Luka Doncic and LeBron James combined for 52 points to help the Los Angeles Lakers tie their first-round series with the Minnesota Timberwolves at one game a piece. Dave DuFour and Zena Keita react to the dominant performance from the Thunder through the first two games of the playoffs before being joined by the Athletic’s Shakeia Taylor to breakdown the aftermath of the Pacers pushing to a 2-0 series lead over the Milwaukee Bucks. Then, the Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and the crew discuss the Wolves game 2 loss and how the adjust for game 3.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita, Shakeia Taylor, & Jon KrawczynskiExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moodyhttps://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Thunder vs. Grizzlies game?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, the Thunder dominate the Grizz again. We got Shakia Taylor on the Pacers' big win and John Krasinski on the Wolves' loss to the Lakers and how they bounce back. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena.
Good morning, Dave.
Just wait again. How you doing? I'm doing great. Another fun night of playoff action. And I do believe we officially have the first dominant 2-0 series lead since the Grizzlies have lost by a combined 70 points. in their two games against the Thunder. Thunder win last night, 118-99.
And, Zena, there's not a lot that I have to say that I haven't already said about the Grizzlies over the last couple weeks. They're not really very good right now. They're not very connected. Jaron Jackson, you don't really feel him in a lot of games. Zach Eady basically can't play. I sound like a broken record. You got any thoughts on a Thunder win over the Grizzlies?
Yeah, I think the same could be said kind of about Oklahoma City, right? Like there's not much more new to say about this team. They've been dominant all season. They've been playing as a team all season. But I think even watching this game and how they close it out, because let's give credit where credit's due. Memphis did play better.
But if you listen to Jalen Williams in his postgame interview, he said that they expected as in the Thunder, expected the Grizzlies to come back. They were a good team. The first game is after a 36 hour stint. So they knew that they were going to have a better shot at that second game. And the way that they closed it out in game two, OKC did not give Memphis any slack.
They played all the way to the end. Chet Holmgren, Shea Gill, just like they were all in the game to the final buzzer. And it just shows you just how hungry this team is. And I think that that's a stat. That's an analytical aspect that you can't quantify is just how much they want it.
And so if there's anything to add on top of OKC and what you've already seen all season, they're just on a different level of connected and hungry.
Yeah, Alex Caruso had a great game off the bench for them. So that's, you know, again, it's another tool in their toolbox that's, you know, a knife in their knife case that's sharp, right? Like Alex Caruso needed this big game, in my opinion. And I mean, again, Thunder are a machine. So we're probably not going to learn too much about the Thunder for the rest of this series.
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Chapter 2: How did the Pacers perform against the Bucks?
Unreal defense coming out of also really fast offense. I mean, they just looked super young, athletic, amazing.
more awake like they everything they felt as if they had magnets in their hands to the ball they just felt like everything was easily coming to them as opposed to the bucks looked like they were moving through molasses like it was just like slow basketball on both ends i thought there was opportunities for the bucks to kind of hide the fact that dame lillard came back last night and yes even though he was trying to get things going early in the game
it was clear that he'd been out for a month. And there was more that I would have expected for the Milwaukee Bucks to try and pre-switch, kind of hide him off of defenders. But the Bucks brutalized him and kept going after him. And there was a lot there. We're going to dig into it with Shakia, but...
The Pacers just looked very poised and very ready and like they were building off the energy in their building.
Yeah. Dame basically a turnstile on defense and the Pacers. I mean, like you said, they targeted him. Tyrese Halliburton was just running past him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was so deceptive with the Hezzy's the slightest has these in transition and just blowing past people. Yeah. It was the perimeter defense was non-existent for the bucks.
Yeah. And then and then we saw the Lakers bounce back against the Wolves. You know, I mentioned after the first game, LeBron needed to be felt more. And I thought that his presence was felt not only on the rebounds and and he scored, but defensively, like he really brought it quite a bit. The whole team did that first quarter. They came out. They really they they hit the Wolves in the face.
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Chapter 3: What adjustments do the Wolves need for Game 3?
You know, he said he's he backs everyone back their guy here. So if he's overrated, people in Indiana do not agree.
That's one of the things that you saw all throughout the series so far is just how much each team has each player's backs. I mean, between Tyrese Halliburton talking some game to Dame while he was in street clothes, and now that translating into game two, and you're starting to see the physicality, Gary Trent Jr., Pascal Siakam, Bobby Portis. I mean, it just kept starting to build.
Talk a little bit about the passion in between the two teams and the tension that's been showing up throughout these two games.
Tyrese Halliburton continues to reiterate that they don't like each other. He said it before this series began. He said it tonight after the game. They don't like each other. There's probably a little bit of like game respects game, of course, but they don't like each other. And it was obvious all the way down both benches.
I would say in game one, but especially tonight, you know, there was a dust up on the court. The players were hyping up the crowd who were really in support of the beef. I actually turned to someone sitting by me and I was like, hey, this crowd wants the smoke. Like they were chanting, you know, Bobby sucks. Even if Bobby Portis wasn't touching the ball. It's a nice change.
It's a real rivalry, right? Like there's real juice there. I mean, and the whole thing, like you mentioned, Zena, the back and forth in game one when Dame was there on the bench and he's like, oh, I'm coming back. I'm going to get you. And Dame came back and frankly, He got got.
I mean, I think the Pacers not only not only did they attack him on when he was on defense, but they only held him to 14 points, two of eight from three. I want to hit Andrew Nembhardt and the defense that he played. I mean, the two way game, he had 17.6 assists, hit big shots down the stretch. I mean, this team just it just seems like it has a lot of guys who are built for the playoffs.
And Nembhardt is number one on my list to me.
After practice on Monday, I wrote how this team isn't a team that relies on one player to sort of be the star to carry the team. Right. Obviously, Halliburton is the guy, but they have a balanced scoring attack. They support each other. There is a real effort from everyone on the team to go out there and, you know, shut things down. Nimhard.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of Tyrese Halliburton's performance?
He changes their ability to have spacing on the court. And none of that happened. In fact, I don't know if you guys even noticed, he only had 11 points well into the second half of the game. His three-pointer very late in the game came when Milwaukee was trying to fight their way back. But by then, the Pacers were like, it's too late.
Yeah, he was out of it. I mean, he was taken out of it.
I mean, I was thinking, we were texting each other, Dave, and I was like, how did he find the legs to be able to put that shot up? But you're right. I thought in the first half that Dave Miller was holding his own, considering he hadn't played since March 18th. And he's coming back into it. He played 37 minutes last night against the Indiana Pacers.
But it was Nembhard, and it was this balance scoring attack that you're talking about. So now we're looking at the Bucs that looked old. What's going to be the answer as they go back home to try and get some sort of juice out of their offense? Get Kyle Kuzma going. Who picked things up tonight? I mean, against the Pacers last night. Get Bobby Portis going again.
Like, what's going to be the answer for the Bucs?
They're going to have to slow Indiana down. Indiana's plan of attack from the beginning has been we are young and we are fast and we're just going to fly around the court. And that's exactly what they've been doing. They've been getting up and down the court really fast. And it makes sense. Milwaukee look tired, which is absolutely Rick Carlisle and his team's game plan. Tire them out.
Tyrese Halliburton talked about the wear down effect. They are fully aware that that is the way to get the bucks to show weakness. Like they know there's no really stopping someone like Giannis. But what you do is if you slow everyone else down, or I should say, keep them you know, sped up and keep them from scoring well, that's, that's going to be the plan.
So I guess Milwaukee has to figure out how do we slow this team down, but also how do we keep you? Cause you got six guys you have to keep out of double figures, right? Indiana has consistently had six guys in double figures this series. So I don't really know how you get six people, you know, to all be, to all have a bad night at once, but that's gotta be the goal.
Well, what about with the Pacers? I mean, and what they did defensively, you know, number one, they picked up Dame early. So they were bothering him. I mean, you know, dead legs. He sat a month. They were trying to wear him down. I think they did a pretty good job of that. They also every single time Giannis touches the ball. You talked about their passion, right? Their energy is just palpable.
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Chapter 5: Are the Bucks in trouble after falling behind?
Three guys attacking Giannis. They're just not really worried about anybody else. I mean, do you think that can the Bucs score enough outside? Let's say Dame has a great game. Giannis has a great game. Can the other guys pick it up enough to get over, you know, one win in this series? Like, is it going to be a five game series?
In the beginning, I really was like, okay, this is gonna be, this is gonna go six or seven. They're gonna stretch this out. Giannis is gonna wanna, you know, want to fight because he didn't play, you know, last year's playoffs. This is gonna be a huge deal. But after tonight, I don't know that six or seven is is going to be the number of games in this series.
If the Pacers continue to come out and just attack them and send a crowd the way they've been doing. Right. Like they know all they have to do is send two and three. And guys are switching off and making sure that Giannis. even though he's going to score, he's got to fight for it, right?
He's got to put his shoulder down, and he's having to dig into multiple guys just to even get the shots he's getting. So defensively, Indiana has been, from everything I've heard in the time I've been here and been around the team, they're sticking to the plan, and they haven't kept it a secret. As far as Lillard goes, Doc Rivers said pregame he didn't even know what to expect
from Lillard in, you know, the Tuesday night game. So I'm assuming, you know, because Lillard really didn't have a ton of time to get ready for this game. Yeah. That on Friday, we'll see a completely different performance from him because he'll have had more time to, you know, get his legs and get in some practice time.
And, you know, tonight will probably be a big recovery night for him considering, you know, what he just experienced with the diagnosis.
Yeah, I'm sure Eric Name will write something to the effect that Damian Lillard and Giannis should run some pick and roll, right? Try to figure that out. You know, seems simple. Shakia Taylor, go and read her at The Athletic. Go and read the story about the passion of the Pacers. Stick around, guys. After the break, we'll have John Krasinski after the Lakers and Timberwolves.
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Chapter 6: What role does player physicality play in the playoffs?
Obviously covered this team for years, and this team has had an odd year, but I've never seen them get knocked in the mouth and not recover in a game. That was odd. I've seen them be down by double digits early, but usually they fight back a little bit more than this one.
Yeah. I mean, you know, they, they did get it down to nine in the fourth. And, um, so I actually think after that first quarter, um, which was a total letdown, I think on their part and very disappointing, then they hold the Lakers to 24, 23 and 13 points. Um, they just couldn't make enough shots to get back into the game and really to get it within, you know, striking distance. But, um,
I think the major takeaway, Dave, is that this is a team that has struggled this year with slow starts sometimes, and they knew that the Lakers were going to throw everything they had at them, and they just didn't seem ready to meet the moment early on. You saw LeBron, you saw Luka, you saw...
Just an increased physicality, an increased effort level, and all of that offensive flow and juice they had in game one just disappeared. And so I think that there was definitely some real disappointment about... how they matched what they knew was going to happen early on.
And then to claw back into it the way they did in the fourth was something to take home, but still just a lot of disappointment about that first quarter down, what was it, yeah, 34-15. I mean, that was ugly.
I'm happy you talked about the taking home because I saw Julius Randle clapping it up as he walked out of the arena. So it feels as if Minnesota was pretty satisfied with the way they at least they ended the game on a fight and the fact that they now get to go home and bring this fight to their territory.
Like what what were the vibes in terms of what the Timberwolves are expecting as they transition back to their home court?
Yeah, I mean, I think that they believe fully that they're the better team in this series. We will see how that plays out. But there's a lot of confidence internally in them and in their ability to win this series, especially with what they were able to do in Game 1. But... When you look at the bigger picture of it, they've held the Lakers to 94 points and 95 points in these two games.
And I don't think that the Wolves believe the Lakers can win four games if they're scoring under 100 each one. So they feel good about what they've done largely defensively. And now they get to go home to Target Center and it's going to be Friday night and it's going to be late and people are going to be drinking and they hate the Lakers and it's going to be tuned up in there.
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Chapter 7: How are the Lakers responding to the Timberwolves?
And so I think that there's confidence that going back there, as long as their defense holds and then they get their offense and their shot making back into it, they'll be in great shape.
Well, their their defense has been really good. But let's talk about the offense, because the Lakers threw a lot of different looks at them in game two that they didn't see a lot of zone. They were more physical. You know, what are the counters that you expect to see out of the Timberwolves outside of just shoot better? Right.
Like we all want to just shoot better, but there's got to be more to it than that.
Yeah, I think that the real disappointing thing offensively was that they only took 25 threes in the game. I mean, they went 21 of 42 in game one, and they spread the Lakers out, and they moved the ball, and they generated wide-open looks. And there just was none of that tonight. And even, like, you know, they shot five for 25. They were 38% from the field.
So it wasn't a good shot-making night, but it also, I don't think, was a good just offensive – The creation night, like they they really seem to play into the Lakers hands and do what they wanted, what the Lakers wanted them to do. A lot of the talk after the game from Anthony Edwards, from Rudy Gobert, was about this kind of pseudo zone look that the Lakers were throwing at him. And I do think.
It confused them. And I think they had a hard time figuring out, OK, how do we kind of get ourselves moving, get the ball moving and get good shots against this defense? And that's why you saw a lot of standing around, a lot of isolation and very few three point tries. And so it wasn't a very good.
execution standpoint for offensively for them so that when they go home the ball has to move they have to move their bodies and they just have to generate more threes this is one of the very best three-point shooting teams in the league and if you take that away everything is so much more difficult
Back on the defensive side of things, I was pretty impressed with the fact that Minnesota was pretty handicapped with a lot of players being in foul trouble very early in this game. I think Nas Reed got his fourth foul in the first half. But is that something that...
Chris Finch is at all concerned about the way that his team plays with the physicality it requires to go up against the Lakers, that it could end up backfiring if some of his biggest defenders and best defenders like going to kill Alexander Walker or Nas Reed or Dante DiVincenzo, for example, end up in foul trouble.
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