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

[GSP]

What a response by Okc

Sga has been by far the best player of the series

Will Dallas stick w/ their gameplan or overreact and switch it up? I dont know how sustainable a strat of leaving Pj open and him shooting like Kd and being your leading scorer is for winning a series.

Dort has shut down Luka. Kyries been contained and Mavs strat of having him average 5 Ppg in 1st halves to get their others going isnt gonna fly here. He cant turn it on 2nd halves and be Kobe against this Okc defense like he could the Clips

there are multiple guys playing on sub-optimal physical condition in this series so this is no excuse, but luka has just melted from an athletic standpoint, i wouldn't give that much credit to dort

and i believe sga has everything in his hands to extend the lead as the best player in this series. i'll be disappointed if we're past his best form in this series

Shai is shooting like 60 something % from midrange this series so i dont know if thats sustainable lol. His middy singlehandedly won them this game in the 4th quarter. i wouldnt be surprised if he dropped off some going forward Tbh but Okcs 3pt shooting us due for a bounce back soon. Theyve missed alot of open ones

[Soonercrazy84]

The OKC doesn't have playoff experience crowd is quiet toinght.

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[madskillz8]

Charles Barkley was eating whole pizzas and couldn't burn the weight off in his early years. Idk what Luka is eating to gain so much weight WHILE playing the highest level of basketball. Someone keep the texas BBQ away from him.

His face is telling me he's drinking six-pack lagers every other night (and orders pizza after that), than eating Texas BBQ (brisket) which is a very lean athlete friendly cut.

That seems very specific for just looking at someone's face.

That's very rare to see a high level athlete with a bloated face because their body fat is low, even Luka's.

For some reason, regular beer drinking at night with drunchies makes you that- bloated face, even if you are slim. Because it is mostly a water retention, not fat.

And it is very hard to get rid of it unless you stop drinking for a month or so. My guess is Luka is a regular beer drinker.

[bbms]

What a response by Okc

Sga has been by far the best player of the series

Will Dallas stick w/ their gameplan or overreact and switch it up? I dont know how sustainable a strat of leaving Pj open and him shooting like Kd and being your leading scorer is for winning a series.

Dort has shut down Luka. Kyries been contained and Mavs strat of having him average 5 Ppg in 1st halves to get their others going isnt gonna fly here. He cant turn it on 2nd halves and be Kobe against this Okc defense like he could the Clips

there are multiple guys playing on sub-optimal physical condition in this series so this is no excuse, but luka has just melted from an athletic standpoint, i wouldn't give that much credit to dort

and i believe sga has everything in his hands to extend the lead as the best player in this series. i'll be disappointed if we're past his best form in this series

Shai is shooting like 60 something % from midrange this series so i dont know if thats sustainable lol. His middy singlehandedly won them this game in the 4th quarter. i wouldnt be surprised if he dropped off some going forward Tbh but Okcs 3pt shooting us due for a bounce back soon. Theyve missed alot of open ones

he's shooting well but a lot of the stops dallas is making on him are very ugly, even if his shooting falls i believe he'll keep getting better at dealing with mavs d

[Clyde Frazier]

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The ability to square up regardless of the angle >>>>>

[sfernald]

Yeah against the Pelicans. Since then? Back to back 100 pts given up including Ls.

96 tonight

Mavs missed 11 free throws and looked like an offensive liability so I really don't think that's some flex.

No you’re right that’s just something Mavs should be embarrassed about all on their own.

[sfernald]

Gg Mavs! Can’t wait to see what happens when we get back to Okc. Is this not the best series so far in the playoffs!?

[OkcSinceSGA]

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A true leader.

[dygaction]

Like what ?

Apparently he's a big beer drinker.

His face is all bloated. He needs to quit the booze and he’ll be good to go imo

Other factors can contribute to things like this, such as cannot burn calories due to sprained knees, side effect of medicine, but what do i know

[OkcSinceSGA]

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[OkcSinceSGA]

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Why did so many question if his game would translate to a playoff setting?

[Patches Perry]

Game 1: OKC wins an ugly game, neither team shot well overall but OKC shot well from 3pt and had +12 rebounding advantage leading to +5 attempts advantage.

Game 2: SGA and Luka play each other mostly even, but Dub and Chet shoot poorly (31 points combined on 11-29 FG) vs PJ Washington and THJ scoring 46 points combined on 17-28). The rest of the rosters shot low volume and roughly even as a whole.

Game 3: Thunder shot fine but simply couldn't outshoot their rebounding disparity. Thunder shot a better percentage but made less shots because Dallas had 10 more shot attempts.

All that is to say what is generally true about every playoff series, which is that every game takes on its own personality. People try to build expectations of upcoming games assuming that they will be like previous games except the one or two shortcomings will be addressed. In reality, we usually see shortcomings from prior games addressed and new shortcomings surface.

The new shortcoming for game 5 was Dallas' free throw shooting. It's hard to win a low scoring game if you leave 11 free throws on the board. Also OKC had a 6 turnover advantage. Turnovers and free throws decided this one. Thunder seemed to respond well on the rebounding woes from game 3.

I feel like we're still due for a Luka and/or Kyrie explosion, although OKC has multiple talented defenders making it difficult on them, so we'll see. I also feel like Jalen Williams will have at least one big game as well but tonight he was just terrible scoring the ball.

All of these games are 50/50 and game 5 is a tossup imo. HCA obviously hasn't meant much.

[whatever_]

Luka's highlights in this postseason so far:

[jkvonny]

His face is telling me he's drinking six-pack lagers every other night (and orders pizza after that), than eating Texas BBQ (brisket) which is a very lean athlete friendly cut.

That seems very specific for just looking at someone's face.

That's very rare to see a high level athlete with a bloated face because their body fat is low, even Luka's.

For some reason, regular beer drinking at night with drunchies makes you that- bloated face, even if you are slim. Because it is mostly a water retention, not fat.

And it is very hard to get rid of it unless you stop drinking for a month or so. My guess is Luka is a regular beer drinker.

Could be beer and shellfish (crab, lobster, shrimp, etc) as well.

Also, keep in mind. Hes been battling knee and ankle injuries for months now. Possibly getting steroid shots that the public isn't aware of or some type of cortisone shots ?

Im surprised hes still limping around on the court since March! They should have shut him down weeks ago. Might not even make it to the next round (if they beat OKC). Might even carry over into next season.

[jkvonny]

Great win for OKC last nite.

Impressive road win for the young Thunder team.
Series even at 2-2. Back to OKC for game 5 with HCA.

[CodeBreaker]

Luka needs to take his fitness seriously this offseason. Absolutely unacceptable to be overweigh as a professional.

He lost alot of weight when the season started this year. I don't know what happened

[jc23]

The OKC doesn't have playoff experience crowd is quiet toinght.

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Whether you feel one way or another its not like people have some vendetta against OKC and want to see them fail. They are a fairly neutral team. Win or lose most non okc nba fans really dont care.

And experience does matter but so does talent. You could speculate with more experience okc would be up in this series and not tied.

[Berbasecks]

Im surprised hes still limping around on the court since March! They should have shut him down weeks ago. Might not even make it to the next round (if they beat OKC). Might even carry over into next season.

I'm rather worried he won't even agree to shut it down in the offseason and will play for the national team.

[jc23]

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Why did so many question if his game would translate to a playoff setting?

im not neck deep in the yicky yack, but that is the first time i ever heard this.

However theorizing how a young star player will look in a deep playoff run is fairly common and expected.

[ChipotleWest]

Luka/Kyrie combined in the regular season for 60 ppg on average, last night 27 points.