The Oklahoma City Thunder move to a 28-1 record against the eastern conference with a 28-point win over the Chicago Bulls. Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni react to the Lakers win over the Rockets, the Celtics’ dominant March, and the Pacers status as sneaky contenders. Then, the Athletic’s Anthony Slater stops by to discuss the historic season for the Thunder, Lu Dort vs. Draymond Green for DPOY, and the Warriors playoff chances.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni & Anthony SlaterExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What makes the Thunder's season historic?
The Oklahoma City Thunder are basically a machine at this point. They ruined Josh Giddey's homecoming last night. Luckily, Anthony Slater was there to cover it. And Anthony, I got to ask you, man, at this point in the season, the superlatives about this team, I'd run out of time on the podcast if I mentioned all the records that they've broken and the things that they've done.
But they moved to 28-1 against the Eastern Conference. They still have one game left, but that's the best record For any team against the opposing conference, again, they just continue to do things that we haven't seen. Are we witnessing the greatest regular season team of all time? Not quite, I don't think.
Start there. Pivot back quickly. I don't think it was that bad at homecoming for Josh Giddey. He had some points. He got some warm applause. I saw him in the postgame locker room greeting staffers. He's playing pretty well in Chicago. He had that night the other day. He's probably going to get paid. We'll get the money.
He's having a good time, but not a good time when you get beat by 30. Yeah.
Well, everybody does. Rick Carlisle said it the other day. He's like, yeah, when you come in here, you're playing the best team in the world. To your original question, I'm not sure it's the 72-win Bulls, the 73-win Warriors, but I'm not sure it's that far off, just statistically. And, you know, you mentioned it, 28-1 against the East.
Their only loss was that Cleveland loss in Cleveland that the Cavaliers went zone. And Dagnall said it tonight. He's like, that helped us. The next time we played Cleveland, we knew how to play against the zone. And so, like, the only loss they've had against the East, I think, helped boost them to all their other wins, or some of them. They didn't know it was a stat.
They're very, like, tunnel vision. The only thing they've celebrated – And I'm writing a story about this, so it should be on The Athletic at this point, by the time people are listening. The only thing they've celebrated somewhat so far is 61 wins. Yeah. It was a franchise record. Yeah. I think that meant something to them. And by the way, OKC era franchise record, technically the Sonics won 64.
They're going to pass that, by the way, at some point, too. Yeah. You know, they kind of care about like, you know, their own condensed history here. And I think there was a level of respect like, man, we already zoomed past something that the Durant Westbrook Thunder did. But yeah, like we'll see how their last eight games go and there might be some rest in there.
There's a couple of Lakers games that could be tricky for them, especially because they have no motives at this point. So that could diminish some of the win totals and the point differential and all that. But right now, best point differential in NBA history. Tied for the best net rating with the 96 Bulls.
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Chapter 2: How did the Lakers perform against the Rockets?
he's unbelievable right we know that the on-ball pit bull you know probably the guy that a score in the league probably wants to see the least right now especially a physical score but the point i made as far as like the case against dort is yes he's on he's probably you would consider the most impactful defender this season on a historic defense as you mentioned s but he's
He has two of the top 10 rim protectors in the world, in my opinion, Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren behind him. And for large chunks of the season have been at least one of the two has been behind him. He has a superstar guard who is one of the very rare guards who does not get picked on. You don't pick on Shea Gilders Alexander defensively.
He has Jalen Williams is one of the more versatile wings in the league. He's got Alex Caruso coming off the bench defending like he's part of an absolute machine and he is a major part of it. They would argue this season the most important part of that machine. But that should matter. Like, you know, he these superstar players are not scoring like they normally do.
Because of his physical defense, but also because of who's awaiting at the rim, who's around them, who's not, you know, they can't screen him off and just get like, you know, a tiny guard, a Trey young or something on them. Like there's, there's a lot that goes into it. And like, I'm not trying to argue too stiffly against the Ludor case because, honestly, he's in the conversation.
I'm actually curious about y'all's opinion. But, like, he's part of a machine. Draymond, there's flaws within his case. Mobley, you mentioned it. There's kind of flaws within his case. Dyson Daniels is on the Hawks, and you're like, you know, he steals, deflections Hound. But they're not unbelievable defensively. I don't know.
It's always tough to give DPOI to a wing, and I think that's what Jalen Williams was talking about a couple months ago when he was like, it should be two different awards. Yeah, the value of a rim protector and what Draymond honestly brings to the Warriors is a little bit different than what Dork does. The value proposition is crazy.
But I wanted to ask you about the Warriors because they're facing the Grizzlies today, and it's going to be a massive game given the play and implications, given the fact that the Grizzlies are kind of falling off right now, Warriors are climbing.
how big is this for the warriors chances of potentially getting to that four seed like grandma mentioned yeah you know i mean it's it's to to me their their demarcation point is seven and six like they just be six or above i'm you could argue you'd rather be sixth than in the four or five especially we're talking about this goliath potentially sitting at one like get on the other side of their bracket sit in the six not the four or five
But this is a major – I think the Grizzlies – like the Clippers scare the Warriors. They already have the tiebreaker over them. They're playing great basketball right now. They play each other on the last game of the regular season. There's a chance that that could be for the sixth seed, let's say, if the Grizzlies had stayed above the Warriors.
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