylin some run with IH if you want Chet to get more rest. Size is a counter that Indiana has trouble with because they can't bully the 6'5 JDub with bigger players if you have playing with two bigs. Run IH/Chet for 12 minutes, IH/Jaylin for 6 and Chet/Jaylin for 6 and you totally change the dynamic for Indiana on both sides of the court because they can't play bully ball. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago people were talking about Jaylin earning a big payday with a playoff performance? Just like Dallas last year the team playing bigger is winning. That has been a common theme for OKC when they give up size. Even game 1 of the Denver series they were up 4 with 1:20 left when Mark put in Dort for Chet and they collapsed and blew it. So many coaching mistakes by Mark in that game and in game 1 of this series and the top mistake was playing small and leaving his team to be towered over by teams running multiple players 6'9+ and Jdub out there at 6'5 trying to compete with athletic big men.

Completely trying to change how the team plays once they get to the Finals when the other team has done nothing to force a change is going to be what Mark is remembered for if OKC loses the series. That is worse than Brooks being too slow to adjust against Miami, because at least Brooks could argue that it had worked all year.

[Zagor]

As much as I don't want to say this the problem is NOT the roster. Presti put together a team that would win this series with a competent coach. How did OKC get knocked out last year? They were up against a bigger team. How are they losing in the Finals? Indiana is playing bigger than OKC because Mark is coaching like he has as little interest in winning this series as my 3 month old grandson!!!!!

Carlisle is in his head. During the games it's obvious that RC is a much experienced and better coach.

I'm afraid SGA, Chet, JDub and Caruso are tired, our defensive style is very demanding. Fourth quarter again was lost because of poor execution.

But I agree with you that IHart needs to play more minutes, maybe even 30 minutes.

Game Four is a must win.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

You cannot win in the finals with 90%. they need 48 minutes at 100% of energy. The moment McConnell enters the game you even have to be over 100%

[bbms]

i refuse to go after mark d this game. those mcconell turnovers killed us and were just poor concentration on a situation of minimal margin of error

thunder goes way too much on autopilot and the pacers capitalized on it specially this game

they've been in a similar spot the denver series. let's see if indiana is the team to beat them back to back

[Dadouv47]

I don't think our coach made mistakes tonight. Game 1 from coach D was terrible, game 2 was great and tonight it's on our players. I know you want the two big line up but Chet was already way too tired to play the 5 so there's no way you can play him at the 4.

They gave IH a significant contract to come in and give them a two big lineup. We saw it all season when they were both healthy and in the playoffs until the Finals. Tonight Chet plays 35 minutes, after averaging 27 in the regular season and 29 so far in the playoffs, and IH only played 18 after playing 28 in the regular season. You could cut Chet down to 30 minutes giving him more rest while bumping IH to 28 that would be 58 total minutes giving you 10 minutes of overlap which has been effective in it's limited use this series. Instead you have them out there for a total of 53 minutes in game 3, 41 minutes in game 1 and 50 in game 2 with both on the bench the final 3 minutes because it was already put away.

The Knicks were down 0-2 before making the adjustment to go big. OKC did it in game 2 and it led to breaking the game wide open. They did it in game 3 in the 3rd when OKC was trailing and they finish the 3rd strong and take a lead into the 4th. Give Jaylin some run with IH if you want Chet to get more rest. Size is a counter that Indiana has trouble with because they can't bully the 6'5 JDub with bigger players if you have playing with two bigs. Run IH/Chet for 12 minutes, IH/Jaylin for 6 and Chet/Jaylin for 6 and you totally change the dynamic for Indiana on both sides of the court because they can't play bully ball. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago people were talking about Jaylin earning a big payday with a playoff performance? Just like Dallas last year the team playing bigger is winning. That has been a common theme for OKC when they give up size. Even game 1 of the Denver series they were up 4 with 1:20 left when Mark put in Dort for Chet and they collapsed and blew it. So many coaching mistakes by Mark in that game and in game 1 of this series and the top mistake was playing small and leaving his team to be towered over by teams running multiple players 6'9+ and Jdub out there at 6'5 trying to compete with athletic big men.

Completely trying to change how the team plays once they get to the Finals when the other team has done nothing to force a change is going to be what Mark is remembered for if OKC loses the series. That is worse than Brooks being too slow to adjust against Miami, because at least Brooks could argue that it had worked all year.

you are totally wrong. OKC played that way the entire Minny series. OKC played that way as much as possible against Denver. If anything OKC played more time with two big in the Denver series due to Jokic.

Yeah the starting line up is different but overall we are playing most of the time with one big man like we did against Minny and what led us to have one of the best regular season record of all time.

[Dadouv47]

i refuse to go after mark d this game. those mcconell turnovers killed us and were just poor concentration on a situation of minimal margin of error

thunder goes way too much on autopilot and the pacers capitalized on it specially this game

they've been in a similar spot the denver series. let's see if indiana is the team to beat them back to back

yeah...even Caruso making some key mistakes was the most surprising to me

[Kizz Fastfists]

you are totally wrong. OKC played that way the entire Minny series. OKC played that way as much as possible against Denver. If anything OKC played more time with two big in the Denver series due to Jokic.

Yeah the starting line up is different but overall we are playing most of the time with one big man like we did against Minny and what led us to have one of the best regular season record of all time.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/OKC/2025/lineups/

Just scroll down the page to the most used playoff lineups. Has the most used lineup seen the floor at all in the Pacers series? You had SGA-Caruso-Joe-IH-Chet and SGA-Cason-Wiggins-IH-Chet in game 2. You had SGA-Cason-Joe-IH-Chet and Jalen-Cason-Caruso-IH-Chet and SGA-Dort-Caruso-IH-Chet in game 3. The most used lineup for every playoff series you won has not seen the floor in the Finals. How does that make sense? Throwing the series? Fell off a leader and got brain damage? Trying to prove Kizz wrong out of spite?

[Dadouv47]

Chet was our best player in the first half but he was so tired that his footwork was terrible in the 4th quarter...if you think playing a two big line up is the solution you are lunatic...Chet will have to run even more and you can't play him at all in clutch time.

Cason was terrible last night and Coach D limited his minutes but I wish he played Kenrich a bit more. Our bench depth is terrible. Indiana guys aren't scared of the moment. Mathurin is not as talented as JDub but he isn't scared. Mcconnell killed us. Toppin is doing just fine despite not being very talented.

I just can't find a good solution for us to win a road game if our bench is that bad because we get tired in the 4th quarter and Indiana is gonna kill us. That's probably why Coach D tried to give a chance to a guy like Ajay which was a mistake but I get the idea.

Game 1 was the killer because our bench isn't good enough for us to win road games and JDub is scared of the moment. SGA was being guarded all 4th quarter and he struggled and despite having an efficient night JDub didn't want to attack or take open shots. It could have been his game but he didn't even tried

[Dadouv47]

we all knew coming into the playoffs that the X factor was having reliable second and third scorers in JDub and Chet. I don't blame Chet that much because of his elite defense and still came back from a big injury but given the match ups JDub was a big dissappointment. He's just not reliable, scared of the moment and playing with a low BBIQ. He had a couple of great games but that's it. Can't win the all thing in that way.

I don't blame Presti about our bench issues. Most Thunder fans thought Wiggins/Joe could deliver in the POs and we were so happy about their cheap extensions but they are not as good as we thought.

Offseason gonna need a huge bench improvement. Can't really trade JDub...he's still young and a rookie max contract is still better than paying an old star a supermax. Gotta bring at least two reliable bench scorers.

Best team with the best player and HCA gonna lose the finals...that's such an accomplishment in a bad way. We might win a title in the next years but that was the best opportunity to do it

[Kizz Fastfists]

Offseason gonna need a huge bench improvement. Can't really trade JDub...he's still young and a rookie max contract is still better than paying an old star a supermax. Gotta bring at least two reliable bench scorers.

IH, Dort, Joe, #15 and OKC best 2026 pick for KD.

It doesn't touch your core. KD expires after next season so it allows you to extend JDub and Chet without creating cap issues. It gives you a reliable 2nd scorer for next year's playoff run while giving Chet and JDub another year to grow and adjust to the playoffs where they can hopefully step up in their 5th season to be what OKC needs.

When they step up and win games 4, 5 and 7 like they did against Denver this discussion goes away.

[bbms]

Offseason gonna need a huge bench improvement. Can't really trade JDub...he's still young and a rookie max contract is still better than paying an old star a supermax. Gotta bring at least two reliable bench scorers.

IH, Dort, Joe, #15 and OKC best 2026 pick for KD.

It doesn't touch your core. KD expires after next season so it allows you to extend JDub and Chet without creating cap issues. It gives you a reliable 2nd scorer for next year's playoff run while giving Chet and JDub another year to grow and adjust to the playoffs where they can hopefully step up in their 5th season to be what OKC needs.

When they step up and win games 4, 5 and 7 like they did against Denver this discussion goes away.

this offer is huge.

dort and hartenstein are like exactly the dream offer by the pacers ownership pov. it solves so many issues for them they might actually be competitive. they wanted butler + frp for durant. we might have to take picks back, not put picks forward imo.

if they send picks i'm keeping dort and sending wiggins and dieng. no idea how that works with apron stuff

[Dadouv47]

Offseason gonna need a huge bench improvement. Can't really trade JDub...he's still young and a rookie max contract is still better than paying an old star a supermax. Gotta bring at least two reliable bench scorers.

IH, Dort, Joe, #15 and OKC best 2026 pick for KD.

It doesn't touch your core. KD expires after next season so it allows you to extend JDub and Chet without creating cap issues. It gives you a reliable 2nd scorer for next year's playoff run while giving Chet and JDub another year to grow and adjust to the playoffs where they can hopefully step up in their 5th season to be what OKC needs.

When they step up and win games 4, 5 and 7 like they did against Denver this discussion goes away.

this offer is huge.

dort and hartenstein are like exactly the dream offer by the pacers ownership pov. it solves so many issues for them they might actually be competitive. they wanted butler + frp for durant. we might have to take picks back, not put picks forward imo.

a GM could get fired for offering that much to 37 years old KD that is on the last year of his contract if I'm not mistaken.

I like Cason but we still need Dort. I also think we still need to keep a good big man because Chet can struggle in some match up or get in foul trouble. Well, we wouldn't have won the Denver series without Hartenstein.

[bbms]

i think kd moves via the nets