Knicks vs Cavs Game 2 Keys | Thunder Outlast Spurs In Huge Game 2 Battle | NBA Weekly

CP The Fanchise is joined by Justin Morelli to dish on the latest NBA Playoff conference finals developments. 

Transcript

unknown 0:00

Alright, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I move this this way. That's probably better.

unknown 0:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Alright. Alright, here we go, man. Salute to NBA Nation. Salute to Knicks Nation on this Thursday afternoon. An NBA Report, Knicks Fan TV Simulcast, CP the franchise. We got the shot clocks. Justin Morelli back in the building. On today's show, we're gonna go through our game two keys for the Knicks and the Cavs in their game two matchup. And recap another 48-minute brawl between the Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs. Thunder coming out on top in the game two, but both teams will walk into game through three, potentially uh wounded once again, man. So very uh interesting developments there in that game. So lock in, hit the like button, hit the share button, subscribe to the channel. Salute to the replay gang, of course, and to our loyal, loyal franchise channel members. All right, let's get into it. Alright, man. Not as not as uh summary as it was uh on Tuesday, man. Nope. It's overcast. It is it's it's May in New York. That's right. That's what it is. That's right. But orange and blue skies at Madison Square Garden. As it related to game one, outside of the Brunts and stuff, give me one thing that you liked and one thing that you didn't like from game one.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

One thing that I didn't like is not enough, first of all. Um, one thing that I liked is I thought in the fourth quarter, obviously, when they made their run, I thought that the guys like Mikhail, Shamit, obviously JB, they stepped up and made plays when they had to make the plays. So they didn't give up on the game. They continue to fight, they continue to play the game out. And when they were making their run, their defense picked up in the fourth quarter. They got the stops that they had to, and then they made the plays that they had to. So I like the grit and the and the, you know, let's not mail this game in. Let's let's try to at least make it tough. Because I my brother and I were talking, even if they lost the game, you wanted to get some offensive rhythm, some type of confidence going into game two, even at the worst case. So I thought the fight was the thing I liked the most. Um the things I didn't like were I'm gonna leave the rust part out of it because I think there was that. I think the 10 days off showed, especially in the first half. I just didn't like that it showed for as long as it did. Uh, you know, I thought a quarter, maybe a half, I thought they looked out of sync for most of the game. And they had JB had to put the cape on essentially and save them from themselves. And that's not gonna be a winning kind of philosophy going forward. I thought the thing, the biggest thing that I didn't like, I didn't understand the defensive scheme in the third quarter from Mike Brown. Yeah, meaning they blitzed Jay Harden and Mitchell on every single pick and roll, and they just basically gave up a layup or an open three on how many possessions in a row? Maybe 10 to 15. It was more than that even. Yeah, but in the third quarter, it was like every possession in the third quarter, a layup for Jared Allen or Mobley or a kick out for Romero or Wade three. Every single possession, there was no resistance whatsoever. And I was like, why are you blitzing James Harden on every single pick and roll? Make him make a play. Like, he's not gonna score 40. This isn't 2017 James Harden. Like, we don't need to be treating this guy like they're I understand they had success with McCullum and Maxie on blitzing those guys, and that worked for those series because A, the Hawks don't have a great shooting team, so that's number one. And Maxie's the type of player that he likes to get downhill immediately. So those Harden and Mitchell are not always like that. They'll play from the perimeter, and that does not help you in this situation. So I thought that one um kind of decision that Mike Brown made almost cost him the game because it took the lead to 20 something from you know, five, and that was probably the thing, the biggest thing out of the laundry list of things that I didn't like. That was the biggest thing I didn't like.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, I'm with you. I did expect some rusts, especially in the offensive end. I thought game one was a feel-out game just to see where Cleveland was doing defensively, how they were guarding Hart, you know, the the or the lack thereof, and how that kind of impacted their spacing, how that impacted Carl Anthony Towns operating out of that pinch post. And so that will bring about adjustments for game two. I'm with you. Look, it it was great to see, you know, the miracle comeback with down 22, but you don't want to lean on that again in in game two. You want to come out and punch them in the mouth, and you're gonna you're gonna get the Cavs one of their best shots of this series, right? It's gonna come tonight, and it's also gonna come in game three when they lean on their home crowd for the energy. So, you know, Knicks have to be on guard there. Now, what I did like, as you said, they found a way to win. Yeah. I thought the defense earlier in the game was good, especially when they brought Mitchell Robinson in there. So, does that mean more double big for me? Absolutely, especially in this series. This is a series that is Taylor made for Mitch, but you got to put him in at the right time. Not midway through the third quarter when Cleveland already has accumulated four team fouls. That's not putting Mitch or the team in the best position to succeed. And that was part of the reason that led to the Cavs getting that momentum to ultimately go up by 22 points into that fourth quarter. So I'd like to see Mike Brown be a little bit sharper there. But overall, look, they got the job done. Now, as it relates to game two, let's start with a couple of things here. Uh, Carl Anthony Towns. What do you think? Obviously, he got the rebounds, good there, but offensively, it was a struggle for him. It was a struggle for it. Hit the deck a couple of times. You saw the bad towns offensively. So what are you thinking there?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

And also just a couple of the dumb offensive fouls. Like that offense where he grabbed Jared Allen's arm, that almost cost him the game. Like that was a play that could have, the Knicks had a lot of momentum there. Like, I had seen him do less of that in these playoffs. He did a lot of it last night. And maybe he was frustrated because of the way they were playing him and he wasn't getting the same opportunities. But like, that's the stuff we can't have from him. Like, you cannot have that, especially as you go, if you're lucky enough to get to the finals and you're playing one of those West teams, you've seen these games. You can't be giving away possessions like that. So, number one, that. But number two, I think that Mike Brown's gonna have a very important decision to make. And that is gonna be the Josh Hart decision because that's going to directly affect towns. We've seen teams like Boston and OKC and other teams last year who would put the center on Hart and would not guard, would guard towns with a wing. And we've seen that, and the Knicks had this new style offense they implemented these playoffs, kind of offset some of it. But the Cavs have the perfect personnel to do that because they play two bigs. So now Jared Allen is going to sag off. He's gonna play drop coverage basically against Hart. He's gonna sit in the paint, so he's gonna take away some of those passing lanes that Towns normally has from the high post, which if it that that takes that away, then the offense gets very flustered, as we saw last night. And then if Josh Hart's not making his shot, what are you gonna do with that position? Now, we saw Mike Brown, which I did like. He said, you know what? I'm going with Shamet, and Shamut changed the whole game. As much as we want to see JB, Shamut being in the game changed the entire complexion of the game, and he was the other MVP. So him being in there, I'm curious to see how Mike Brown combats this because this is going to be crucial. Because if he doesn't find a way to do that, this might just not be a Josh Hart series because you can't have them, you can't play four on five on offense and then basically have them take you completely out of what you want to do with your best with one of your best players. I think that's gonna be very interesting to see. And Mike Brown, game two is gonna tell you everything because he's now had two days to figure it out. Like you said, you're gonna get the Cavs' best punch, and you could demoralize this Cavs team right off the bat. If you put your foot on their neck, you could take them right out of the series after what happened in game one. The Josh Hart thing is gonna be the most crucial thing, and that's gonna affect Kat, I think, the most as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah, I'm with you. But from a Brown standpoint, look, you have Deuce, you have Shaman, quick hooks. Yes. You have options. Yeah, you definitely have options. But the one thing that I'm leery of is especially if you're going up against Wade, Mobley, and Allen, right away, I saw that they were attacking the boards heavy against the Knicks. They do a good job of crashing the offensive glass. Yes, they are relentless in game two tonight. It's gonna be even more so as they get desperate. Struce is gonna be crashing. Struce is gonna be crashing. So that is why I'm like, look, uh, yes, we could go with the the shooting, but again, I'm going, I'm back to the big country, Block Nest Monster, to quell that early, get them off of the boards early, to quell that momentum and get them out of that confidence that they could win this game.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

And I think to your point too, I think they went to the double bigs at the wrong times in game one. They went to it when the Cavs didn't have their double bigs on the floor. Like I think they only had Mobley in, and the Knicks went double big, and then it's like, okay, well, I understand what you're trying to do, but I want to see the double big when they have Allen and Mobley in there. That to me is the best time to do it. Combat their rebounding, if you want to, if you, as you say, and get on the glass more by putting Mitch in in those situations. I think what they did was by putting him in with the Cavs with one of their bigs out, they not only allowed them to foul Mitch, which you saw, because the Cavs already had four fouls, but it took the Knicks, they didn't need that same double big lineup at that time. And then they had less shooting on the floor. And as you know, obviously they made no threes until the fourth quarter came. So I just the timing of things I think was a little off. I think Mike Brown, he saved his bacon by putting Shamut in there the last seven and a half minutes, and that kind of changed the game. He did a good job addressing. And I give him credit for that because uh, you know, if for you guys that follow me on here, and now I've become the guy at Massware Garden. Oh, I've seen you on Knicks Fan TV. I'm I'm that guy now. So, which is okay, I'll take that. But for those guys who watch my videos, I did something on Shamut. Shamet is basically the ultimate coach killer because he basically got Tibbs fired last year. Because Tibbs not playing him in the first two games of the conference finals, and then when he did play him, he played well, that was part of the reason he got fired. So Mike Brown wasn't going out like that. He said, Let me give Shamit his shot in the fourth quarter, and that obviously changed the game. So the Mike Brown's just got to be sharper from the beginning of game two.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, I'm with you there. Um, and look, you know, also when you're talking about Hart, how will he handle the Mitchell matchup? Because tonight, I I think this is Spider's revenge tonight. They're gonna have to be on guard. The three points in the fourth quarter in overtime, or do you want to argue was he gas or was he not gas? I think they have a tough time balancing Harden with the heavy usage with Spider just being a spectator. I think if I'm cleaning, it's gotta be the other way around at this stage in the game. You let Harden play a little bit more off-ball, especially in crunch time. They've got to lean on Spider, you're going bucket for bucket with Jalen Brunson. That's what I'm doing if I'm Kenny Atkinson. I'm not running the offense through James Harden like he, like this is the, you know, the old Rockets days. You gotta go to your guy, Spider Mitchell. This is who you traded the whole house for to bring him in. It's for these moments, and I think we could see that tonight at Madison Square Garden. This could be a 48 minute 45-minute Spider Mitchell, go harder, go home. And that could put pressure on Josh Hart. So you may have to lean on Deuce and Shaman a little bit earlier just to keep the pace if Donovan gets into one of those zones.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

I and I also thought Hart had his worst defensive game in game one. Mitchell was cooking him in the first two and second quarter. You know, it was it was it was rough out there. And then and I felt like, okay, make a switch, maybe go to bridges on him a little bit, try something else. I I think Hart's a better matchup for Harden at this point, because Hart's, you know, he's a strong, he's more physical. Harden is a little more, you know, he's just a burly guy at this point. He's not gonna really beat you with speed, he's gonna beat you with deception. I think that's a better situation. Um, but yeah, you might see more of Shamit. Shamit was amazing on Donovan in the fourth quarter. Like, forget the shots that he made. Everyone wants to talk about the shots. He was so good on defense, getting over that initial screen, making sure to stay in front of Donovan, make it difficult for him. The fact, forget the fact that Donovan didn't score in the last, what was it, you know, 12, 15 minutes of the game. He took one shot. He only took one shot. Right? So, you know, that to me tells you, and I don't count the shot at the end of the game where he hoisted up the three, you know, when the game was over. Like that tells you how good Landry Shamit was. And I agree with you from a Cleveland standpoint. Donovan's got to be your primary shot creator down the stretch of these games. And I don't know why. I I saw he was limping a little bit towards the end of that game. I think he turned his ankle. I think that might have been part of it, but he's got to be the main guy for them. Otherwise, they don't have a lot of Harden's a jump shot, is a is a difficult shot taker at this point. And that's not going to get it done against the Knicks defense at the end of these games. So I'm curious to see off the off the rip, if Mike Brown makes an adjustment, puts hard on Harden. That's what I would do. Put bridges on Donovan, start out there and see how it goes. And then you obviously have a quick hook, you could go to Shamit or Deuce from there.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

The way he's defending, I would definitely make that move. Uh, put bridges on Donovan because, again, I like just using Donovan Mitchell and his ability to put pressure on the defense when he gets going, that opens things up for Struce to knock down his threes. I mean, Struce in game one, he went uh two for six from downtown. I think there's a little bit more there. There's more for Sam Merrill. He went three for eight, but Sam Merrill's a guy who can go five for six, four for five. He can get very hot. We saw in game seven, he dropped 25 points off the bench. Uh, they're good, they can they're a good shooting team. They only they shot 32% from three. I think there's a little bit more opportunity there, especially as they get a little bit more desperate. So um we'll we'll have to see how things go in game two.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Um, one other thing about that too, with the shooting, they're not a team that need like needs a whole lot of airspace to try to pull the trigger. Like Max Struess will shoot the ball at any little blink he's got. So you gotta be really on point with your coverages because they're they will let it fly. They're looking to do that. With Struess, with Merrill, with Wade, those three guys are out there to do one thing stretch the floor and bang threes. So Mitchell and Harden are gonna create those opportunities. The Knicks have got to be on point, and that's why I didn't think the blitzing made any sense. Don't give them those opportunities for free.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

You gotta make them earn that. Did it make sense? Uh back to the town's adjustment. This may be a series where he's more impactful in the low post rather than in the pinch post. Because as we saw, he's not gonna be able to get around Mobley. He unfortunately couldn't even beat the hardened matchup, which was not a good look for him.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

And maybe if it's like, you know, or or for if it's another wing, he he may not be able to get around those guys. And we saw the two times he hit the deck is when he's taking off from that line, and that momentum is just like throwing him into the crowd. It may be where you want to run him through the low bow, the low post and finding cutters that way, but also he's he has he's still they still have to force him to back down, force Mobley or Allen or Cardin, whoever it is, to make a play or shoot over those guys. Correct. He's gotta be more impactful offensively, man.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

That's not even a question. Because he really just wasn't good on offense. He really wasn't. He had a couple plays at the end where Brunson made a play and he made a nice reverse and stuff, but with him as the initiator, he was not good yesterday. I mean, in game one. And I think you're I think you're right about a couple things, but here's the issue. At this point, I think we've seen he doesn't want to be in the low block, he just doesn't want to do that. Like we've we've called for it. You've called for it how many times for the last two years? He does not want to do that, he doesn't like to do it. He he doesn't take advantage of those matchups, quite frankly. We saw it against Drew Holiday in the playoffs last year. He really didn't do anything with him, and Drew Holliday is a great defender, but he's two feet tall. Like Harden is a bigger guy, but he is he didn't want to take him down to the post. And when Kat does that, he tends to get over aggressive and then he commits a dumb offensive foul because he just backs the guy down and shoves him out of the way and commits a dumb offensive foul. So considering he doesn't want to do that, I think the Knicks have got to find a way to get him more opportunities from the pinch post that kind of um combat what Cleveland may do defensively. And if that's him being more aggressive to shoot and being more aggressive to drive on on the initial instead of looking to pass right away, then that might be the thing. Because I think the problem for him, which is why he finds trouble with these smaller guys guarding him, he A, he doesn't like to go on the post, but B, his jump shot, right? He's seven feet, but look where his jump shot comes from. He comes from here. It's not up here, it comes from here. So he can't really shoot. So if Harden's up here, he's shooting like this. It's not like he's Porzingis or he's like, yeah, you know, someone who's shooting from up here, and you could just shoot over anyone in front of you. He's not that type of player. So he really needs a little bit of airspace to get that shot off. Even though he has a quick release, he's shooting from here. So I think that's the trouble with for the Knicks when these teams put a smaller guy on him, it takes away really a lot of things that he likes to do. And that's where Mike Brown's gonna have to get creative. And you got to figure it out whether it's more Shamut or more Deuce to spread the floor so they can't do that, or set some different screen actions to get towns off of those guys and then get him to the spot that he wants with the defender he wants.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yeah, good, good, good points there. And so uh we'll see the adjustments that Mike Brown makes and and what Cleveland has in store. Like I said, uh I think this is a Mitchell uh special here that the Knicks will have to be on guard for, and and through the pressure that he puts on them, it'll it could open things up for the Cavs shooters like the Merrills, like the Struces of the world. Uh, Knicks have to get on the boards and make sure that they're keeping the Cavs off of the second chance opportunities and hey, not let this thing get out of hand. So we'll see the adjustments. You know, Kenny Atkins, it was like, you know, James Harden is a good isolation defender. I I think he was a little bit too complimentary of James there. So that defense on Brunson in crunch time, there's no way they're going back to that.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

To your point, too. I I was I was listening to Draymond's podcast yesterday. I think he made a really good point. Everyone was blaming James Harden. He's like, it's not James Harden's job to guard Jalen Brunson. That's the coach and the other players taking accountability to get the guy on him they want. He's like, we never let Steph Curry guard the opposing team's best player. We don't want him doing that. He's gonna first of all he's gonna wear himself out. He's getting paid to score. Harden is a scorer. His job is not to guard the best offensive player on the other team. So the Cavs, to me, they should do a better job of like saying, hey, we're not gonna put Hardin in that situation. Because to me, that's the biggest thing. It's not, I I I'm not everyone was killing Harden. And I didn't think overall, I didn't think he did that bad a job. Jalen made some great shots. Sometimes you just got to tip your cap. A great offensive player beats great defense, but the Cavs got to put a better defender on him instead of just allowing the switch. They allowed the switch for like 20 seconds on the shot clock. They had no resistance. Jalen had like 17 seconds to do whatever he wanted. You know, it's one thing to get over the screen, let him get back, get over the screen, and now there's only seven seconds left in the shot clock, and now Jalen doesn't have as much time to operate. The Cavs just basically handed Jalen the keys. Hey, here's the take him behind the woodshed and do whatever you want to him. Yeah. And that's not gonna work for anybody. So that was a rough game for them.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Big time. Big time. Let us know what you guys think for game two. Knicks versus Cavs. Throw your predictions in the chat. CP the franchise, Justin Morelli in the building. If you're trying to get to the garden tonight, listen, it's a tough ticket. It's a hot ticket, but we got you guys covered at SeatGeek. Use our code KFTV10. Whether you're trying to go to Knicks versus uh Cavs or if you're watching from OKC, you're watching San Antonio, you want to watch that game as well and get to that game and get a discount on your tickets. Use our code KFTV10 for 10% off your order. Download the SeatGeek app or go to SeatGeek.com. Look for the green dots. Those will indicate the deals that are that they rank from amazing down to good. Try to stay in that area. The red dots means you're gonna get jerked. Not the best bang for your buck, so stay away from those. Green dots only. Type in the game that you want in SeatGeek or the SeatGeek app. You pull the game up, you like the seats, click on the seats, put in your information, your payment information, and the code KFTV10. It is that simple. Okay. Now, on the other side of the bracket, you had OKC winning in a barn burner. The Spurs hung around, man, but OKC prevailed. 122 to 113. This was a game in which both teams had a man-down situation for OKC J Dub. Jalen Williams goes down again with a hamstring injury, and the Spurs lost Dylan Harper to a leg injury. No timetable for either guy has been established just yet, but on this every other day cycle, that's interesting, man. But either way, uh, what'd you think about this game, man? 122, 113, OKC comes out on top.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Well, I think first of all, obviously the Dylan Harper thing was very impactful. They don't because now without De'Aaron Fox to begin with, they don't even have a point guard. You know, they're playing Jordan McLaughlin or they're playing Castle at point guard, and Castle is basically he's he's throwing the ball around like it's a hand grenade out there. I mean, he turned the ball over so many times in these two games. Like, I love Castle. I think he's a tremendous player. I think he's gonna be a star, but you got to clean some of that ball security up. You can't, especially against OKC, you can't be throwing the ball around like that. But they really didn't have a point guard, which hurt them. Overall, the the more desperate team won game two. OKC played harder, in my opinion. They got some more loose balls. They played like a team that knew that couldn't go down too well at home. Yeah. And they, you know, Hartenstein made some big plays down the stretch, the hustle rebounds. He was great. The hustle rebounds they had. Like they just played like the more desperate team. And I think that's what that game came down to. Obviously, losing J Dub is gonna be a something. To look at. I would think he's not going to be back for the series. Like this, he just re-injured a hamstring. He was out for a month. Right. Right. So I would be shocked with those things. We saw OG with a minor hamstring. He was not even guaranteed to play game one of this series. They upgraded him to probable the day of the game. So, and and OG's injury was seemed less severe. So, J Dub, I would expect to be out for the series. The Harper thing bears watching because the Spurs can't afford to lose him. They need him in there. You know, OKC can probably still win the series without Jason, Jalen Williams. They've had a lot of practice without him this year. It does hurt them, but they're basically 10 deep, that team. They're not putting, you know, a scrub in there to replace him. They got guys who can shoot and play defense and all those things. If SGA plays great, I still think they can win the series. The Spurs need Dylan Harper to win this series. I think Fox, I believe they rested him for precautionary reasons because they already took game one. So I think he'll be fine. But the Spurs to win this series, I think they're going to need all their horses. And look, it's been two of the great, well most well-played games we've seen in a long time. It's been great basketball to watch. Personally, I'm rooting for San Antonio. I think the Knicks, as a Knicks fan, right? The Knicks fan, you'd rather see San Antonio, if we're being honest.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

How about the dunk by Stefan Castle on our guy iHeart? Oh my goodness. Outline him in chalk. My man Stefan Castle, he's becoming one of my favorite players, man. This is as a basketball observer. He plays basketball like a stealth assassin. No emotions. He's just killing on every play. Now he's got to cut down the turnovers. That cost him the game. He was brutal, and that's been his Achilles heel. He's got to work on that. But he is an absolute assassin, absolutely clean body on iHeart last night. It was insane.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

He he buried him alive. Oh my goodness. Like on that. Like I that was one of the greatest posters I've seen in my life. The violence of it. Because with a poster, you could posterize someone, you could baptize someone, you could do all that stuff. But a lot of times it's just like, okay, you go straight up, you yam it on him. Cool. He cocked it back violently and got up to the top of the vertical, top of the elevator, and he put it right on his head. Like that was, I think I did a video right away on it because I was like, yo, that got me out of my seat. Like I had the game on mute. I was watching on mute because I was doing some like stuff, some other stuff. Yeah. And I was like, Yo, I was like, my goodness. Like that man has. If Kevin Harlan was on the call, he would have said he has no regard for human life. Oh, yeah. Like that was just, I mean, listen, he's awesome. Kid is amazing. He's awesome. He's gonna be a star. He's like, he's a he's one of the he's got a chance to be one of the best two-way players in the league. You know, ironically, like the Kawhi Leonard they had previously. Different player, but similar in terms of their two-way effect on the game. He's a he's amazing. He's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Oh my goodness. I mean, I mean, like you said, like this wasn't a dunk where it's just like you you narrowly get like a couple fingers on there, like, you know, a throw-in. No, this was on the top of the top floor, head over the rim. I mean, that was beautiful. But I'm with you. OKC, they can get by without Jay Dub. They have been. I mean, you you could practically haven't seen him. You practically haven't seen him all year. They got 64 wins, number one seed, say gets MVP. And they practically were a new team when you think about the infusion of Jared McCain, who's been playing incredible. And and uh, and what's the kid's name that got drafted by the Knicks? They couldn't afford him. AJ, oh my goodness. I mean, this guy's a little like young Dame out there. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like a little Dollar Tree Dame Lillard. So I don't know if he came up with the cramp or oh, he would have been insane.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

He would have been great for us too, because like we need a backup point, right? So he and he's like, if you close your eyes, he's basically like Jalen Brunson light, too, with the way he plays. It's like he's a lefty, he's got crafty, he's does a little thing. So you could have just taken Jalen out for a break. You put AJ Mitchell in, let him cook. But you know, listen, we're here now. There's nothing we could do, but yeah, he's really good. And I think the McCain trade helped them manage the Jalen Williams absence and is going to help them go because McCain's playing, he's playing really good basketball, and he's another shock creator. That's the one thing with J without Jalen Williams, they lack a little bit is that secondary shock creation. Well, you know what? McCain kind of takes that load, and Mitchell takes that load. Now you have two guys, one of them's on, you play that guy down the stretch, and I think they can get away with it. They're just, you know, Sam Prestey, man. Do what you do, brother. Give him a statue. Give him the statue now. Don't wait.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Uh and you know, look, this was a winnable game for the Spurs. How about this? 16 offensive rebounds for the Spurs, 17 for OKC. I mean, the rebounding, the effort was once again just top-notch.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

I give the Spurs credit, though. Yeah. I give the Spurs credit because I I think it was important for them to fight in that game. Don't lose by 30. Yeah. You got to make the Thunder earn every single game. And I think they made them do that. I think that's a win for the Spurs game.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

And yeah, they got to be looking at this one. 21 turnovers. Look, give credit to this to the OKC for their effort. This is where OKC's at their best. Only 10 and gave San Antonio 10. That was it. That was it. And you can't turn the ball over against OKC.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

You just can't turn they turn those turnovers into points. That's what they do. They do it better than anyone in the NBA. You cannot do that. We played a team similar to that in the Hawks. Now the Hawks aren't nearly as good, but they're they're a team that they're at their best when they're in transition. They're turning the ball, they're turning you over and getting out in transition. The Thunder are the best at that. You can't give them free points. And I thought, honestly, a lot of those Spurs turnovers were careless. I didn't think it was, you know, I would say half of them were careless turnovers. Yeah. Like Castle on one play, Castle on one play comes across half court. They're on a secondary break, and he's throwing the ball back to Wemby, who's got a guy in front of him, and Wemby's trying to catch the ball and now break him down. I don't care how good Wemby is. You don't throw the ball to your seven-foot center while he's being guarded by someone when you're trying to get this secondary break in traffic like that. He turned the ball over, they take it the other way. There were some very careless plays that they've just got to avoid. I would expect them to clean that up. Yeah. But the question's going to be is their point guard situation? Because that's that's a big reason why their turnovers are up. Because without Fox, Fox, whatever you want to say, he's he's a guy that's taking care of the ball. He runs and he runs the show. Yeah. So they need him.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah. I didn't like their offensive process down the stretch either. I thought they they left Vassell a little bit too cold. He's a he's their three-point gunner in that in that. And Shanpenny to a certain degree. But I think Vassell, he's a he he he there's just something about him that in crunch time, he's gonna get it for you. High release point, too. He did get one, but they didn't really get him the ball as much as I needed him to down the stretch. But um, yeah, you know, people in the chat are talking about the non-calls on Wemby and the Spurs. That's the game two juju, man. You know how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Yeah, and I I think um, you know, I didn't think the game was officiated so poorly, I'm not gonna lie, until I saw them drop the mixtape on Hartenstein fouls. I don't know if you saw that. No. So they so I did a video on it this morning. NBC, they aired a Hartenstein like highlight reel, how good he was, and all the plays were fouls on Hartenstein. So then that went crazy on social media because that one's like, you just dropped the foul mixtape for Hartenstein. Show how good, and now there's now the conspiracy theorists are out, the whole thing, the tin hats, the whole thing. But Hartenstein was really good, but they showed every play. He's grabbing his arm, he's grabbing his jersey, he's doing this. Look, I think at the end of the day, this is a hard game to officiate. And the thunder don't make it easy on them. I think to me, it's a lot more on the thunder with the flopping, with all the other stuff that they do to try to manipulate the refs. It's it's hard in 2026 for the refs to officiate the pace and the physicality. This is not the same game as it was, you know, 20 years ago when they're walking the ball at the floor. They gotta be constantly locked in. And I think they got to address something after the season just on the thunder, and like seeing like how like the flopping and all this other stuff and all the manipulation, like that's what's gotta be toned down. Give the officials an easier job. Like, it's not easy to do what they do. But overall, I didn't I'm not gonna complain about the officials in that game. I thought the Thunder won the game. Sure, they missed a couple calls, but that's just the way it's gonna go. Game two.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

The game two bad juju comes back for the Spurs as the NBA looks to even the series, man. That's me. I throw the Tinfoil Koofy on for game two. I'm a little bit leery tonight. I'll see you tonight at the Delta Club, man. You know, we'll chop it up for halftime pow wow. You know, me, you, wifey, and bro. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to my guy Jason Woke. He's a big fan of yours. Jason will be with us as well, man. We'll be going to the game with our guy Jason Woke, man. So we'll see you at uh we'll see you at the Delta Club, man, halftime pow wow, and uh we'll see how this thing goes, man. Nick's gotta come out from the from the jump.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

They gotta make a statement and put that doubt in Cleveland's mind. Because Cleveland's a little demoralized from that game one. Don't give him any hope. Put them out of their misery from the beginning, because then they'll fold like a clean pair of sheets, as they say. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

He is my guy, uh, Justin Morelli on the shot clock. Make sure to follow. That's the key phrase right there, man. That's terrible.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

If you like it, lead sports content. You're gonna want to follow the shock clock. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, everywhere. Put it on a t-shirt and we'll and we'll get it popped.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Make sure to follow, man. Salute to everybody watching. Salute to the Facebook family, everybody on the grind. Oh, shout out my guys, Kane Marco in the building. Salute to Kane, 20 hour Super Chat. So shout outs to both of you. Yell through the fan base proud. I can't make it to the watch party tonight, but I'll be there Saturday when we go up 3-0. Let's go, Nick. Shout out to my guy, Kane Marco, for sure. The Rhyme Animal Chuck D5 Super Chat says we won game one at home. Wade shot was in and out. We cannot make the Cavs, I think he meant uh Sam Merrill. Cannot make the Cavs feel any confidence whatsoever. Players and coaches fatigued out physically and mentally. Gotta gotta put the foot on the gap.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Give them those open threes. Make Harden beat you. If he's gonna do that, he's not scoring 40 at this point of his career. Yep, he can score 20. He's not gonna do that. And you're not, they're not gonna beat you with Harden scoring 20. Don't give those other guys clean looks. That's the that's the dagger.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

That's a dagger. That is a dagger. Shout out to BLW franchise channel member. Welcome back to the family. All right, man. NBA Report. Uh Team KF TV. We'll see you guys tonight. Play by play, hosted by CK2K. Postgame live, hosted by CK Alex and yours truly. Wall to wall coverage of Knicks vs. Cavs game two, right here on KnicksFan TV, man. Number one show for the fans by the fans. We out of here, man. Have a great day, people. Let's go. Peace.