Alex Caruso in the loss. 14min. 0 pts. 0/0 FG. 2 blocks. 2 assists
The hero of the Game 1 had less touches than Kelly Olynyk
14 min. 0/1 FG. 0/0 3PT. 2 BLK. 1 Assist
https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/2991350/alex-caruso
Spurs finally locked up the best player in the series.
Bald mamba
kobe was bald too
Fine then. The blacker mamba.
Mamba #5
Didn’t know Caruso was German
It all makes sense now
The not settling out of court for assaulting women mamba
The white black mamba
Yeah but he also wasn’t
Shiny mamba
Lack Mamba
Mamba, CPA
Bo Mamba
I said he was the MVP of the series, and I’ve never seen him get locked up so hard like today.
Devin Vassell is the underrated MVP of this series. His impact on defense is tremendous, WAY beyond stats.
W vassell props. He was rly giving us 70% of what he is actually able to do on defense in the regular season lol
IMO Castle plays even better D than Vassell
Vassell has these short spurts where he looks as good or maybe even better than Castle on defense, but Castle plays high energy, high quality POA defense for the entirety of his minutes, which is so so valuable.
Castle always takes the harder matchups, he’s clearly better. That said, Vassell has finally manifested into the player we envisioned early on and he deserves his flowers.
That extension is looking fantastic
Shai can get to his spot against Vassell, against Castle he has been struggling a lot
I wonder who your mvp of the series will be after game 5
Alex Caruso still 50% human being, only 50% corrupted by Thunder’s bullshit Astros culture.
Hard disagree. He’s like the defining picture of their culture in a single player
Obviously Shai or Dort
Caruso is the one that does it most on both ends imo
caruso is both of them combined
Carried them harder than SGA has
See what can be done if you stay on your feet
Nuns put the debuffs on him
Alex Caruso is a bald ungodly atheist who will be judged during the end times
…is this Luke Kornet’s burner?
This whole thread is nothing but Kornet Burner accounts and strippers accounts.
James Harden has entered the chat.
God sent bears at children for calling a guy bald, so you should be careful
Alex Caruso won’t matter on judgment day
Haha. This is wild.
They nerfed him every time the light from his head shined in their eyes
Nah those women were straight up Bene Gesserit with how effective they were.
Bald are devil spawns
Someone hit up that Charlie Kirk witch 🧙♀️….
cardio in the wcf
Cardio is important
Putting in work for next season already, I respect his work ethic.
Cardio Caruso
Captain Cardio
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fwhich-nba-player-is-this-v0-o41ygi73ldub1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D897760e2de12c96a733d5ad3ee7b46e2707e43a5
Caruso last night
Why was he invisible tonight? I watched the game but don’t understand what spurs did differently enough to render him much worse
apparently they didn’t double sga or something and just stayed man to man and he couldnt do nothin
He also had four fouls early
Which he should have every game based on the way he plays defense
Dort and ihart seem pretty average too when the whistles are completely fair.
Sga has the kwahi mid range game going for him atleast
He had that complete cold stone mid range a game or two back to seal the deal. No flopping/perceived flopping. It seems like he knows when to turn it on or way ON.
His midrange game is so nice but yeah the flopping takes away from that
Imo his foul baiting and elite flopping is what makes his mid-game viable in today’s space and pace meta
He shoots like 54% on those shots. Even higher when you take away the shots he misses because he’s tried to bait a foul and it doesn’t work.
I think the point is that players are afraid to contest his midrange shots because he will draw the foul every time so it makes his midrange look better than what it would be for a normal player.
Do those fouled shots even count to his %? I’m still relatively new to understanding stat tracking.
I maintain the opinion that Hart and especially Dort are fringe rotational pieces at best when OKC isn’t getting their usual whistle treatment lol. Dort is the most blatantly handsy ive ever seen a defender
Disagree on hartenstein but dort is a g league player that is allowed to handcheck
Spurs have completely played him out of this series.
Normally he makes at least a lil bit of noise with his rainbow 3 and some defense.
Hes been completely invisible this series.
Hartenstein is elite on those curl passes he does
Dort also had 4 fouls quite early today lol.
If your whole play style is foul prone crap that should actually be called, you’re average.
He’s basically a rookie or bench dude who can’t play more than 3 minutes without getting thrown to the bench
the ol razzle dazzle
Wait for game 6 when it’s 3-2 Thunder, they’ll get called again.
Shit is too predictable.
This.
Its what has been said even since game 1.
Let SGA fight through our guards 1:1 and still have to shoot around / over wemby.
The spurs guard roster are all monsters on defense so the pressure they have 1 on 1 is enough to diminish SGAs output, let alone with the alien abduction threat if he does get a clean shot off.
Keep it up for G5, GSG!
Calling Wemby’s blocks alien abductions is excellent. I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve seen it said.
Not all blocks are abductions, only the ones he blocks and takes possession of.
They use it on the Spurs sub.
Not sure why the double was the gameplan the first 3 games with this in mind.
Our fans often ponder the same shit when we hard double and leave the corners wide open even though Chet is protecting the paint and we have 3 other guys on the perimeter that have made an all-defensive team in the last 2 years and would do fine 1-on-1.
Maybe because they’re afraid of someone opening a door somewhere in the stadium, causing a breeze to blow Chet over.
I would imagine that when reviewing the tapes and looking at percentages, OKC didnt seem strong shooting 3s.
The thought was probably “their 3pt shooting isnt as a good as sgas points per 100 possessions.”
Worked pretty well for Lakers. Guess Spurs wanted to try it out. But Spurs have good enough defenders to play straight up man like they did during the 4 regular season matchup wins. Guess they decided to go back to what had worked in the past. Great adjustment.
Looking forward to OKC’s adjustments. This matchup will be great for years to come.
Now the FOx is back, its much easier on Castle’s body now. SC has to bring the ball and guard SGA as well and he was a turnover machine in game 2-3. But tonight Castle Defesnce on SGA was sooo sooo good.
and still have to shoot around / over wemby
Ihart got in foul trouble early (rightfully so), so Wemby was able to hover the paint much easier than all other games in this series
I also think without JDub and Ajay, they don’t really have a creator like Shai. Sure Mccain can create a bit of his own shot but i don’t think the Thunder necessarily have those offensive playmakers.
Y’all decided that you’d only let SGA beat you straight up 1:1 tonight and it worked.
100%. Such a disservice to Wembys defensive impact to essential live with OKC role players getting wide open practice shots
Is that all it was? Cause he’s been legit the fifth (or better) best player in games 1-3
Let’s not get it twisted- he’s been OKC’s best player.
No. The only reason he looked so good was because SGA was getting double teamed. SGA has easily been their best player.
Not the only reason. More like how a guy like Iggy scored primarily because of Curry’s gravity and playmaking while also being a smart, crafty player himself.
Iggy was an all star before curry… let’s not act like he was a bum feasting on charity
Nah dude, nowhere in my comment did I knock Iggy’s scoring game. No one acted like that. The version of Iggy the Warriors had and the player they needed him to be was someone who maybe hit a couple outside shots, but was deadly as a connective player who could catch the ball and make a smart decision. He’s an important piece, just not the person who creates the initial opportunity.
All-Star is really not relevant, dude was a great player. He was not the primary creator. Also, Caruso isn’t Iggy even though he’s a really smart player in these situations where an advantage has been created, but they fulfill a similar role in different looking offenses.
I get what you were saying bro, people just go a bit nuts on comparisons
Iggy was an all star averaging 20 ppg before Curry. Caruso has never been at that level of scoring. All his scoring has come from open 3’s, not any shot creation of his own. He has only had so many open 3s because Spurs were selling out on Shai. They didn’t do it for game 4 and Caruso finished with 0 points.
I’m not saying Caruso is as good as Iggy. He’s playing a similar role as Iggy on the Warriors where his job is to make a good decision with the ball once the initial advantage has been created. And the reason I relate it to Iggy, besides that the role is similar, is that the previous comparison was to Draymond who I feel is more different in terms of role.
Warriors Iguodala was not creating a lot on his own, especially not as he aged and they went on their dynasty run. But even the less capable Iggy had seen everything there was to see on the court and could still make the right play. Stuff like Caruso catching the ball against a defense trying to switch, driving to engage Wemby and then dumping it off to the big reminds of the way Iggy would play.
Iggy has never averaged 20PPG, close though. I was shocked too recently when I checked!
Iggy averaged like 12-6-5 during his All Star year iirc, he was close ish to Caruso scoring wise in his Warriors tenure than his Philly scoring self
Lol. Caruso was Thunder best player this series
He’s not a great player though, hes an amazing role player. He can play his role exceptionally, but he can’t do a lot outside of his role. When the Spurs take away his role within the offense he can’t go and make it up himself he needs to rely on SGA or others.
I think losing Mitchel and JDub hurts him a lot. Less shot creation, less people drawing help, less opportunities for Caruso.
Yeah. He was shooting wide open shots for the most part
I think the shots are just a bonus though, it’s been his insane defense IMO.
Fuk no. Caruso has been killing then offensively. I think 5 3s a game. He played defense this game. He just didn’t score cuz he wasn’t open
Nah, they were intentional leaving only the cold shooters open one pass away and never helping off Caruso unless it was weakside where Shai isn’t good enough to see
The same ones making it the last 2 gsmes were missing tonight. Spurs did a better job at closing on 3s.
They hovered help, b it didnt commit double teams like last game.
They stopped helping off role players like Caruso when SGA would attempt to split help defenders off Hartenstein and Holmgren picks. They also just stopped sending the second man at SGA and let their perimeter defenders play him straight up.
Thus Caruso wasn’t getting looks off SGA’s dribble penetration and kick out strategy that the thunder spam ad nauseum.
Spurs must have seen the Reddit post about SGA generating 1.22 ppp when doubled, tied for 2nd most in however long.
Spurs have Wemby who erases the drive & kick strategy by himself by simply existing. Idk why they ever bothered doubling so hard to begin with, especially when the literal biggest strength of OKC that everyone always talks about is that they’re the deepest team with the best role players in the league.
I think they weren’t counting on OKC hitting 3s. Caruso and JWill are usually not thst consistent. I also think not having AJ and JDub really wore down both SGA and McCain.
I wonder if they didn’t have some key like to only send hard help against SGA once he had put the ball on the floor and attacked. Or if someone turned their back, then they could go and try to double like on that open three to start the second half.
We stopped selling on guard shooters. We still sold on their big man shooters haha but Jaylin wasnt burning us unlike G3
He shot 14 of 23 on threes in the first 3 games but was a 29% shooter for the regular season season. He is going to have a lot of bad offensive nights.
They basically threw away the game plan of doubling Shai above the three-point line. Caruso got a lot of shots off of those doubles.
Him and hartenstein both had early fouls that made them play less aggressive. Hartenstein has 2 in the first quarter and then just kinda sat the whole time. Caruso was playing aggressive when he came in and immediately fouled too. Think he got his fourth foul early in the 3rd. Which didn’t help cause he came in for Dort who also had his fourth foul early in the 3rd
Dort also fouled 3 times in The span of 90 seconds I. The second.
A little random, but I wonder if non-star big men tend to score more of their points earlier in the game before the other team has their pick and roll coverage fully locked in. Hart had that 4-4 stretch early with his close range floaters. On his 4th make, SGA didn’t get downwhill and Wemby was maybe a little late getting back, but was able to give a fair contest. The next shot, SGA’s man peeled off of him on the pass to contest the shot which Hart missed. Same thing next time, no down hill drive, Wemny drops to help contain, mid range pass and an air ball or block as Wemby was able to get back to him.
The refs just called an honest game against OKC for once. Which is crazy given that Scott Foster was there
It looked like they were still helping off the weakside and gapping some off the strong side especially with a guy like Dort there or with Wemby off Chet in a switch. But they mostly were able to just defend PnR and attacks 2 v 2 with the ball defender and Wemby. This is why Hart got that initial close range scoring run as they played a drop and helped hard off him. They still sent extra help at SGA on some drives, but it seemed like later help or they might have had some plan to only double on the dribble or with a back turned to the help.
The Spurs were overall smarter and more keyed in on some of what they want to do on defense, as those plays dried up with better contest from Wemby, and even SGA’s man just switching on the pass to contest Hart on his first miss. The play in which Vassell got a block early, Wemby trusted him after an initial help and then did not commit to coming off Caruso. When they played Hart and Caruso together that allowed Wemby and the on ball defender to play that drop again since he was on the big as at the start of the game. The steal on Hart with Caruso as the guy being doubled off was also kind of indicative.
Caruso also had a couple smart plays that did not lead to a score or at least a stat for him. In general OKC also missed some shots they can hit.
From watching the replay, you can see the Spurs not going for the early double on SGA, so when the ball swings, they’re able to recover on the corners faster. It’s why guys like Jaylin Williams and Caruso were putting the ball on the floor more. Also Spurs generated a lot more deflections and steals this game
He gets wide open looks constantly bc SGA is always being doubled. Tn that wasn’t the case
They stopped double teaming SGA. A lot of the Thunder offense is letting SGA solo and drive to the rim and kick it out. If you don’t double him those kick outs will be contested. This game they were all contested.
In the previous games, Spurs were double or triple teaming SGA. Which let guys like Caruso shoot freely and with little defense. Spurs went back to normal defense in this game and it turns out that Caruso isn’t a monster once he’s actually got a hand in his face.
And thank god. This fucker turning into the Stephster has been insanely frustrating.
Because he’s always wide open. The team got to trust Castle/Vassel/Harp/Champ on SGA and not double. He is not scoring 83 points, he’s not Bam!
Whole team isn’t scoring 83, apparently.
Wilt, Bam, OKC, Kobe
Hahaha. Bam line had me LOL
He was 0/1 FG actually
Turns out this guy isn’t Steph Curry. Who would have thought.
Fixed in the body
Thank heavens we stopped giving these cats practice looks. If Caruso lit us again I wss gunna be done with basketball
I was jumping into my ceiling watching him go off the other games holy fuck
The first game was endearing even as an opponent by game 3 I was ready to kill baldy lol
He was making pull up jumps and shit lol
They actually played defense on him lmao
bald headed BUM
Calilou
It don’t sound how it spelled
if it helps its spelled caillou
Bulls won the trade
16 year old beard with a 40 year old head. Checks out
Bro got that loser energy when they experience some level of challenge. Pushing cameraman or players tying his shoes unprovoked
Captain Chaos was Captain Cardio tonight
He didn’t even attempt shots. I’m not sure why
They were told to stand down this game… Duh
Because he wasn’t given any good looks. Guys like him can only got on a heater if the defense overhelps or constantly doubles a more talented teammate, and the Spurs didn’t do that in game 4.
yeah i was gonna say i didnt see him take shots. im not sure if it’s really the defense or he’s just conserving energy for next game
Reggie was real quiet this game. Seems like if he can’t glaze OKC he just shuts the fuck up.
bro was hardcore yapping as usual what are you talking about
I don’t know… my wife and I keep the mute button ready when he talks too much, and we were pressing it less tonight
Elmer Dudd
They called his fouls and he just shut down. Take the one arrow out of his quiver and he’s a ghost
If you watch the game, Spurs aren’t overcompensating on Chet and SGA anymore.
Instead, they’re sitting on the easy passing lanes and forcing tougher passes. This isn’t the same defense where SGA could just swing it to the safest, wide open Caruso with no risk.
Fuck caruso. Nice work spurs!!
caruso comes off thinking he’s much tougher than he actually is
He was actually 0-1 I saw him try a contested layup .
Mikal Bridges you have some competition
[removed]
I’m genuinely surprised I’ve never heard this one before
The one time the post title doesn’t say “despite the loss”
My girlfriend cursed him
Which of those nuns is your gf?
They only helped off of him on weakside and almost never one pass away. Shai can’t make these advanced reads to save his life
i swear i saw him take a layup that missed
can’t help but feel good about this one. he had such an annoying face throughout game 3
So damn cocky this series I don’t know what happened to the balding 21 year old we all once loved.
Absolutely pathetic performance tonight by Caruso
This is what happens when he’s not left wide open all game
Triple single.
We tried to make caruso beat us and he did, so now we make shai beat us and he couldn’t. We must continue to guard bald mamba caillou caruso
Lmao good, get fucked Caruso
lets do it again
The accountant was too busy with his TPS reports tonight 🤓
the nuns must have given him the reverse Samson, he gets weaker the more hair he has
Lot of people here showing they don’t know ball.
He is role player. They wouldn’t help off him. He won’t push to get looks. By keeping the defense honest. He has done his job. Spurs won the X & O’s game tonight. Alex played exactly how he is supposed to play. Role players are just that, playing their role. His is to be a menace on defense, set great screens, and punish help defense. Tonight the defense didn’t help +2 on the rotation to swarm SGA. They stayed home most of the time, not even rotating over to help when they should. So he didn’t get a lot of shots.
If you’re wondering what helping +2 is on defense. It means when you rotate a full player over. Meaning you are vulnerable to the skip pass and always going to be late on recovery because you are running one and half spaces to close out.
He didn’t play bad, he played his role. Which is to hit open shots. Not force them. Not attack against a set defense. He’s like Draymond on offense and out there to capitalize on 3 on 2 situations. When the defender stays home it takes away his game. Forcing the other 4 players to beat you. Which would typically be what OKC wants. SGA isn’t getting the clean looks in this series, that he has been able to get. Masterclass of defense.
This also shows why having your best player be the POA man all the time isn’t the best thing to do. Being able to get points of screens and post ups(aka MJ and Kobe) allows for you to minimize the defense’s ability to key on you. When the best player attacks as the main ball handler(Nash & Harden) the defense can more easily key on them. It’s why this type of offense is rarely seen on Championship teams. Even Bro couldn’t do it.
Cardio caruso
Bro’s 33 can’t expect him to Carry you all the time
Regressing to the mean
Hey, there is the Caruso from 2021
Who knew that defending SGA 1-on-1 is better with this roster
I knew this piece of shit’s hot streak would not continue. Dirty bastard
Glorified hack doing glorified hack things.
The thumb
they finally called real fouls for the spurs and stopped calling those flopping fouls for okc
how different when you actually call his fouls
No stats on his flops?
THE CLAMPS
How many floors?
Caruso plays like Steph Curry on offense = win
Caruso plays like Caruso on offense = blowout loss
If they win and he doesn’t get the MVP it’ll be robbery, they clearly go as far as he takes them
He played the most like curry in game 1 and they lost.
But still somehow a +19
At least he didn’t slap any cameras this time.
Got as many points as his head shape
Respect the bald eagle 🫡
NBA not fixed it anything, right?
He took the game off so SGA would still get WCF MVP
Love to see it
regression to the mean?
Fraud alert
I’ve prayed for this
And this is why he’s a role player
Spurs ahlloigehye win Game yeeogngn ot Western Conference Finals
Fewer.
What happens when fouls are called on OKC. Not just AC but multiple players with four fouls early.
This is what happens when the refs decide to call it as it is. Nba can be rigged to go eother way…
He had a shot. Missed a layup
Mr Chaos 😂😂😂
Back to normal
Fuck this bald ugly mofo who gets to play football on defense alongside his buddy Lu Dort