2024 NBA Playoffs: West Semifinals: #1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (DAL WINS 4-2)

[MassimoPayne]

I just hope Luka realizes what he can achieve despite the injuries when he stops complaining.
And remembers that from game to game

[sikma42]

Jalen Williams has been completely exposed this series. Lol at thinking he’s better than Paolo.

I think he will be better than Paolo. He’s just shook. Seems incredibly immature and just needs to grow up.


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[aguiar95]

The one thing I'm seeing is SGA having a great offensive series, but his defense has fall a ton. Not the beast two way player we saw on the RS

[RB34]

The one thing I'm seeing is SGA having a great offensive series, but his defense has fall a ton. Not the beast two way player we saw on the RS

Probably because his defence is massively overrated.

[lambchop]

Is Chet just bad?

I think he's hit a wall and is dealing with a lot of bumps and bruises. I don't think he needs to play every single game like he did this season. OKC needs a player like Hartenstein who can give him nights off during the season. I think a well-rested Chet is a 20/12 player.

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Just needs to add strength and conditioning. It's not necessarily about building mass, but even a skinny prime KD didn't see his production drop off due to fatigue in the playoffs. Most of his woes were just related to matchups and some defenders simply playing him as best you can. Kobe also said that his three consecutive airballs down the stretch of that Utah playoff game were due to a lack of conditioning.

Barring injury, I expect Chet to have a more sustainable motor in a couple years time.

[MassimoPayne]

"Luka's out of shape"

Luka injury report:

Read on Twitter

Why has he been playing with left achilles soreness for 4 months though? This list is going to keep adding up until he becomes lighter and has a better relative strength and more injury resistant and intelligent gym work/loading. And they have 0 % chance of winning a ring this year, imo. He better hope he makes it out of this postseason without an even bigger injury, he is in dangerous territory, if he was more athletic it would be ACL/Meniscus/Hamstring/Calf/Achilles and out for months already.

Didn't Luka also had some shoulder issues begging of last game? at least he covered his sholder while being on the bench

[BeiBeau]

he will be a hundred million++ dollar player once he fills out. Double double in like 20 mins and +20 or something. As a rookie in the playoffs that’s pretty good. People have to eat **** for hating on their tank because that retooling season has helped a lot.

The series could have been quite different if OKC selected Lively to form Chet/Lively twin tower, or use their pick to directly trade with Wizards for Gafford to have Chet/Gafford combo. The lack of size really hurts.

The Lively thing is revisionist history. Lively wasn't particularly highly regarded going in to the draft because Duke did such a bad job of showcasing him. The Mavs were one of the only teams that would have picked him in the lottery because they were still looking at starting Dwight Powell at center at that point and it was largely called a reach at the time Dallas picked him. Dallas was willing to trade down two spots because there was no risk of another team picking Lively by #12. OKC had their eyes on Cason Wallace the whole time.

Gafford is the one they might actually regret. They sent the pick to Washington on Dallas' behalf for him in exchange for a 2028 pick swap, essentially a bet that Dallas would be bad by then and maybe Luka would even leave before then. Looking at that one now, Presti might wish he just used the pick to get Gafford for himself.

I think you’re the one who is actually revising history about Lively. Yeah his year at Duke was not great, he didn’t have a point guard to get him the ball and he was injured for a chunk of the season which caused him to drop from being the no. 1 recruited prospect in the country. But if you really watched him play you could find that the defense was special and he made good decisions on offense. Teams were on to that, fans weren’t, mock drafts projected him in the 16-24 range, but before the draft we were hearing reports that he might crack the top 10 and that New Orleans, Atlanta, and Brooklyn were all threats to jump up to grab him.

I think this is the classic case of fans having a different perception than NBA teams. NBA execs prior to the draft had lively as going in the top 14(there was 0 chance he was slipping past New Orleans). But fans saw 5 points 5 rebounds in his box score and thought he was worse then his is.

[Deivork]

Is PJ Washington the Kobe Bryant of Grant Williams-es?

Yes. Don’t let it ever die.

[djsunyc]

again, presti should've gotten this team a legit center that could give them 15-20 mins a night against certain matchups. still great year for them but i think in today's nba, the windows for capitalizing good seasons are smaller than before so you can't waste years assuming the following year will be better.

[Exp0sed]

again, presti should've gotten this team a legit center that could give them 15-20 mins a night against certain matchups. still great year for them but i think in today's nba, the windows for capitalizing good seasons are smaller than before so you can't waste years assuming the following year will be better.

we all said it over and over during the season. with the amount of assets and picks the OKC had, there wasn't a single good reason not to bolster the bench with a legit big, even if it's just a rental for a guy like Gafford..it made no sense to hold out

[ThunderBolt]

Lots of thoughts but ultimately you just have to get Dallas credit.

[Mr. Perfect]

again, presti should've gotten this team a legit center that could give them 15-20 mins a night against certain matchups. still great year for them but i think in today's nba, the windows for capitalizing good seasons are smaller than before so you can't waste years assuming the following year will be better.

we all said it over and over during the season. with the amount of assets and picks the OKC had, there wasn't a single good reason not to bolster the bench with a legit big, even if it's just a rental for a guy like Gafford..it made no sense to hold out

Presti has a history of these types of non-moves though. Ironically, OKC also allowed the Mavs to get Tyson Chandler after backing out of a trade for him due to a failed physical and we all know how that worked out for Dallas.

[Texas Chuck]

Lots of thoughts but ultimately you just have to get Dallas credit.

Ultimate its this. Like in game 4 I had some thoughts about what Dallas did wrong in the 4th quarter, but in the end SGA and the shooters made the plays and Dallas didn't.

OKC doesn't need to feel bad about a Dallas defense that has been best in the league since the trades clamping them down. And a focused Luka certainly didn't help matters.

[TheBullsDynasty]

Crazy to think that Dallas could've ended this in 5 games if they didn't shoot 50% from the FT line in game 4. This team deserves so much credit!

Btw this is exactly how the Clippers series went. Dallas lost game 1 in a blowout, bounced back and won game 2 in LA, won game 3 and went up 2-1 at home, lost a very close game 4 at home, won game 5 in LA, and closed it out in game 6.

Let's see if they can do the same thing again but I'm (selfishly) hoping for a game 7...

[Drakeem]

"Luka's out of shape"

Luka injury report:

Read on Twitter

Why has he been playing with left achilles soreness for 4 months though? This list is going to keep adding up until he becomes lighter and has a better relative strength and more injury resistant and intelligent gym work/loading. And they have 0 % chance of winning a ring this year, imo. He better hope he makes it out of this postseason without an even bigger injury, he is in dangerous territory, if he was more athletic it would be ACL/Meniscus/Hamstring/Calf/Achilles and out for months already.

Because thankfully there are still some people who'll play through it when his team needs him.

[OldeBoy]

Lots of thoughts but ultimately you just have to get Dallas credit.

Ultimate its this. Like in game 4 I had some thoughts about what Dallas did wrong in the 4th quarter, but in the end SGA and the shooters made the plays and Dallas didn't.

OKC doesn't need to feel bad about a Dallas defense that has been best in the league since the trades clamping them down. And a focused Luka certainly didn't help matters.

Yes and no. Dallas defense has been excellent, but OKC had a good amount of open looks and shot 25% from 3 last night. That requires some looking in the mirror, as well.

[BeiBeau]

SGA has been much worse then Luka on defense this series.

[Bergmaniac]

Dallas' defence has been very impressive all playoffs, credit to them.

But still, JDub has to be better, he has been horrible in the last two games.

Also, OKC's role players shot too many above the break 3s. Dallas' role players shot almost exclusively corner 3s in this on in comparison, which are easier. And they seemed more wide open too, partly because Giddey and Dort passed on too many open corner 3s.

[Astaluego]

Jalen Williams has been completely exposed this series. Lol at thinking he’s better than Paolo.

I think he will be better than Paolo. He’s just shook. Seems incredibly immature and just needs to grow up.
He is paying for his inexperience and fighting against an excellent defense, but let's ignore how well he is playing defense by literally locking up KI, frankly I would love to have him on the Mavs

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[BeiBeau]

Dallas held OKC to their lowest point total of the season last night.