Harden is a more complete player tbh. I get the foul baiting comparison, it’s valid. But prime Harden has a wider arsenal as a scorer and is a better playmaker.

harden’s playoff career high (45) was done on 4 free throws

I agree. He’s good, but for a 2 time MVP, He doesn’t play in the rarified air of those caliber type of players. I don’t even think he’s better than Kawhi in his prime. He doesn’t impact the game as much, all the big time greats have signature games. I can’t really think of any signature game he’s had in the Po Season. Like against all odds kind of thing. The first championship benefited from injury. Not his fault, you play who is in front of you.

I like SGA. I do like his game outside of the antics and tbh, I really like how he’s able to create space especially with a thin frame. Pretty sure Kobe, Kawhi, Jordan, etc all those players weighed more than him but he’s still able to get that level of separation to get his shot off. I also like his change of direction. He’s great with that stuff. But that being said, He doesn’t have the all time great cache’. If The spurs beat them, its aura for wemby because the spurs are loaded and he’s doing it on their floor. But shai can put up another stinker and OKC can still win. lol.

That pacers run was some incredibly fun basketball 

edit: it was as if tyrese was possessed by dark magic, as if he made a pact with the devil, and the devil came for his payment at game 7,  forcing tyrese to watch him lose it all after coming so close, utter cruelty

So would NY. Thunder must feel confident they close out at home

Aaron Nesmith would have 15 in the 4th quarter alone

Pacers were pure magic

If the same refs officiate game 7, spurs are winning.

Yep, did the same thing game 4 and won the next one

Gotta prepare for do or die and lick your wounds from this one

Which also lets the Spurs be prepped and having a rested Wemby is arguably the most impactful thing anyone can have.

Couldn’t get the refs going.

I hope that’s not gonna be the new norm, where teams just decide to call it in the 3rd in a playoff series. Jordan would still be taking things personally left and right.

The Knicks: “To win the game?”

25 down. Why further tire out the players?

Knicks: Nah, we’d win.

This helped Wemby rest too. If you believe your players have better conditioning, I think playing them and forcing Wemby to be on the floor longer is legitimate strategy imo.

There is a lot of evidence the NBA engineers outcomes.

Defenders were more physical with Ant too in that series

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with the same defensive coverage against the same team.

And kobe comparisons in march

They said he was the greatest midrange scorer ever

Caruso will get that trophy if OKC advances, zero question about it

Yuuuup the Harden treatment. Defenders gonna start guarding SGA with their hands behind their back soon like they did with Harden…

Bro played himself, foul baiting so much he forgot his own bag (did see it more in game 5 he was kinda cooking at some points but that’s been more of an anomaly in this series).

…you mean Ant would beat you by actually playing basketball instead of putting the outcome under the refs’ control?

Yeah, you know, that should be scarier. Being a better basketball player. 

Yea Shai just doesn’t match up with us as well as Ant. He doesn’t have outlier athleticism or shooting so he can’t do much against our defenders

Playoff basketball for the elites is about unique one of one traits carrying over in tighter environments. Ant’s S tier athleticism allows his to get his game / shots off in basically any environment, meanwhile the windows for Shai just get tighter and cause him to rely on a steady diet of insanely difficult shots. In this matchup it’s worse because he can’t even go to the rim for any easy looks with the 10 foot cyborg in the lane, but there’s a reason why he’s been a fairly consistent playoff dropper

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He must be the first star player ever to get double. Poor him. 

Ant had absolutely no explosiveness in the playoffs against the Spurs. His knees were cooked.

Ant was not getting to the rim like that last round. He was operating mainly with midrange and 3 point jumpers

It’s really because Shai can’t shoot 3s for shit

Is there too much focus on direct double teams? The Spurs are not really defending him one on one, he’s still getting the defense shifted to him and the Thunder’s best offense often comes from when he can get Wemby to commit to him in the PnR. Some of the discussion on SGA sounds like we think he is really just seeing one defender because these aren’t strict double teams. 

I’m not saying they don’t need him to play better. More just commenting on the single coverage stuff because what I’m seeing is a defense that helps and then can rotate around that (same with OKC’s defense). 

Maybe Dean Wade

I saw someone say if he wins this year, he’s top 15 all time..

Anyone who says this isn’t old enough to have watched either of those guys

Insanely disrespectful. Kobe’s 00-02 and 08-10 run are miles ahead than this fraud. Back-to-back MVP my ass

Teams straight up forgot to guard KD at times because they were so scared of steph.

Steph sees the most difficult coverage we’ll ever see in basketball. SGA is just being guarded physically(it’s the plsyoffs) & he can’t get to the basket because Wemby there. And the refs ain’t calling bs in the Spurs house. Next game he’ll get 20 FT attempts & go 8-22 with a W aided by the refs preventing Spurs from playing physical while the Thunder grab on Wemby all night long.

Really? I didn’t see anyone say that lol

As a Spurs fan Caruso is the one Thunders player that scares me the most.

You didn’t say two words, you said quick and to the point

I love both this thought and the structure of this sentence

Luka being the demon he is would welcome the double team and find a way to score through it. SGA passes  out of double teams and NEVER tries to beat it but someone like Luka would do it. You know, an MVP candidate 

Say what you will about luka but he is a playoff riser since the start of his career

luka is, has, and always will be better than SGA at basketball 

It’s disrespectful to Luka being compared to this flopping free throw merchant fraud. The nerve of some to insist that he’s actually better than Luka Doncic is diabolical

Honestly, carried by having a stacked team to his 2 MVP and FMVP. I hate how much team record and strength influences MVP conversations

Thank you😭🙏🏼

Shooting mid winter tour dates out here 

They won’t announce it until Saturday morning. They surely won’t give him 3 games in one series. Surely they wouldn’t do that.

Spurs might take it in 5 if Tony Brothers doesn’t officiate any games.

I think jokic was the best this season too until the postseason, wemby just ascended to a new level in it.
I really thought SGA and Jokic were pretty neck and neck in the regular season.

They bashed Luka for losing to the Superceltics and crowned the guy who nearly bottled his finals to the Power of Friendship Pacers with an equally stacked supporting cast 😭