Conference Finals Bolts: Crying Wolves
Would you believe it? Chris Finch is shading the officiating for the conference finals.
Doris Burke is confusing everyone calling Shai a "free throw merchant" in the weirdest way.
Basketball Illuminati devoted an entire segment to skewering the stupid complaints around foul drawing and foul taking from Shai and the Thunder. There is a lot of loser energy even outside of Minnesota, with fans demanding rule changes and griping about the Thunder's execution instead of, as the podcast suggests, better play from mega talents like Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert.
Game 4's 3 Things from Royce Young:
Anthony Edwards credits the Thunder's defense, and not a lack of aggression, for his dud Game 4:
Edwards had his second-lowest scoring total of the postseason with 16 points and tied his fewest shot attempts, finishing 5-for-13 from the field (1-for-7 on 3-pointers)."I don't really look at it like I struggled," Edwards continued. "I didn't get enough shots to say I struggled, so that might be how you guys look at it. But, yeah, I didn't struggle at all. I just made the right play." ... After averaging 22.4 shots in the first round and 19.8 in the second round, Edwards has attempted 17.3 shots per game against the Thunder so far. "It's an urge that I want to get the ball in the rim, put it up there," Edwards said. "But you don't want to take bad shots and get your team out of rhythm. So I was just playing the game the right way, man."
Chuck vouched for Shai over Anthony Edwards as the face of the league.
Cray Allred
Tim MacMahon (ESPN) on Jalen Williams showing out on the Big Three's big night:
"He's still learning. He's a young player still, and these are rich experiences for him," Daigneault said of Williams. "Tonight, he just kind of took what they gave him. He still found his cracks. He's still able to get in both directions, but he just was in control most of the time. He never seemed sped up. He never seemed like they were dictating anything. That's what the great offensive players can do and just a great adjustment by him tonight in the game." ... According to ESPN Research, the 95 points combined by Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren are the most by a Thunder trio in a playoff game since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008. Gilgeous-Alexander considers that production a glimpse of what's to come.
JDub's trainer tells Mark Medina (RG) that he has plenty of development left to go. I found this anecdote instructive, considering fans' concern for how "online" Williams is about his play:
Sometimes two minutes after the game, he’s asking me, ‘Can you send me these clips?’ Then I get them for him and pull things in real time, if I can. That’s how much he loves this. That’s what is really special about this. A lot of guys say that they love the game. But Jalen truly does love this game. He is driven to be great at it. He wants to be held to that standard. He wants to see it. He wants to look at it. Whether it’s a make or a miss, he’s looking at it. He’s watching it. He holds himself to that bar.
Zach Kram on ball pressure adjustments in the postseason:
The Thunder must have known this sort of pressure was coming. Minnesota had defended Gilgeous-Alexander's pick-and-rolls aggressively all campaign; in the regular season, his two games with the highest pick-and-roll distances both came against the Timberwolves. But like the Knicks, the Timberwolves adjusted after falling behind 2-0 in the series. They just did so in the opposite direction, drawing back in instead of extending their pressure. In Game 3, the average screen for Gilgeous-Alexander came 25 feet away from the basket, meaning the Timberwolves shrank his runway by 3 feet. The result was Gilgeous-Alexander's least efficient pick-and-roll game of the entire playoffs. Oklahoma City averaged just 0.73 points per possession when Gilgeous-Alexander received a screen, down from 1.07 across the first two games.
